OT: Costco and my wife are giving me tsures (trouble)
Given that I own the big three grocery retailers KR, SWY, ABS, plus a couple of dink regionals, plus food distributor FLM, and with NAFC on one of my watch lists,
My wife and I seem to be mostly patronizing (by $$ spent) Costco. Recently it seems even for just cakes, it's been Costco rather than any local bakery or grocery retailer.
Also getting to me is that when I go to Costco, even in non prime-time hours, the number of shoppers is still much greater than my neighborhood ABS or SWY stores during their prime times. (Of course the COST warehouse is so much larger and draws from a greater distance, and this is all anecdotal evidence anyway.)
Still,
I... have... succumbed.
I've started a position in Costco. It's no value stock. I'll mention it here, then if need be, move discussion over to the Buffettology thread. (Mr. Munger is on the BOD of Costco, someone has said??).
Stock's trading about where it was three years ago. Sales and earnings have risen:
quicken.com
D/e which had been trending down, is up this year, but at .23 (per Yahoo), seems reasonable to me for a company still very much in an expansion phase. (Maybe that's why ROE is 'only' about 13%.)
Looks to be the old story: what's attractive is expensive.
I'll step up to COST at current price. Just has become very difficult psychologically for me to be holding on to the grocery retailers I have without having Costco. That siren of Costco's growth and profit and our shopping experiences there are just too enticing.
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