Friday, May 12, 2006

Shareholder Freebies AKA Corporate Freebies

What are 'Shareholder Freebies' (which are also known as 'Corporate Freebies')? Those are the free things (or benefits) that you get by being a shareholder of a company, over and above any dividends or growth in stock price.

As an example, the local Radio Shack store has informed me that Radio Shack gives a 10% discount to shareholders of Radio Shack, and that to prove ownership, I would just need to bring in a Radio Shack stock certificate or copy of a stock brokerage firm statement showing my shareholdings.

Some recent corporate freebies that have turned up are:

Shareholders of the Boston Beer Company (who elected to receive their annual reports in printed form) received a Samual Adams Talking Beer Bottle Opener.

Shareholders of California Water Service Group (who elected to receive their annual reports in printed form) received twelve recipe cards, for such things as Strawberry-Mango Smoothie, Portuguese Sweet Bread, and Sweet Corn Vegetable Soup.

Shareholders of McDonalds (who elected to receive their annual reports in printed form) received a coupon for an Asian Salad for free at any McDonalds. This coupon appears between page 12 and 13 of the annual report. The company probably places it there to see how many people actually read the report.

I will post other corporate freebies as I come across them.

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