Warren Buffett Predicts We Will Drink More Coca-Cola

New investment wisdom from Warren Buffett: at the 50th annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting, Buffett told his audience that they should stick with brands that people love — such as Coca-Cola — and stay away from anyone selling those icky vegetables or health foods.

Time quoted Buffett as saying:

I don’t think there will be anything revolutionary. Food and beverage companies will adjust to the expressed preferences of consumers. No company does well ignoring its consumers. I predict that 20 years from now more Coca-Cola cases will be consumed than today.

[…]

When I compare drinking Coca-Cola to something they would sell me at Whole Foods, I don’t see a lot of smiles on the faces of people at Whole Foods.

The entire anti-vegetable rant — can we call it a rant? — is hilarious, so go visit Time to read the whole thing. Buffett calls himself “one-quarter Coca-Cola,” denigrates broccoli and brussels sprouts, and says “I have enjoyed every meal we’ve ever had except when my grandfather made me eat those damn greens.”

Time notes that “Buffett clearly enjoys Coca-Cola, both as a consumer and a shareholder. Furthermore, he is friends with many of the company’s executives, and his son Howard sits on Coca-Cola’s board of directors.”

But are there really no smiles on the faces of people at Whole Foods? Did Buffett not see the Broad City episode where Abbi runs excitedly through the aisles, filling her cart with earth-friendly cereals and manuka honey?

Here’s a Whole Foods story for you: when my parents moved me to Minneapolis after college graduation in 2004, we decided to go stock my refrigerator together. It ended up being my mom and me driving around until we saw something that looked like a grocery store and turned out to be a Whole Foods. It was my first time inside a Whole Foods, and I was just overcome with delight. Here I was, in my first real apartment in a big city, going to this grocery store that was more beautiful than any grocery store I had ever seen. And it was full of new, fascinating-looking products and food items! Being an adult was awesome.

Then I came back and made my parents dinner in my very own kitchen: whole wheat spaghetti with a sauce that included sliced strawberries and red, orange, and yellow peppers. (As I recall, it ended up tasting just fine.) And then my folks had a talk with me about food costs, and how using three different peppers at ~$1.50 each on one meal would end up costing me a lot of money over time, and how I could probably find much cheaper food at a different grocery store.

And yes, after that first trip I found a Safeway near my apartment and started going there instead.

But I smiled when I went to Whole Foods. And I don’t drink Coke.

This story is part of our food month series.

Photo credit: thetaxhaven

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