One of our “spring traditions” in Omaha is the weekend that thousands of investment-minded folks from across the globe descend on our fair city to hear the words of the “Oracle of Omaha.”
The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting has been described as “Woodstock for Capitalists.”
That description seems quaintly antiquated in 2020. A more apropos moniker would be “Comic-Con for Stock Market Geeks.”
Instead of dressing up as their favorite superheroes, the loyal denizens don business attire (with their credentials hanging proudly from lanyards) to partake in the weekend’s festivities.
The master of ceremonies is billionaire investor — and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO — Warren Buffett. His down-home charm is part of his mystique to investors. The 89-year-old Buffett learned many moons ago to follow the sage advice of investment guru Benjamin Graham in his book “The Intelligent Investor.”
I had the opportunity to partake in some of the festivities for the first time last year.
Like many lifelong Omahans, I’ve noticed the electricity in the city on “Berkshire Weekend.” I’ve seen people milling around Buffett’s inauspicious home on Farnam Street in Midtown, posing for pictures.
You’ll see visitors eating at Buffett’s favorite haunts. Gorat’s Steak House (which is less than a mile from our home) is typically a popular choice. (Sadly, other local Buffett favorite restaurants like Petrow’s and Piccolo Pete’s have both closed within the last few years.)
Nebraska Furniture Mart (a Berkshire-owned company) offers “shareholder pricing” each year on furniture and electronic products sold in their store (every year I have friends on social media who offer use of their credentials to take advantage of the weekend discounts).
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting was cancelled and will be held virtually. Buffett will still address shareholders via livestream from Yahoo Finance.
If you don’t live in Omaha, you don’t understand how important this event is in terms of economic impact. Thousands book hotel rooms, eat at restaurants, and shop at stores.
According to Steve Jordan’s 2013 book “The Oracle & Omaha: How Warren Buffett and His Hometown Shaped Each Other” (which I purchased from The Bookworm booth at last year’s event) the economic impact helped Nebraska Furniture Mart tally weekend sales of $35.9 million in 2012.
I decided to read Jordan’s book on Buffett this week. Even though I thought I knew quite a bit about the “Oracle,” I learned a lot as I flipped through the pages (which includes some nice photos, articles, and archival material from the Omaha World-Herald).
Buffett refers to Omaha as “the cradle of capitalism.”
“The Oracle & Omaha: How Warren Buffett and His Hometown Shaped Each Other” shows how many early Buffett partners have their fingers in major philanthropic projects in Omaha — particularly building projects at education institutions like UNO, UNL, and UNMC (notable names like Mammel, Truhlsen, and Holland have their names on a number of buildings in the city).
You realize just how connected the “blue blooded” class in Omaha was back in the 1950s and 60s, and how Buffett’s patient style of buying undervalued stocks paid off for those who stuck with him.
Much has been made of Buffett’s friendship with former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Buffett plans to leave most of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I gained more insight into that relationship when I watched the Netflix series “Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates” last fall (read my review).
As we walked through the exhibition hall at the CHI Health Center in 2019, I took some pictures of some of the booths (the businesses featured are Berkshire-owned brands).
Typical of Buffett’s investments, many of the companies Berkshire owns are salt-of-the-earth brands featuring ubiquitous products we use each day.
Typical of Buffett’s investments, many of the companies Berkshire owns are salt-of-the-earth brands featuring ubiquitous products we use each day.
Coca-Cola set up a store complete with a Coca-Cola truck:
See’s Candies had a long line (partly seen in the left of the photo). I took this picture while Bridget waited to buy a box of chocolates:
I remember Garanimals when I was a kid, but haven’t thought much about them since the 1980s. It was fun to see that the brand is still around and was on display at the shareholder meeting:
I did not wait in line to tour the NetJet they had on display, but it looked like it would be fun to see:
You’d think that I’d own a pair of Brooks athletic shoes, but I don’t. (Maybe I should have tried on a pair, I know people who love their running shoes.)
A woman working the Kraft Heinz booth gave us a pins shaped like a pickle and took our picture with the giant Heinz Ketchup bottle:
You could also pose with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile:
You could also pose with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile:
We both bought Dilly Bars at the Dairy Queen booth. We tried not to make a mess eating them as we sat in the CORT Furniture booth (my brother-in-law works for CORT):
Of all the booths we saw a year ago, I thought the Duracell Inc. setup was nice. While a battery manufacturer might not seem exciting, it is the sort of business that epitomizes Buffett’s investing mindset:
It’s been reported that Warren Buffett is a fan of trains. The BNSF Railway Company had a large-scale model railroad setup in the exhibition hall:
The Wayne Pumps booth proved to be beneficial. The Wayne WaterBUG pump we purchased for Robin Hill Pool takes the water down to 1/6” from the pool floor. It is tough, sturdy, and was very beneficial when Bridget and I were emptying the pools at Robin Hill last summer:
I haven’t owned a pair of cowboy boots since 1979. I can’t imagine myself wearing them these days, but there were plenty of people trying them on at the Justin Brands booth:
“People think it’s going to be flat, and they think it’s going to be uninteresting and some cow town or something like that, and they all come away feeling good about Omaha,” Buffet said about the shareholder meetings (from “The Oracle & Omaha: How Warren Buffett and His Hometown Shaped Each Other”).
According to Forbes, Buffett is ranked fourth among the world’s billionaires (as of March 18, 2020). He turns 90 in August, and many wonder how long he’ll lead Berkshire Hathaway.
Only time will tell. Whatever you might think of the billionaire investor (and there have been varying opinions over the years), you can’t deny his influence on the business community in Omaha.
I hope we see the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting back in action in 2021.
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