Monday, April 21, 1997
Eenie, Meenie, Teenie,
Beanie
by
[email protected]
I'm probably like most of you. When I heard that McDonald's was offering cute little Teenie Beanie Babies with their Happy Meals I thought, 'My kid doesn't need another one of those. But they are so cute. If I go for some fries I'll get her one.' And then I promptly forgot all about it.
That is, until recently. Now, it seems, McDonald's has a problem. They're besieged by testy customers demanding their Teenie Beanie Babies. Customers mob the counters, testily testing the very tenets of service defined by the late, great, Ray Kroc, as the poor counter jockeys develop a stammer from the stress. 'Y-you w-w-want f-f-fries with th-that?'
Heck, the customers don't even care if they get the food! They just want Teenie Beanie Babies. NOW! Some customers were seen mobbing the man carrying a new shipment of Teenie Beanie Babies destined for future Happy Meals. There was even one report of people following the van transporting the Teenie Beanie Babies to the next McDonald's, presumably so they could get the jump on those merely waiting in the store to mob him. Talk about foresight. Wow! They're the inside traders of the Great Teenie Beanie Baby Giveaway of 1997.
But McDonald's is in for an even bigger surprise. When they finally run out of Teenie Beanie Babies, if they haven't already, look out. Can you imagine what'll take place at counters across the country when they announce that in lieu of Teenie Beanie Babies they will now be handing out Teenie Hunchbacks of Notre Dame? Somehow it's just not the same.
The parents will go ballistic. They may even picket McDonald's for unfairly withholding Teenie Beanie Babies. They're going to claim that McDonald's isn't living up to their side of the bargain, never mind that customers aren't living up to their part of the bargain and eating the food. By the way, is McDonald's really just a front for mass-marketed toys 'hand-made' (now there's a euphemism) in China? I wonder, only because the food doesn't really seem to matter anymore now that they are giving away Big Macs for a quarter or some such pittance. One wonders.
I know one thing. McDonald's is going to have to apologize for giving Teenie Beanie Babies away in the first place. Talk about a backfire; the marketing guys will be forced to eat Happy Meals for a year.
Which makes me wonder, along with you, just what this rant, er, Fribble, has to do with investing. Two words: mob mentality. Have you ever noticed when the perception of worth gets blown out of proportion, the price goes way up and people behave particularly irrationally? Well, there you have it. The next time you're thinking you should buy XYZ, the momentum stock of the moment, ask yourself if it's not just for the Teenie Beanie Baby inside. And go have a Happy Meal and think about it.
Your Foolish Friend,
Tom Pedersen
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