By 8:15 a.m., when she settled into her seat, unwrapped her breakfast — a specially designed Berkshire Hathaway box of See's Candies chocolates — and waited for the show to begin, Isabel Lindsay had already been at the Qwest Center Omaha for nearly three hours.
The 14-year-old, who traveled from New York City with her mom, Christa, for Saturday's Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, joined the growing line outside the building at 5:30 a.m. When the doors opened an hour and a half later, the pair headed for the meeting's exhibit area, where they caught a glimpse of Warren Buffett amid a crush of cameras and curious shareholders.
With 40,000 people expected to attend, both mother and daughter said they knew the meeting was going to be a big deal.
But the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” it turns out, is even bigger than they'd pictured.
“We went to a Lady Gaga concert last week and this was worse than Gaga, with the scrum at the door,” said Christa Lindsay, 50.
In many ways, the event felt a bit like a concert — albeit one where half the crowd seemed to be dressed for a board meeting and the other half for a day at the state fair.
Thousands of fans, many of whom traveled from out of the state and out of the country, jostled for the best seats in the arena and chatted about their idol. They stood in long lines for popcorn, fruit smoothies and hot cups of coffee. They cheered wildly when Buffett appeared on stage for the first time.
They wanted to be entertained. Several shareholders said the highlight of the meeting each year was the movie shown before a question-and-answer session. This year's offerings, which included a cartoon featuring the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger and a spoof of the TV series “The Office,” with Buffett stopping by to interview for a job, drew laughs. But the shareholders also wanted to learn.
Herbert Bingham, 68, a retired farmer from Trumann, Ark., purchased Berkshire shares in November and decided right away that he'd attend the next meeting. With his wife, Betty, 69, and daughter, Lesley, 39, he enjoyed dinner at the Grey Plume in Midtown Crossing on Friday night. On Saturday, he was hoping to hear some good financial advice from Buffett, who he said “seems like he knows what to buy.”
“I don't think anybody else's shareholders' meeting is like this,” Bingham said. “It's just an experience.”
For Jan Lundberg, 65, of Stockholm, Sweden, a second-year visitor to the meeting, the day was a chance to hear from Berkshire leaders about the big economic picture.
“It should be interesting to hear their opinion on the U.S. economy, on the way out of some of these problems,” he said. “That is a question for all of the world.”
Patricia Davis, 65, a retired medical school counselor from Springfield, Ill., has owned Berkshire shares for about a decade but said she wasn't able to make the trip to Omaha until she retired. She said she'd been to the city before and hoped to get a chance to explore it a bit more. She wanted to learn more about Berkshire as a company.
“Now I'm going to tell my friends to buy products I've got stock in,” she joked. “Buy Coca-Cola! Buy Dairy Queen!”
Down the stairs to the exhibit halls, that's what thousands of shareholders were doing.
Some skipped out on the business meeting altogether so they could shop for deals without having to fight the crowds.
From Fruit of the Loom underwear ($5 for a six-pack of ladies' briefs) to Burlington Northern Santa Fe memorabilia ($3 for a wooden train whistle), shareholders were ready to spend money on products made by Berkshire-owned companies.
Nearly everyone seemed to be enjoying a snack from Dairy Queen, which was selling Dilly Bars, vanilla orange bars, fudge bars and mini Oreo Blizzards for $1 each, with some of the proceeds going to the Children's Miracle Network in Omaha.
By day's end, the Dairy Queen crew expected to have sold just under 20,000 frozen treats.
A Mars Chocolate booth offered 18-packs of candy bars ($18), large stuffed M&Ms ($175) and a shareholders meeting favorite — blue and white M&Ms stamped with “Berkshire Hathaway” and the face of Warren Buffett ($5).
Last year, Mars brought 500 bags of the candies but quickly ran out. This year, they had 1,000 up for grabs and expected to sell them all before the end of the day.
Several feet away, at least a few sweet-toothed shareholders were making a slightly bigger investment: $143 for a 15-pound, “chairman-sized” box of See's Candies peanut brittle.
As passers-by marveled over the brittle spectacle, Jean Gwirtz, a See's senior area coordinator, tried to sell them on the deal. “This is what you need today,” she said, pointing out that it was cheaper than buying 10 smaller boxes.
By about 11:30 a.m., 15 of the 25 “chairman-sized” boxes made for the event had been snapped up.
Across the exhibit hall, many shareholders were shopping for shoes.
Over the crunching noise of tissue paper being pulled from dozens of shoeboxes, Anthony Capozza of H.H. Brown, a shoe company that owns brands like Born and Sofft, said he expected to sell between 1,200 and 1,300 pairs of shoes Saturday.
A few feet away, an army of salesmen in white shirts and black cowboy hats were helping shareholders ease their feet into pairs of Justin Boots.
Jamie Morgan, president of the Texas-based company, said he brought 3,500 pairs of boots and expected to sell about 1,000, including about 25 pairs with a Berkshire Hathaway 2011 meeting special edition logo ($350).
Plus, he said he had to bring along about 20 staff members to help coordinate the sometimes-chaotic sales day.
“Heck, yeah,” he said. “Boot experts.”
And for some shareholders, the exhibits at the Qwest Center were just part of the experience.
Shuttles ferried shoppers to Nebraska Furniture Mart and Borsheims, though some already had made their purchases.
Tom Taylor, 77, a dermatologist from Wichita Falls, Texas, has been attending Berkshire meetings since 1997. Sure, he said, he wants to hear what Buffett and Munger have to say. But the highlight of the trip each year is the purchase he makes for his wife at Borsheim's — this year, a tanzanite ring.
His son, Tom Taylor Jr., 50, was attending the meeting for the first time.
“Warren offered a lot of insight, and there's a lot of value to it,” he said.
Plus, he added, “I got a Dilly Bar.”
Contact the writer: 402-444-1543, erin.golden@owh.com
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