Here is a response to my Shareholder Freebies article:
Shareholder freebies do seem to be on the decline. There were none at last year's Berkshire Hathaway meeting, for example, while just a few years earlier shareholders left town with everything from Rubik's Cubes to Beatle CDs. The other day I went to Coke's meeting and came away with a pen and a free can of soda, which seems about typical. Consumer product companies are the best bets, of course. In the recent past, Constellation Brands has given attendees a small bottle of wine and Church & Dwight (the baking soda folks) have offered samples of toothpaste, gum and deodorant. Meanwhile, Walgreens has handed out cosmetics, wrapping paper, pill dispensers and coupons for vitamins and photo developing. eBay has distributed hats and T-shirts featuring the company's logo. Perhaps the most generous giveaway in 2006 was Tootsie Roll's parting gift for annual meeting attendees – a shopping bag filled with enough of the company's products that I still had plenty on hand for trick-or-treaters six months later.
As I describe in my new book A Weekend WIth Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures (2007, Thunder's Mouth Press), anyone who goes to a shareholder meeting in search of coffee and a Danish will probably come away happy, but free lunches are very rare. Regional utilities and banks – such as Otter Tail Power (Minnesota) and Fulton Financial (Pennsylvania) – are the few hosts of such events. One notable "big" company feeds its owners lunch: Google. Shareholders are invited to partake in one of the company's extraordinary on-campus cafeterias before the meeting begins. (By the way, Google also gave 2006 attendees a very nice thermos.)
Randy Cepuch
Author, A Weekend With Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures
www.shareholdermeetingadventures.com
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