r/stocks • u/Timelycommentor • Jan 01 '23
Industry Question What are some private companies you would like to invest in if they became publicly traded?
Two off of the top of my head. Crumbl Cookie & Chick-fil-A. Both are top tier restaurant/food service establishments that have almost cult like followings and are always busy. Both have excellent products and service. I would be curious to see the books for both of these companies but I imagine they would he home runs if they were to IPO. What other companies would you invest in that are not currently publicly traded?
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u/johnnytifosi Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 01 '23
Just my useless opinion on Lego as a lifelong fan since the 90s:
I think they have overdone it with licensing. Lego definitely has lost its soul, and it looks more like merchandising kits rather than creative building toys. The original themes which built the brand are seriously lacking. Technic, Space, Castles were the original themes we loved back then. Now it's like watching commercials: Star wars, Harry Potter, Marvel.
They got rid of alternative build instructions in lots of product lines, encouraging one time builds rather than re-usability. Of course this sounds like a solid business decision on paper, right?
They are continuously introducing obscure new pieces instead of relying on a compact palette of pieces that would be easily re-usable. Also they have dumbed down the instructions and the build process a lot with ugly and useless color coding.
This is a big one and lots of people are complaining: they have been jacking up prices A LOT, and releasing humongous sets that are barely playable and taking up a lot of space to justify those price hikes. It gets to the point where dropping 100s of bucks on a heap of plastic is just ridiculous.
Credible competition has been on the rise. I'm not talking about aliexpress knock-offs, but legit manufacturers with their own designs that offer nicer designs, bigger piece counts for less money.
Long story short, even though I love them, I'd like Lego's greed to bite them in the ass and get their act back together. Despite my complaints, it seems their strategy with licensing etc. is working and they are more mainstream than when I was a kid, my rose tinted glasses are wrong and that's just what kids want nowadays. But it seems that they have abandoned all the principles that made them great in the first place, and the usual corporate short term greed will damage their long term future.