Cabo Insights

I've just returned from the Future1investor Conference in Cabo. It was an insightful (sentiments from those participating) and mixed bag of thoughts from around the U.S. and Canada. One thing that ate at me personally was the food or rather waste of food by some people. While it is somewhat the norm to see a few people waste half a plate

Food Waste

of food and then return to the buffet for even more; it irked me to see it happening in today's situation.

I wish that the hotel would put nice but directed signage asking people to only take what they will eat or sample a small amount first rather rejecting large portion of food that could have gone to feeding the needy adults and children in town. Kudos because they did have like signage in the bathrooms of the guest rooms. It asked you to save the environment by reusing your linens more than once.

I felt obligated by morality to carefully choose my food and then eat everything on the plate. Also at the bar I was careful to choose a drink that I could fully finish before ordering another. And I was also aware that I could become sick if I consumed too much alcohol while in the hot sun. Too bad some of the hotel's other guests weren't adult enough to do the same. This was an all inclusive property however and I guess some folks just have some stupid idea that wasting is fashionable?? We just wondered/hoped if the left over, untouched food was somehow directed towards those who would benefit.

Anyway, back to the food issue. Before I left we had the rice situation and the over-all rise in food costs. Lets look at this a bit. Data that follows is approximate based on various sources:

Gone Up Gone Down

• Eggs 30% ?
  
• Milk 10%+
• Cereal 8%
• Bananas 10%+
• Rice 13%+

These may be much higher than my figures but the point is, while other foods are rising as expected at about 3-5% per year, others are rocketing higher and really putting the pinch on the pocketbook. I intentionally don't buy snacks when going to the grocery as a way to maintain some modicum of my health and hold down costs. It was evident at my last corporate job that they don't try to maintain at least cost of living wage increases. It is unfortunate for many that it actually costs them more money each year to stay at that job! And companies wonder why they loose some of their better people. Does your company help you stay above the cost of living increases each year?

So what is the way to invest when things are like this? Agricultural stocks obviously and companies that distribute the food to the consumer. When I was taking the shuttle to the hotel, I was happy to see that Walmart (WMT), Sams Club, and Costco (COST) where in Cabo. These are all companies that do well during hard times as they are able to price items into the range that people can afford.

I am working on a movie of the pictures that so many are looking for on here. Some Canadians made the suggestion that I name the movie Cabo Slut just as a way to easily find it. I thought this was both funny and searchably appropriate. Not appropriate as in content; there will be NO sexual scenes or any inappropriate content. It will just make it easy to find (fingers crossed) when I post it on YouTube later this week.