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When Buffet speaks, people listen:
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has sold off $900 million of Walmart stock, choosing to invest billions in airlines instead.
The sale, which leaves Buffett with nearly no shares in Walmart, comes as the US's largest traditional retailer has been rushing to catch up to Amazon and other online competitors.
Amazon's market value is now $356 billion, compared with Walmart's $298 billion. Last year, Buffett acknowledged that traditional brick-and-mortar retailers were struggling in the face of competition from the e-commerce giant.
Yes, but is he still long on Big Cola?
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Warren Buffett Drops Walmart -- Signals Death of Retail as we know it
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A: Unique up on it!
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:41AM
Yeah right the death of the brick and mortar described by some idiot who has no clue. The death comes when people have the option to have their goods delivered after 5-6pm when they get home from work or on the weekends. And that assumes you can get them to get by selecting their produce or cuts of meat in person, don't know how many times I have been bitched at over that not meeting the "high" standards when picking it out myself. Can goods different story it is all the same junk in them so no problems there as long as you get the right brand. In short a plain and simple BS article that in all likelihood will never happen as I cannot see the way they will convince people to give up the habits of a lifetime for the supposed advantage it will provide.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 3, Informative) by Wootery on Thursday February 16 2017, @12:13PM
The death comes when people have the option to have their goods delivered after 5-6pm when they get home from work or on the weekends.
Here in the UK, we have that today.
that assumes you can get them to get by selecting their produce or cuts of meat in person
I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean you don't trust staff to deliver quality goods compared to when the customer picks them out themselves? This isn't generally a big problem in my experience.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:03PM
"I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean you don't trust staff to deliver quality goods compared to when the customer picks them out themselves?"
Going by what I have seen on the store shelves and the lack of quality when stocked by them not a chance in hell I would trust their judgment as to what is a quality good. And good luck getting anything delivered here in Canada anyways at anything other than an 8-5 Monday-Friday time window.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 3, Informative) by WillR on Thursday February 16 2017, @05:44PM
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:52PM
"Adding a delivery business gives them a chance to move the crap out the door at full price!"
Indeed my thoughts on it as well. I really cannot see people going for it, it is not like we are past the point of selecting your own at this time. Now durable goods you can wait for like toothpaste, detergent, canned goods ... yeah I can see that happening and would go for it myself in heartbeat if it saved me some cash. Not the fresher stuff where time elapsed matters and the quality of what you are getting is paramount no way.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday February 17 2017, @09:18AM
Adding a delivery business gives them a chance to move the crap out the door at full price!
But you're ignoring repeat custom and the fact that there's a functioning competitive marketplace here.
In theory, there could even be a market for third-party deliverers. Can't see a reason I wouldn't be able to set up Wootery's WalMart Grocery Delivery - Look, No Mould! and compete directly with WalMart on the delivery service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:14PM
Tons of delivery options where I live in Canada. ranging from 8 in the morning till 11 at night 7 days a week. 0 need to step inside a grocery store.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:34PM
Good for you but for the rest of us in small town in the middle of fucking nowhere we get what I have already stated.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday February 17 2017, @09:24AM
Can't really blame the retailer here though, can we? I imagine it would be just too expensive to offer a really solid delivery service in areas of very low population-density.
That said, how's Amazon treating you? I guess that's the gold standard these days.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Friday February 17 2017, @10:36AM
"That said, how's Amazon treating you? I guess that's the gold standard these days."
Gold being the key plenty of it being needed for them. They always have the highest price most times whenever I am buying something, so me being tight SOB will go with the lowest price that means they do not get much of my business. The times I have bought from them they were reasonable enough don't like the bait and switch on the shipping. Whereby it says free shipping then you need to go through extra step at checkout to actually get it by removing the paid shipping from the total, that cost them sale couple of months ago when I first noticed it and went with another option because of that scheming.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday February 17 2017, @02:16PM
Trickery with defaults is always scummy. Looking at you, Microsoft.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:02PM
Yeah right the death of the brick and mortar described by some idiot who has no clue.
Have you ever heard of Warren Buffet?!
Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfᵻt/; born August 30, 1930)[3] is an American investor, business magnate, and philanthropist. He is considered by some to be one of the most successful investors in the world,[4][5] and as of February 2017 is the second wealthiest person in the world with a total net worth of $73.9 billion.[6]
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The company wholly owns GEICO, BNSF Railway, Lubrizol, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, FlightSafety International, Pampered Chef, and NetJets, and also owns 43.63% of the Kraft Heinz Company,[2] an undisclosed percentage of Mars, Incorporated, and significant minority holdings in American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Wells Fargo, IBM and Restaurant Brands International. Berkshire Hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.7% to its shareholders for the last 49 years (compared to 9.8% from the S&P 500 with dividends included for the same period), while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt.[3]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:15PM
"Have you ever heard of Warren Buffet?!"
So just because he is rich as fuck does not mean he cannot have a bad day at the office and be talking shit for brains foolishness.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 16 2017, @05:00PM
Seriously: go read the Wikipedia article. He's not just rich; he's demonstrated he's an excellent investor.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @02:40AM
When you are playing with the float of one of the largest insurance companies in the country it is easy to always come out ahead. He happened to notice the opportunity before anyone else. Remember berkshire hathaway is an insurance company. They were also one of the early investors into a tiny mom and pop shop named microsoft. They are still doing decent as he tends to invest only in businesses that are undervalued and could grow. When interest rates were 6-10% he could easy make money just by borrowing the float at 2%. He was one of the first to do it. Now all insurance companies do it. He has also used regulation to lock out competitors (see his rail moves with oil).
Oh no doubt he is good at what he does. His moves into larger companies show he actually has a problem. He ran out of places to put the money. That he is yanking it out of WMT shows he found somewhere else to put it. Follow that move and you could do fine.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html [berkshirehathaway.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @05:20PM
Yes, he could have a bad day at the office. He could be making a mistake. Or he could be just plain wrong in this decision.
However, one thing you can't say is that "he has no clue." He's demonstrated time and again insight and foresight. Or are you suggesting he just "got lucky" over the period of decades?
Ignoring people who just win the lottery, people who climb from poor/middle-class to rich may not be the smartest or best people in the world, but they are also not clueless.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:41PM
"However, one thing you can't say is that "he has no clue." He's demonstrated time and again insight and foresight. Or are you suggesting he just "got lucky" over the period of decades?"
Really when I think about it more I doubt he even said that, it is most likely some moron writing a click bait headline once they found out he/his company divested from it to pursue other higher return opportunities. After all he did not get rich holding onto to losers in the long run with no upside, I would think if the situation changes and he sees higher growth returning to the sector he will be jumping right back in.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:35PM
Yeah right the death of the brick and mortar described by some idiot who has no clue.
Have you ever heard of Warren Buffet?!
I don't think that quote is from Buffet, it's hyperbole from the article author.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:38PM
Maybe his comment is aimed at the writer not the investor. Buffett will simply move his money to a place where he sees more growth potential so his ROI is higher. It doesn't mean brick-and-mortar will disappear.
Last time someone told me brick-and-mortar stores would soon be out of business was sometime around the year 2000 and the ass-hat sold .com stocks for living. The day he had to pack a box after the bubble burst was quite refreshing.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:00PM
in all likelihood will never happen as I cannot see the way they will convince people to give up the habits of a lifetime for the supposed advantage it will provide.
Meh. "The habits of a lifetime" are often overcome incrementally while few people notice. You're convinced people won't give up better produce or meat or whatever because they can't choose it? They've already spent a few generations giving up tastier produce and meats for the sake of convenience. A few generations back, you used to go to specialists. Butchers who actually knew what they were doing. Fishmongers who could advise you on the latest catch. Bakers who could actually bake a loaf of bread -- one that tastes darn good. Other bakeries that used to make real cakes from "scratch," not the junk you see sold in supermarkets. And produce? Yeah, there was a lot less selection, and you had to either buy canned stuff in the winter or can your own from the summer crops. But it wasn't produce that had its flavor completely bred out of it just to extend shelf life and make the fruits or vegetables prettier after they've sat in storage for a couple weeks in a truck.
And no, this isn't some "nostalgia" nonsense -- there are STILL a few such shops left where I grew up. The two local bakeries that survived the past 50 years were the biggest in town back in the day (which is the only reason they survived), and they still make stuff 10 times better than anything you could buy in a supermarket. There's a family-run meat market that's been around for three generations and for some reason actually stocks stuff that has flavor... imagine? Compare that to a typical supermarket steak or pork chop, and there's no comparison. Etc., etc. 75 years ago such shops were the norm; now they're relics from a bygone age. Lots of smaller towns in Europe are still like that, though the supermarkets are taking over there too -- just 50 years later.
I'm NOT saying modern supermarkets are bad -- far from it. They have an amazing selection of foods that people a few generations ago probably couldn't imagine. But ultimately folks gave up taste for convenience. "Should I run to the bakery because I LOVE their bread... and maybe pick up a couple fresh donuts right out of the fryer? Nah -- gotta meet the kids, so I'll just get this bagged bread in the supermarket. It's fine."
Millions of little decisions like that eventually meant that all the individual specialty shops went out of business, even if most people would judge the food better on average. Plus, the supermarkets had the advantage of prices in addition to convenience -- through a centralized distribution chain and standardized products/shops, they could drop the price. So then it became a question of whether you want to waste 15 more minutes running to the bakery AND spending 15% or 25% more or whatever.
Nobody deliberately wanted to shut down all those specialty shops. It was just gradual attrition due to convenience. Similarly, if Amazon or whoever can figure out a way to make buying produce or whatever more convenient and maybe even cost a little less at the same time -- then yeah, I think a lot of customers will gradually start making decisions that will ultimately turn retail in general into what a NEW "bakery" is now, which is often some sort of specialty shop charging insane prices and run by hippies who also know they can make tons of profit by selling a superior product (which is not hard to do at all), so they work 3 days/week and charge $3 for a cookie. If you want the opportunity choose your own produce, you might look forward to an experience like that in a couple generations.