Exclusive Interview With Warren Buffett

Quick: What's it mean for you to have-- to have these people that have been showing up for years and years and who come back every year and who are so excited to be here. And they-- this is not just a-- another weekend for you.

Buffett: Oh, it's-- it's fun. It's a-- it's-- it's a weekend I look forward to, actually. I-- I'm not sure how many CEOs look forward (CHUCKLES) to their annual meeting. But so-- some of these people came from a partnership that I first started in 1956. In fact up until about 10 years ago I could recognize some member of the family of 90 percent of the shares of Berkshire.

Exhibitors

Buffett: Obviously there's a bunch of things we wanna have. We-- we wanna have this little bookstore there. That's the one outside party that we have come in because they-- they do a great job for us. And we put them in a given corner. And, you know, but-- and an outfit like Justin Boots will-- they'll do something on a bigger scale so they'll take a fair amount of square footage. And just the act of-- of fitting shoes on people like takes a-- a fair amount. We-- we will sell probably three pairs of shoes a minute during-- that Saturday. And that--

Quick: Three pairs of shoes a minute?

Buffett: Yeah. And-- and-- you know and not everybody decides in 20 seconds what shoe to buy or (LAUGHTER) even to put 'em on. So it-- that takes more square footage than something else. We'll-- we'll sell 10,000-- either Dilly Bars or an orange-- type of bar. I like the orange--

Quick: Oh, the Dreamsicle bars.

Buffett: 10,000 of those. We'll sell four or five-- well, we'll sell-- no, what's that? About 8,000 pounds of candy. You know we'll-- so there's a lot of action going on. And just the physical aspects of it keep everybody pretty busy.

Quick: It's not just the stuff that's happening on the-- on the floor of the Quest Center. It's also-- out at the furniture mart. And at Borsheim's (PH). You have events that take place there too. What's it mean for those operations?

Buffett: Well, those-- the furniture mart last year did about $30 or $31 million of business in the five or six days. And on a Saturday, the-- the day of the meeting actually-- I hate to think of all those people out shopping that should have been in the meeting, but we set a record last year. We did six and half million roughly in one day. That's a lot of business for a home furnishings store. ((butt to)) 10:56:01;16 That would be more business by far than a Costco's ever done in a day or anything like that. And though-- and we'll beat that record again this year. And the-- those people-- but they're all having fun. And-- and-- and-- the jewelry store-- we wrote a ticket every nine seconds-- you know for three days.

Too Big?

Quick: You know you can't get a hotel room in Omaha. Forget about Omaha. In half the state you can't get a hotel room.

Buffett: Yeah, no, you-- Lincoln will sell out. And-- no, you'll-- you'll have to go a 100 miles or so-- the-- if-- if you come in late.

Quick: 30,000's gonna be the most people you've ever hosted. Is there a point where it gets to be too big for Omaha?

Buffett: I wonder about that. We're gonna keep holding it in Omaha. I don't know how we'll do it, exactly, but maybe we'll get a football field or something and have the managers trot onto the field and-- with the age of some of them they'll only get about into the 10 yard line but that's another problem. (LAUGHTER) But it's-- I'm not sure exactly how we'll handle the future. It-- it has grown (CLEARS THROAT) just about every year, so-- so who knows.

Quick: But it-- they're-- seriously I mean there's a point where you can't get a room if you don't book six months in advance. You can't get other things. How do you accommodate for more and more people?

Buffett: You know well-- I've thought about-- there're all kinds of people in town be willing to let people stay with 'em for a couple of days. We get-- we get offers on that. A lot of offers. But I'm not sure exactly what we do, Becky. I'm-- I'm-- you know that's-- that's in the too hard pile to think about right now. (LAUGHTER)

Quick: And the too hard pile is just like your filing system here, right?

Buffett: That's right. That-- that is definitely too hard. What does it say? (LAUGHS)

Quick: I know we touched on this before but just the idea of-- your ideal meeting. If you did ever change the venue, if you had your favorite place that you'd put it, if you had some sort of a fantasy, what would it be?

Buffett: Probably the Super Bowl. (LAUGHTER) And then they-- they can have the Super Bowl first then we can have our meeting. I-- no, I would-- I would have this-- I would have a portal down there, this bit football field. And it would be covered with smoke or however they do it. And the-- and some paper mache thing.

The-- and then I would-- I would have our managers trot out on the field like one of the great football teams. And I would say, "And number 76 from See's Candy, Brad." And-- and then I'd just go was the line. And-- and-- the crowd would go wild. (LAUGHTER) Don't count on that happening.

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