Pacific Standard:

It’s no secret in the jewelry industry that retail demand for fine jewelry is slipping. As Forbes reports, the demand for gold jewelry has dropped 30 percent since last year, and continues to fall. Even diamond behemoth De Beers had to admit in their 2014 Insight Report that “retailers have faced pressures from a weak economic environment and strong competition from branded luxury goods and experiential categories, as well as the low-price models of e-commerce companies.”

Simply put: There are better things to spend money on, often at better prices, than jewelry.

Interesting premise. While I’m sure there are many contributing factors, I wonder how much the “rise of the machine” has contributed to this decline.