Images of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett (right) and partner Charlie Munger are projected on a large screen at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. Nati Harnik/ASSOCIATED PRESS Visit the Photo Place

35,000 spend the day with Warren Buffett

Buffett puts on an event in Omaha

BY BILL FREEHLING

Date published: 5/3/2009

BY BILL FREEHLING

OMAHA--

They came for a weekend of reuniting, shopping, eating T-bone steaks and, of course, listening to CEO Buffett and Berkshire partner Charlie Munger answer five hours' worth of questions from the crowd at Omaha's Qwest Center.

Among them was David Alexander, an investment banker who lives in Spotsylvania County's Fawn Lake subdivision and has been a Berkshire shareholder for 12 years. Alexander attended the so-called "Woodstock for Capitalists" meeting for the first time this year. He met a friend from Naples, Fla., here.

Buffett-philes from all over the country and world started lining up outside the Qwest Center early in the morning to ensure they'd have prime seats when the doors opened at 7 a.m. Hotel rooms were booked throughout and beyond the city.

Not long before the lines formed at the Qwest Center, people were still packing the tables of Gorat's steakhouse, where Buffett frequently dines on steak, hash brown potatoes and Cherry Coke. Gorat's served 2,448 dinners at last year's annual meeting, including 702 T-bones. A waitress said Buffett is just a moderate tipper.

Buffett heartily encourages shareholders to shop during the three-day weekend. At last year's meeting, Berkshire's 77-acre Nebraska Furniture Mart racked up $33.3 million in sales. A shareholder reception was held Friday night at the company's Borsheims jewelry store, with discounts available to shareholders.

Shopping opportunities at Berkshire's many subsidiaries continued after shareholders flooded into the Qwest Center, where products filled 194,300 square feet of exhibit space. Among the highlights were a new plug-in electric car developed by Chinese company BYD Inc. Geico was there talking about and selling insurance.

The crowd flocked to Buffett when he walked through the exhibit hall not long after the doors opened yesterday morning.

His mission?

Buy and consume a Vanilla Orange Bar from Dairy Queen, a Berkshire company. He and Munger snacked on See's Candies--another Berkshire company--throughout the meeting.

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Date published: 5/3/2009

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