Berkshire Hathaway 2005 Annual Report Download - page 23

You certainly did your share in this respect last year. The 194,300 square foot hall adjoining the
meeting area was filled with the products of Berkshire subsidiaries, and the 21,000 people who came to the
meeting allowed every location to rack up sales records. Kelly Broz (neé Muchemore), the Flo Ziegfeld of
Berkshire, orchestrates both this magnificent shopping extravaganza and the meeting itself. The exhibitors
love her, and so do I. Kelly got married in October, and I gave her away. She asked me how I wanted to
be listed in the wedding program. I replied “envious of the groom,” and that’ s the way it went to press.
This year we will showcase two Clayton homes (featuring Acme brick, Shaw carpet, Johns
Manville insulation, MiTek fasteners, Carefree awnings and NFM furniture). You will find that these
homes, priced at $79,000 and $89,000, deliver excellent value. In fact, three shareholders came so firmly
to that conclusion last year that they bought the $119,000 model we then showcased. Flanking the Clayton
homes on the exhibition floor will be RVs from Forest River.
GEICO will have a booth staffed by a number of its top counselors from around the country, all of
them ready to supply you with auto insurance quotes. In most cases, GEICO will be able to give you a
special shareholder discount (usually 8%). This special offer is permitted by 45 of the 50 jurisdictions in
which we operate. (One supplemental point: The discount is not additive if you qualify for another, such as
that given certain groups.) Bring the details of your existing insurance and check out whether we can save
you money. For at least 50% of you, I believe we can. And while you’ re at it, sign up for the new GEICO
credit card. It’ s the one I now use.
On Saturday, at the Omaha airport, we will have the usual array of aircraft from NetJets®
available for your inspection. Stop by the NetJets booth at the Qwest to learn about viewing these planes.
Come to Omaha by bus; leave in your new plane.
The Bookworm boutique at the Qwest broke all records last year selling Berkshire-related books.
An amazing 3,500 of these were Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the collected wisdom of my partner. This
means that a copy was sold every 9 seconds. And for good reason: You will never find a book with more
useful ideas. Word-of-mouth recommendations have caused Charlie’ s first printing of 20,500 copies to sell
out, and we will therefore have a revised and expanded edition on sale at our meeting. Among the other 22
titles and DVDs available last year at the Bookworm, 4,597 copies were sold for $84,746. Our
shareholders are a bookseller’ s dream.
An attachment to the proxy material that is enclosed with this report explains how you can obtain
the credential you will need for admission to the meeting and other events. As for plane, hotel and car
reservations, we have again signed up American Express (800-799-6634) to give you special help. Carol
Pedersen, who handles these matters, does a terrific job for us each year, and I thank her for it.
At Nebraska Furniture Mart, located on a 77-acre site on 72nd Street between Dodge and Pacific,
we will again be having “Berkshire Weekend” pricing. We initiated this special event at NFM nine years
ago, and sales during the “Weekend” grew from $5.3 million in 1997 to $27.4 million in 2005 (up 9% from
a year earlier). I get goose bumps just thinking about this volume.
To obtain the discount, you must make your purchases between Thursday, May 4 and Monday,
May 8 inclusive, and also present your meeting credential. The period’ s special pricing will even apply to
the products of several prestigious manufacturers that normally have ironclad rules against discounting but
that, in the spirit of our shareholder weekend, have made an exception for you. We appreciate their
cooperation. NFM is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on
Sunday. On Saturday this year, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., we are having a special affair for shareholders
only. I’ ll be there, eating barbeque, drinking Coke, and counting sales.
Borsheim’ s again will have two shareholder-only events. The first will be a cocktail reception
from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, May 5. The second, the main gala, will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on
Sunday, May 7. On Saturday, we will be open until 6 p.m.
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