idpickering wrote:MrFoolish wrote:Arborbridge wrote:However, the supermarket thing is hardly new - own brands have been with us for???? a hundred years or more?
Indeed some items bought in a supermarket have become sought after "brands" in their own right, just as good as the originals.
Arb.
Totally correct. Most people love brands, whether it is rational or not. Does anyone on this board live a life which is brand free? Do you own the cheapest car and buy Happy Shopper whisky (or whatever is your tipple)?
Interesting chat this. Up here in Orkney we have a Tesco and Lidl. My wife shops in both, but gets my coffee, Nescafe, dry roasted peanuts, and alcohol free shandy from Tesco, because Lidl don't sell those, but buys most everything else, like home brand cleaning products, from Lidl.
As for ULVR as a share/company, I find the comments from those that say they've sold out interesting. Hmm? I've held ULVR for years, but I'm certainly not in love with it. Maybe there's better options elsewhere? I'd like to hold onto ULVR though I think? imho, they're on offer right now.
Ian.
The thing is, we know diddly-squat about anything, let alone about the future. That's why we spread our investments around in little caches like a squirrel burying nuts. It seems to me quite a regular occurance that one or other of the various stock market constitutents gets rollocking over the years, and then there is always an army of "well informed" investors (well, we can only assume they may be!) who either just got out at the right time or never invested in x or y in the first place because they knew it would end in tears. It put this in the folder called "market noise". Naturally, there do seem to be people who can spot and opportunity, a safe share or a looming disaster, but I am clear not one of them. And those who do, never seem to come clean about their results in a cogent and convincing way which can be tracked over the years.
Oh well, I'll carry on in my own cloud of ignorance both specific and strategic because I've seen this stuff come and go over decades. If company is big enough, the chances are it will evolve to defend itself like an organism. Not always, of course, - look at GEC - but all one needs is a big enough percentage of survivors: that is what I call the "portfolio effect" - or not putting one's eggs in one basket.
And then, there's always the option to leave it to the professionals by buying ITs or similar pooled investment.
Arb.