Franchise Street Is Easy Street

I can’t claim like Buffett, that I was in early on Coca-Cola or saw newspapers as a great franchise. I did at one point own a 20% position in the New York Times that Mike Milken brokered for me from Saul Steinberg. 

Saul was frustrated from taking control by the class B voting stock controlled by the Salzbergers. Warren’s play in the Washington Post as a great advertising franchise never interested me. 

Fast money operators like Rupert Murdoch bought several radio properties and the New York Post. He ran newspapers and magazines as plays on advertising the country’s sports hysteria, namely football. He was early and right. 

When Murdoch told me he was about to force a hostile takeover of England’s cable operator I bowed out. Leaving him early,  on was my mistake. Why he empowered his sons in his media empire, I’ll never fathom. 

Repetitive household functions attracted Butffett like his long standing position in Coca-Cola. I shoulda made the jump from sipping Pepsies to investing in another great franchise or that Budweiser, as a brew was powerful.  Same goes for Gillette razor blades. In my K-ration packet, that I got while soldiering in the Korean War left me quizzical. I was still using a foam brush on my puss. 

I didn’t understand that a great homebody franchise allowed you to ratchet up pricing for decades to come. After all, I stuck to downing Pepsi, which in the Great Depression, was “twice as much for a nickel, too” 

So Coke bottles, safety razors, even English muffins should have gotten my money in the investment world, if not the daily consumption world. In the investment setting, sins of omission can be greater than sins of commission. I did run across Buffett when I was researching American Express. Warren hung on for decades. I took my profits after a couple of years. Last time I looked, Warren was richer. 

I’m not into electric cars so Tesla doesn’t get my money. But, electric cars aren’t going away so I missed it. When compact cars first came out, I bought Ford’s Falcon station wagon for $1,900 and held on. 

My Falcon wagon hardly depreciated over a decade of usage. Meanwhile, I did turn in my boxy TV set for something bigger, emitting a brighter color picture. When I look at my littered desk I see overpriced folding sunglasses, hearing aids that don’t really do the job and a Bloomberg screen that is fairly reliable even though it's expensive and I don’t like the numbers it splashes forth. 

I remember Mike Bloomberg when he worked for the brokerage house, Solomon Brothers. John Gutfreund, who ran Solly, told Mike to put his contraption away and get lost. Michael did just that. Today, he’s worth billions upon billions. Funds numerous charitable causes and liberal politicians. What you’re supposed to do. 

Decades previous the Watsons built a great electric typewriter that chattered away in every office compound. The Watsons were too straight-laced to run a leading data processing operation. They had to call in a Jewish executive to straighten out their data processing division which was overmanaged by too many committees in white shirts. 

So, I don’t own Coke and Gillette which I consider too wishy-washy for my tastes. But, I so admire their worldwide coverage. I remember finding Gillette razor blades in my K-rations packet. 

I bought my first pair of sneakers in Woolworths, maybe 5 bucks for the pair. Sneakers then were a commodity that still gets model upgrades and can run you north of 50 bucks, in all colors. 

Never underestimate what product upgrades can accomplish. Look what color television did for saturation in the sixties. Cellular telephones swept to 100% saturation early on. My regrets center on banging em out too prematurely. But, they did red-dog Motorola after a sloppy quarterly report. 

Nothing is forever.