(Update Apr 30) I went to Carrefour to buy Maotai, it’s out. I noticed Maotai has some low end products now (Maotai Chun instead of Guizhou Maotai). The Shanghai No. 1 Food Store across the street does carry Mao Tai, but it charges for 525 Yuan (Carrefour price was 438). According to Carrefour associates, the Maotai was out for couple months now. This is not surprising because I heard some distributors will pay several months in advance to get the Maotai. Hot stuff, isn’t it?
(Original) All right, enough about the Chinese banks and their stocks. Personally, I always like the consumer products (services) stocks, because I am a consumer, and I have some sense of consumer trend: unlike the steel, real estate (industrial), comercial banking, enterprise software…all of which need some special knowledge about the industry.
On the other hand, we know there are always people want to smoke (Marlboro, MO), people want to drink coffee (Starbucks, SBUX), and in China, there are people who want to drink (Maotai, 600519, did you notice “519” in Chinese means I want Jiu (liquior :-).
Notice I used the word “want” instead of “like”. Because all these are addictive products. While personally I don’t want to get into these expensive hobbies, I like to buy companies producing them. For Maotai, there is another meaning to Chinese: it’s the best liquior, it means some sort of prestige. Nowadays Chinese consumers are not shy about shelling out serveral hundred Yuan (about $30), to make their guests happy. Not to mention a lot eating and drinking are not paid by individual. No wonder the Gui Zhou Mao Tai’s business is booming.