Gold Market Crash: Jewelry Stores Close, Hundreds of Millions Lost, Upstream Suppliers Flee
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Recently, an extraordinary phenomenon has emerged in China’s gold market. Even as international gold prices soar, China’s gold retail industry has fallen into an unprecedented winter.
News reports show that Chow Tai Fook expanded rapidly from 2021 to 2024, increasing its store count from 4,452 to 7,407. But in 2025, the situation reversed dramatically, dropping to 6,501 stores. As of the end of September, the company had only 6,041 retail locations in mainland China, 603 fewer than at the end of March, indicating that its years-long expansion strategy has now begun to contract.
Other jewelry brands have also struggled to escape this downturn. As of the end of September, Chow Tai Seng had 4,675 terminal stores, down 560 from the same period last year, with franchised stores accounting for 380 of the closures—the main driver of the contraction. Chow Sang Sang saw a net reduction of 74 mainland stores in the first half of the year, with its flagship brand “Chow Sang Sang” alone losing 62 stores. Chow Tai Luk closed 280 franchised stores in just six months; Luk Fook Group’s global store count stood at 3,113, with a net decrease of 49 stores during the quarter, including 51 fewer in the mainland market.
In theory, rising gold prices should mean gold shops sell better. But in reality, the opposite is happening. The industry is seeing a “wave of store closures,” with brand after brand shrinking their footprint. What does this indicate? It shows that the old logic—“gold prices rise = gold shops make money”—has already stopped working. Why? Because the core selling point of gold has changed, so has the mindset of gold buyers.
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