1996: Will See's Candy go fat-free?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. Warren, it’s Peter Newman, Nick and Racky’s son. You can’t see me because I’m on your hard left over here.

And by the way, Racky says to send her love to you —

WARREN BUFFETT: Great.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: — and Susie.

I’m going to take a cue from something that the guy who asked the questions about the World Book —

I know you’re loathe to, normally, interfere in the running of your individual corporations, because they do so well on their own. And I am particularly fond of See’s Candy and their products. And you may or may not know that we have a chocoholic in our family, as you do in yours.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. Makes good chocolate syrup, too. (Laughs)

AUDIENC MEMBER: Yeah, I won’t mention who.

However, when I was in there this Christmas buying some gifts, I noted that, with the exception of the little candy canes, there’s nothing in that store that is fat-free.

And we are facing a trend — (laughter) — in the world, especially in dessert items and ice cream and candy items, of fat-freeness.

And I just thought that, perhaps, it would be a word — worth a word to management to consider expanding the hard candy line.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, we look at a lot of things. One of the problems, as you probably know, for example, in using aspartame is it doesn’t interact well with heat. And so that’s been sort of tough.

Now, Charlie and I have kept getting our regular boxes of candy during this weight loss-program. And we’ve — (laughter) — devoured them.

And candy, you know, it may be, on average, a hundred and — depends on whether it’s a sugar product or not.

But, take the lollipop, it’d be about 110 calories per ounce. But there’s — that’s one and a half, or one and a quarter lollipops, or something like that.

Most things are, you know, in that hundred per ounce to 150 per ounce range. So, candy is not a specific no-no.

If we can find something that the customer likes, that makes them think they’re getting skinnier by eating it — (laughter) — you know, that will be a breakthrough.

And we look forward — and we test everything that comes along. I can assure you. (Laughter)

In fact, Charlie and I may be the main testers.

Chuck Huggins is here today — and if you’ve got any ideas on it — who runs See’s. Done a terrific job of running See’s ever since we took over in 1972. He’d appreciate ideas.

But we are looking for things that appeal to the consumer that taste good and that they’ll go for. I mean, just as is, you know, the Coca-Cola Company, in terms of carbonated soft drinks. So, it’s a constant subject.

And, you know, there were high hopes on aspartame originally. But it just hasn’t panned out in terms of candy. And I’ve read a few articles about the fat-free stuff.

Well, it should be the fat substitute, which didn’t get me too excited about trying it. But I’m not sure whether some of you read those articles or not. We’ll keep looking, Peter, I appreciate it.