Posted on 05/07/2015 4:36:26 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Whole Foods shares are getting crushed after earnings. The company reported record second quarter sales that still were below investors' expectations, and shares were down as much as 10% in after hours trade on Wednesday.
This past weekend at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders' meeting this past weekend, CEO Warren Buffett singled out the company, saying that that the customers there simply don't seem like a happy bunch.
Here's some more color on what Buffett said, according to Time:
"Food and beverage companies will adjust to the expressed preferences of consumers. No company does well ignoring its consumers.
"It’s amazing how durable [consumer brands are]. Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder of General Foods from 1981 to 1984 — that’s 30-plus years ago. It was bought by Philip Morris and spun out as Kraft. Those same brands are popular today. Heinz goes back to 1869. The ketchup came out in the 1870s. Coca-Cola dates to 1886. It’s a pretty good bet that a lot of people will like the same things."
Whole Foods is popular for its fresh and organic food options.
But Buffett is unapologetic for his junk food habits and the amount of coke he drinks.
He recently added Kraft Foods to his portfolio, the maker of Velveeta cheese, Oreos, and others.
And as his vice chairman and long time business partner Charlie Munger quipped: "Sugar is an enormously helpful substance. It prevents premature softening of the arteries."
In response to questions about holding investments in companies that make foods high in sugar (like Coca-Cola,) while consumers' diets shift towards healthier options, Buffett said (via Bloomberg): "I don’t see smiles on the faces of people at Whole Foods."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
(Kale! Who would have thought this poverty food, easily grown in fall and spring when it's still freezing…would be emblematic of the Birkenstock bunch?)
Oreos rule!
That's why I shop by the sources of foods and the ingredients. There are some pure foods bargains out there, but very rarely to those options get labelled "organic".
For people who have more money than time, Whole Foods provides a good way to get healthy foods.
My taste buds are regressing in my old age, because I used to like the more pungent varieties of lettuce, but I’ve gotten to where I only really like iceberg and butter (Boston) lettuce. I can stand just a few leaves of Romaine and the like, and some spinach, but not much. It’s too bad that I can’t grow the two I like best, where I live.
My niece just told me that she read that people’s taste buds go through seven year cycles. I need to verify that, out of curiosity.
I’m not sure if you live that much longer eating “whole foods” but it sure seems like it.
I’m not really a cookie fan (nor cake, nor sweets in general), but Walmart had some store brand or off-brand of cookie which was salted caramel inside two very thin waffle-style cookies. Those were pretty good (I love salted caramel stuff). I got them a couple of years ago, haven’t seen them again, but I haven’t looked very hard for them either. Don’t need any more bad habits!
Whole Foods is one of my favorites. I guess that makes me a liberal hippie with a drug problem. The fact that I also like Chick-fil-a makes me a right-wing, religious nut. I’m so confused...
I think you meant to type “liable” (likely to do or to be something:), not “libel” (a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation.)
Which was spun off from Kraft a few years ago.
That’s why crony capitalists love Democrats. Prop up their investments so they have a large bank account then parlay that into assets bought for pennies on the dollar when their policies cause collapse.
It’s little wonder the most egregious like Buffet and Soros are treated as saints by lefties. The truth would be too jarring to their psyches.
Maybe Buffett is talking down the price so he can buy.
Whole Foods in business to make a profit? Oh, the agony.
I have a variety of places to shop at on my way home from work. Costco has USDA Prime beef, and excellent tuna steaks. I pass by a produce place that has lots of good veggies for low prices. You just have to know where to find them.
he was instrumental in the housing collapse, and now he has been buying thousands of homes for pennies on the dollar.
Warren and Charlie do not believe in derivatives so I find it hard to believe they share a role in what government made possible. Loan makers sold their manure to banks who bundled it and sold it off to investors before the fall. All a part of the “affordable housing” myth. A myth not shared by BH or it’s CEO or Management.
You might elaborate on the thousands of houses they are buying and why, when they are in the manufactured housing business.
That’s really the point I was making. Frugal foodies have pet items that they buy at different places. Dececco pasta, for Instance, is not particularly expensive but is hard to find. I like little cans of sliced green olives, and only one store I know has them.
It’s the outrageously high prices.
Thanks I’ll be looking. Didn’t see the Fox story.
And he really ought to pay his secretary a decent wage.
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