"Todd Allcock" <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote in message
news:fkilqb$v6o$1@aioe.org...
> At 21 Dec 2007 21:23:03 -0500 Carl wrote:
>
>> There are the Sam Waltons with their Walmarts but there are also
>> the Warren Buffets with their Berkshire Hathaways.
>
> I fail to see the point of that comparison. Berk is a holding company
> that
> controls a variety of companies that catervto the masses- insurance
> companies, fast food, mall jewelry stores, etc. Rather than the
> antithesis
> of Sam Walton, Buffet is many Sam Waltons in one convenient package!
>
>> I suppose I prefer the latter for
>> myself. Different strokes and all.
>
> So, essentially you want to be one level removed from Walton and not get
> your hands dirty? ;-)
>
>
>> And along with your axioms you might also add, "and if you sell to the
>> masses, to survive you must also employ the asses of those masses and
> then
>> treat them like shit."
>
> Not necessarily- Walmart is the extreme example. Plenty of mass-market
> companies are also good corporate citizens.
>> Or how about, "So the common man can fly, you must crowd up the sky. So
>> lower those fares and gain more near-miss scares." Or something like
>> that.
>
>> :-)
>
>
> Now you're talking about an entire industry- who is the high-end "luxury"
> carrier you'd rather be than, say, United?
>
>
>> Just a little food-for-thought for those of you who think marginal
> markup,
>> cut-throat pricing, high volume selling is such a wonderful thing for
>> people.
>
>
> Not necessarily cut-throat- again, it's not all Wal-Mart- pick any
> successful mass-mrket retailer, say Macy's, and they've got a more
> successful operation than any high-end "boutique" does.
>
> Most, if not all, independent business people that I know that cater to
> the
> "high-end" customer is not as successful as his clients are- that's all
> that I'm saying.
>
>
When was the last time you shopped in Macy's? Macy's, to me, is closer to a
high end boutique than a mass-market discounter. They carry mainly
designer-name lines and sell those things at huge prices. They do NOT cater
to the "masses" though they admittedly attract them: poor people spending
huge bucks to have clothing with someone else's name on them. This is NOT a
Walmart or Target, not a GAP or Old Navy, true "masses" stores by your
standard. Btw, I'm a Macy's shopper. I was going to use Macy's as my analogy
but thought it didn't quite make the point because their success at crossing
over a wide range of economic levels is so good. But a "masses" store? No
way.

My Berkshire Hathaway reference was meant to refer primarily to the stock,
which currently sells for something in the neighborhood of $134,000 a SHARE.
Do you think that company is concerned about volume trading? The secondary
point is that Berk doesn't do business at the grass-roots level, but at the
"holding company" level where he deals with few clients who are willing to
pay high prices. It's naive to assume that, at the end, every business
doesn't eventually filter its way down to the "masses" as you put them. If
you do a "family tree" lineage study of any business, it has to end up down
there somewhere. My analogy was a good one. That you "fail to see" it is on
you.