
Warren Buffett dumps $900MM in Wal-Mart Stock, end of brick and mortar - jonwachob91
http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-drops-walmart-stock-2017-2
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Keverw
I still like stores if I'm in a hurry. You can get the product the same day. I
don't live in a major city that does same day delivery(That'd be super cool
though to have a service like that!).

Only thing I hate about brick and mortar is slow checkout, and people aren't
really knowledgeable. But it's nice that stores like Walmart are open early. I
love going earlier, less people and faster checkout. It feels like somthing
straight out of a zombie movie when going to a big store early. It's like that
mall movie once they cleared out the zombies, and had the whole mall to
themselves. Amazon Go sounds nice, but having people around for assistance
would be nice. (But I don't think Amazon Go is going to sell electronics, just
food, and stuff so not like your going to ask an employee for help for cooking
supplies)

I remember CompUSA being one of my favorite computer stores, knowledgeable
people, plenty of parts, rebates, etc. Now it seems like most stores just sell
the same thing already together, same shoe fits all type of thing. Was
disappointed when they went out of business.

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glenneroo
I have the same issue - if you want it the same day (or in less than 1-2 weeks
in many cases), you have to get it in-store.

As a result I've come to find out that many retail stores (at least Walmart
and Best Buy in California, Media Markt and Saturn in Austria) often list
prices competitively with other online stores, but in-store prices are marked
up considerably higher (in my cases ~15-30%). I almost walked out of a couple
stores paying considerably more than the price I was expecting to pay, only at
the cash register when they rang me up did I notice a discrepancy. On top of
this, each store required verification by at least one manager, and in some
cases I had to show them the price listed on their website on my phone (which
incidentally gave me the idea to edit the values on their website with fake
prices).

I suppose this is their sneaky way of trying to stay competitive with online
retailers?

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BrandoElFollito
If I remember correctly, Saturn and Media Markt have online purchase you can
pick up at the store the same day? This is what I do with some purchases in
France (Darty or Boulanger) - this gives me the extra advantage of online
purchase protection (I can return the article in n days, n being 14 iirc),
something you do not have in France for classical purchases (except if the
store wants to)

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norea-armozel
I think it's premature to call this an end to brick and mortar. It seems to me
that the likelier outcome is a hybridization of online and physical retail
outlets. People still want to buy their stuff in person and the cost of
shipping is starting to wear on Amazon (fewer things qualify for free shipping
and they've increased the minimum amount) which is probably why they're
focused on optimizing shipping and adding physical stores to their approach.
So the call for everything being online only is going to be proven a fantasy
(hell, it already is a fantasy).

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nikdaheratik
I don't think this is the "end of brick and mortar" which doesn't mean it's a
bad idea for Buffett to sell.

If you look at the holdings, Walmart doesn't really fit with the rest of the
business and isn't likely to grow anymore like it has in the past. Especially,
when you consider that they haven't been able to get much of a foothold
overseas. So the question then is hold or sell for Buffett. Clearly, he
think's it's more likely to stagnate rather than pay a steady dividend and
make more cash for the rest of the business, so it's sell.

IMO, Walmart's going to have more consolidation ahead and may not make the
margins they were, but they're also the only game in town for a large part of
America. And they will be until we get better broadband through much of the
U.S.

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ethagknight
No comment in the article on Buffett's decisions to invest in airlines. Maybe
things have changed, but I remember Buffett saying in a speech that "every
time I get the urge to buy an airline, I call an emergency hotline to talk me
down."

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lithos
One of trumps recent promises is to shove billions at airlines to make them
competitive to foreign airlines that are subsidized. Bloomburg radio spent 3
days talking about it and pulling in guest speakers.

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__derek__
I don't buy it. For what it's worth, since Buffett first bought WMT shares in
2005, the company has increased its sales revenue by over 50%. That growth is
slowing, but the sales aren't going away until someone comes in and wrestles
away the monopoly it's built in rural and suburban communities.

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samfisher83
I wuld argue a large chunk of amzn market cap is due to aws, Their retail
operations just don't make a lot of money.

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garrettgrimsley
Am I reading their earnings report [0] wrong, or do their net sales as a whole
not dwarf their AWS sales?

What are you basing your argument on?

[0] [http://phx.corporate-
ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9N...](http://phx.corporate-
ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NjU4MjQ1fENoaWxkSUQ9MzY0NTY2fFR5cGU9MQ==&t=1)

~~~
gizmo
AWS has a healthy profit margin, excellent growth prospects, recurring
revenue, and significant lock-in. AWS is expected to do 15 billion or so in
revenue for 2017. As an independent business it would trade on at least 10
times revenues, so that means AWS comprises 150bn out of the 400bn in market
cap.

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garrettgrimsley
Thanks for the explanation, that _is_ quite a large chunk!

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sjg007
I think Walmart can turn around online. So can Target.

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vorotato
especially with the acquisition of jet.com

