Anyone who’s watched even just one Shark Tank episode has to remember Mr. Wonderful, aka Kevin O’Leary.
He has a way of standing out with his blunt – sometimes verbally brutal – assessments of entrepreneurs, their products, and their pitches. I believe it was the very first episode of the very first season when he told one unlucky show participant, “Stop the madness. Are you out of your mind? Are you crazy? Who would give you 10 bucks for that?”
And O’Leary didn’t get any easier to impress from there.
Considering that attitude and the fact that he has an estimated net worth of around $400 million, nobody would believe he shops at Walmart (WMT). In which case, he shocked everyone when he posted an Instagram video of himself at the discount retailer last weekend.
“Inflation affects us all,” he declared as he compared deals. “Saving dough is the name of the game.”
Consulting his honey-do shopping list for batteries, butter, paper towels, and laundry spray, O’Leary told his audience that he wants to:
… save dough when it comes to paper towels. Check it out. Bounty: 12 [plus-sized] rolls is like 18 small rolls. I’m going plus.
He also indicated that he buys clothing from Walmart, particularly jeans.
Either Walmart paid him a lot of money to make that ad, or O’Leary – who, incidentally, is a much more pleasant person when you’re not pitching him deals he doesn’t like – just proved me wrong in last week’s “stripper” article, where I mentioned how truly affluent consumers don’t shop at the discount chain.
I officially stand corrected.
The meat processing industry is on notice
At the beginning of the year, Trump vowed to do something about institutional homebuyers – big companies that buy up single-family houses and then turn them into rentals instead.
I personally very much disagree with his demonization of these businesses. I think the problem is much, much more complex than that, as I’ve described repeatedly ever since the discussion began.
But I’ve come to three conclusions from the debate nonetheless:
My opinion is in the definite minority, as evidenced by the exceptionally bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act that Congress passed a few months ago, which now restricts these businesses’ capabilities.
Single-family rental (SFR) real estate investment trusts (REITs) like the one I wrote about earlier this week can still thrive, despite the naysaying.
Trump was a man of his word on the subject.
I bring up that last point because it looks like the president is now targeting the meat processing industry, writing on Truth Social:
Ranchers and Farmers have always been a number one priority for me. They work very hard, are smart, efficient, and immaculately CLEAN, but for years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly. There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I? So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
If I were Tyson Foods (TSN), Smithfield Foods (SFD), Sysco Corporation (SYY), or their competitors, I might start looking into protective measures right about now.
GameStop just doesn’t give up
GameStop (GME).
Oh, GameStop. How you keep giving us material to work with from all of your ups and downs, meme-stock rallies, and dramatic crashes.
Even so, with all of the eye-rolling drama, I think we’ve got to give CEO Ryan Cohen this much: That man just does not give up.
The company he took over three years ago shouldn’t even exist. It had been dying for well over a decade thanks to Blockbuster-level bad management.
Yet it still stands today thanks to Cohen’s reworking of the entire system. He’s leaned into the nostalgia trade, opened up a healthy online presence, and invested outside of the company as well… such as in eBay (EBAY).
Now, admittedly, we all got some good laughs out of his rather ridiculous offer to take over that e-tail giant back in May. I still don’t understand what in the world he was thinking there.
From just about everyone’s perspective – other than GameStop’s – it made no sense whatsoever. And eBay itself had no problem telling Cohen where he could take his offer.
But while those acquisition talks faded away without further ado, GameStop had already built up a large derivative position in eBay… which it then converted into $43.4 million common shares…
Which, we now know thanks to a pre-earnings-call release, could produce $238 million in gains for its recently completed quarter (ending August 1).
That’ll be quite the nice boost when GameStop officially reports its Q2 revenue, which is otherwise expected to fall. Analysts predict the company made $780 million to $800 million in sales, which would be down noticeably from last year’s $972.2 million.
As such, it would seem, the company will live another day.
Happy SWAN investing!
Brad Thomas
Editor, The Wide Moat Daily
