Around 80% of the world's diamonds mined are in South Africa and many of these diamond mines are worked by slaves and children in war torn conflict areas giving them the nickname blood diamonds. Around 80% of the world's diamonds are cut and polished in Surat, India because of the extremely low wages. Around 50% of all diamonds produced in the world are purchased by Americans. Most retailers mark-up diamond and gold jewelry somewhere between 300% to 1000%, and are an extremely poor investment for consumers because of the huge mark-ups. One company, De Beers, controls around 70% of the trade in diamonds and invest heavily in marketing campaigns. New technologies allow diamonds to be manufactured and many of these synthetic diamonds are indistinguishable from mined diamonds, and most synthetic diamonds sell for a fraction of the price of mined diamonds. Following are the major retail stores of diamond and gold jewelry in the U.S. and should be boycotted by all Americans for both economic and political reasons:

• Wal-Mart

• JC Penney

• Dillards

• Kohls

• Sears

• Sam's Club

• Zales

• Helzbergs

• Kays

• Jareds

• Tiffany

• Gordons