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“CRAZY WARREN” MANS THE COUNTER AT BORSHEIMS FOR THIRD TIME May 08, 2013 (0 comments)

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Omaha, NE—It was like a scene out of a Black Friday mall stampede, albeit much more civilized. While nobody got trampled, Borsheims’ luxury salon looked like a mob scene as customers vied for the chance to be waited on by Warren Buffett himself. At left, he poses with customers he's just helped.

Or should we say, “sold by Warren Buffett himself.” The legendary Oracle of Omaha and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway took his third annual stint behind the counter at Borsheims during the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting May 4 and 5, and proved once again that he’s as skilled at selling as he is at investing.

Buffett warmed up his game first with a little table tennis in the court of the Regency Mall, where Borsheims is an anchor. Luckily for Borsheims, he’s much better at selling jewelry than playing ping pong: joined by his friend Bill Gates (yes, Microsoft’s Bill Gates!), the two men were soundly trounced in a two-on-one game with Ariel Hsing of the 2012 U.S. Olympic table tennis team. Spectators in bleachers cheered loudly for Buffett and Gates, who proved no match for an Olympic athlete. Still, they took their loss in good humor.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns Borsheims. When he bought it from former owner Ike Friedman in the early 1990s, it marked the company’s first foray into jewelry. Since then, Berkshire Hathaway’s jewelry holdings have increased exponentially, including retailers Helzberg and Ben Bridge, and the multi-brand Richline Group on the supplier side.

Buffett’s stints as diamond salesman are becoming an annual tradition, and Berkshire Hathaway shareholders worked with Borsheims sales associates for weeks to score a coveted appointment to buy from him, says the company’s blog.

What jeweler wouldn’t want a part-time salesperson like Buffett, who last year sold $1.5 million worth of jewelry in just 90 minutes? This year, he set his goal at $2 million for the same time period.

Apart from his renown as a brilliant investor, to jewelry fans Buffett also is famous for his “Crazy Warren” prices, which offer a substantial discount on top of the already-big discount shareholders get for shopping during the meeting weekend—and, according to the store’s marketing director Adrienne Fay, which also occasionally make Borsheims’ president Susan Jacques cringe.

“It is crazy, let me tell you!” Jacques joked with a customer as Buffett offered the price. Still, she knows a good thing when she has one. Buffett’s name badge reads, “Crazy Warren.”

But it’s not just fame that makes Buffett successful behind the counter. He’s a natural-born salesman, with a charm that has customers whipping out their wallets again and again. Among the sales Buffett made this year were a brown diamond snake ring, a set of three of Borsheims’ own signature Canadian diamonds, and of course at least one engagement ring, which he said comes with a guarantee that she’ll say “yes.”

Watch Crazy Warren in action here.

 

 

 

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