Interesting news from our Austrian friends as rising demand surfaces amongst the transit masses...

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Vending Machines In Frankfurt Train Station: Food, Drinks, Cookies, and GOLD

Toni Straka

May 19, 2009

Frankfurt commuters, always hustled in the German Mainhattan where time is money, do not need to miss out on the roaring gold bull although they are chained to their desks during regular shopping hours.

On Tuesday online precious metals discounter Gold-Super-Markt.de launched a world's first. Inflation-wary Germans can buy 1 gram goldbars with a fineness of 24 carat from a gold coloured vending machine in Frankfurts central train station with a discount to regular gold sellers. Prices are updated every 10 minutes.

Gold-Super-Markt plans to place 500 such Gold-to-go machines in train stations and other high traffic places in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

While 1-gram bars are not exactly the size gold investors are looking for due to forming costs I am confident that weak-minded souls who only found out shortly before that the day is a special day for one of their loved ones. The gram bars come in a beautiful gift box and will become a bestseller in a country that nicknamed the Euro "Teuro" (literal translation: expensive.)

Germany has seen high price inflation since the inception of the Euro 10 years ago. Starting at an exchange rate of 1.95 Deutschmarks for one Euro, prices in the hospitality industry and many other sectors show now the same figures as then, with the only difference being the €-sign in front of it.

Gold-Super-Markt is an online gold seller that will expand its offerings from gold only to platinum and silver, a press release mailed to me said. Customers can purchase bars weighing between 1 gram and 1 kilo online with delivery times between 3 and 7 days. They mail their bars also to Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK at present.