Firebones » BWLD http://blog.firebones.com Code. Money. Literature. Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:59:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Be Wild? Why Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) is Not My Bag http://blog.firebones.com/2009/07/11/be-wild-why-buffalo-wild-wings-bwld-is-not-my-bag/ http://blog.firebones.com/2009/07/11/be-wild-why-buffalo-wild-wings-bwld-is-not-my-bag/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:17:45 +0000 Chris http://blog.firebones.com/?p=374 In 2008, I picked Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) in a stock picking contest. YTD, it’s up around 30%. But I ate there for the first time the other week (after picking up $75 of chicken wings for other occasions). I’m not so bullish now. Why?

The atmosphere. Okay, I’ll admit I was kind of overwhelmed the first time I went there. Boneless wings costing between 75 cents and a buck each? Yeah, good stuff, but not the kind of thing that I’d do once a quarter.

Eating there was disorienting. Dozens of screens. Noise through the roof. Lousy acoustics. Air temp designed to drive you out of the place. Sensory overload. Cheap burgers, pithy amount of fries. Great wings. Even the kids were overwhelmed. Everything oriented towards turning you over quickly.

It reminded me of the time we took a Caribbean cruise, almost a kind of tourist trap, complete with smiling kitchen staff peering out through their porthole sizing up the next round of suckers they were reeling in. Perfunctory service. We won’t be back anytime soon.

So I’m down on BWLD. Yes, they’ll do well simply because they are in that stage where they aren’t mainstream yet, and there are plenty of folks who have yet to experience the store, dropping a load of cash there in the process. But it has no legs. Watch for this thing to jump the shark sometime in the next 24 months. This isn’t even analysis, it’s just a channel check. No one there appeared to be enjoying themselves. They all looked like anxious monkeys waiting to flee.

]]> http://blog.firebones.com/2009/07/11/be-wild-why-buffalo-wild-wings-bwld-is-not-my-bag/feed/ 12 Post-Convention Stock Contest Roundup http://blog.firebones.com/2008/09/07/post-convention-stock-contest-roundup/ http://blog.firebones.com/2008/09/07/post-convention-stock-contest-roundup/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:19:52 +0000 Chris http://blog.firebones.com/2008/09/07/post-convention-stock-contest-roundup/ Overall portfolio of all family contestants is off 19%. I manage to still be in the lead with a 2.1% overall gain, buoyed by Buffalo Wild Wings and Mueller Water Products. But wow. Caveat: there may be some splits I haven’t accounted for in the overall results, but from what I can tell at first glance, these were stocks that just halved their prices without a split.

My results:

    Berkshire Hatha Class B Ord Shs -17.40%
    Mindray Medical International Ltd -12.12%
    PowerShares Water Resource Portfolio -4.81%
    Buffalo Wild Wings Inc 63.57%
    Mueller Water Products Series A Ord Shs 11.97%
    Central European Distribution Corp -8.87%
    Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp -18.24%
    Grant Prideco Inc 3.39%
]]> http://blog.firebones.com/2008/09/07/post-convention-stock-contest-roundup/feed/ -1