See

Warren Buffett paid twenty five million dollars for See's Candy in nineteen seventy two. It earned four million a year — a six times multiple that Wall Street called expensive for a mature candy company. The analysis was mathematically correct and completely wrong. Because See's Candy is not really a candy company. It is a gift company that happens to sell chocolate. When a man buys a box of See's for his wife, he is not comparing price per ounce against Hershey's. He is not calculating value. He is saying something. The purchase is emotional, not rational. And when the purchase is emotional, price disappears from the decision entirely. You do not shop around for the cheapest way to tell someone you love them. See's raised prices five to eight percent every year, well above inflation. Customers never left. Price per pound went from three dollars in nineteen seventy two to over twenty four dollars today. Volume barely moved.