From Private Jets to EasyJet: The Changing Face of the Diamond Consumer

(ehudlaniado.com) - It used to be that most diamonds were sold to the jet-set, a globetrotting group of people that included tycoons, captains of industry, royalty, Hollywood actors, and the like. Buying a high-cost diamond necklace or ring was an expenditure that they could easily manage financially, so it was almost a no-brainer. Few others bought these jewelry items. Perhaps someone who did exceptionally well at the casino one night, or a person who lived in a politically unstable country and wanted a large diamond that could serve as a store of value, an item that could be easily placed in the pocket before running away, and transformed into cash after arriving in safety. That was in the 1950s and 60s. Today you may call them the one percent, but at the time, they represented a far smaller section of society. Over time, more and more people joined the middle class, and the economy developed to provide more at a lower cost, making once-inaccessible items much easier to obtain. This process was one that can be described as democratizing accessibility. What was once available only to few becoming accessible to many.