The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [563]
21. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
22. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
23. Joyce Wadler, “Furnishing a Life,” Washington Post, May 24, 1984.
24. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
25. The Dream that Mrs. B Built.
26. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
27. Joyce Wadler, “Blumkin: Sofa, So Good: The First Lady of Furniture, Flourishing at 90,” Washington Post, May 24, 1984.
28. Buffett, in a letter to Jack Byrne in 1983, noted that Levitz stores averaged about 75% the size of NFM and did 10% the volume of NFM.
29. Buffett noted in the 1984 annual report that NFM operated with exceptional efficiency. Its operating expenses were 16.5% of sales, compared to 35.6% at Levitz, its largest competitor.
30. Warren Buffett letter to Jack Byrne, December 12, 1983.
31. Frank E. James, “Furniture Czarina,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, 1984.
32. Speech given at Stanford Law School on March 23, 1990. “Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren E. Buffett, Lessons From the Master,” Outstanding Investor Digest, Vol. V, No. 3., April 18, 1990.
33. Chris Olson, “Mrs. B Uses Home to Eat and Sleep; ‘That’s About It,’” Omaha World-Herald, October, 28, 1984.
34. Joyce Wadler, “Furnishing a Life.”
35. “Mrs. B Means Business,” USA Today, April 1, 1986.
36. Bella Eisenberg letter to Warren Buffett, June 8, 1984.
37. “I can hear my mother [saying it] now,” said Louis Blumkin in an interview.
38. The Dream that Mrs. B Built.
39. In the documentary The Dream that Mrs. B Built, Blumkin refers to this incident and said Buffett didn’t want to give her the price she wanted and she told him he was too cheap.
40. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
41. Possibly it might have had something to do with her early years of sleeping on straw on a bare wood floor.
42. Joyce Wadler, “Blumkin: Sofa, So Good: The First Lady of Furniture, Flourishing at 90.”
43. James A. Fussell, “Nebraska Furniture Legend.”
44. Berkshire Hathaway 1983 chairman’s letter. Initially, Berkshire bought 90% of the business, leaving 10% with the family, and optioning 10% back to certain key young family managers.
45. Contract for sale of Nebraska Furniture Mart, August 30, 1983.
46. Robert Dorr, “Furniture Mart Handshake Deal,” Omaha World-Herald, September 15, 1983.
47. Buffett’s sentimental fondness for Mrs. B is notable in light of her similarity to his mother in the sense of her outbursts of abuse toward her family and employees. Only rarely did he take the risk of associating with anyone who could blow up on him.
48. Warren Buffett letter to Rose Blumkin, September 30, 1983.
49. From a retired Berkshire employee (not Verne McKenzie, the star of this anecdote).
50. Interview with Verne McKenzie.
51. Several Buffett Group members swear to the exact number.
52. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, 1776.
53. Interview with Stan Lipsey.
54. “A Tribute to Mrs. B,” Omaha World-Herald, May 20, 1984; John Brademas, President, New York University, letter to Rose Blumkin, April 12, 1984.
55. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
56. Joyce Wadler, “Blumkin: Sofa, So Good: The First Lady of Furniture, Flourishing at 90.”
57. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
58. Warren Buffett letter to Larry Tisch, May 29, 1984.
59. Beth Botts, Elizabeth Edwardsen, Bob Jensen, Stephen Kofe, and Richard T. Stout, “The CornFed Capitalist,” Regardie’s, February 1986.
60. Robert Dorr, “Son Says No One Wanted Mrs. B to Leave,” Omaha World-Herald, May 13, 1989.
61. Andrew Kilpatrick, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/More in ’04 (California edition). Alabama: AKPE, 2004.
62. Robert Dorr, “Son Says No One Wanted Mrs. B to Leave.”
63. Sonja Schwarer, “From Wheelchair, Mrs. B Plans Leasing Expansion,” Omaha Metro Update, February 11, 1990; James Cox, “Furniture Queen Battles Grandsons for Throne,” USA Today, November 27, 1989.
64. Robert Dorr, “Garage Sale Is Big Success for Mrs. B,” Omaha World-Herald, July 17, 1989.
65. Andrew Kilpatrick, Of Permanent Value.