Buffett once compared Coca-Cola $Coca-Cola(KO)$ and McDonald's, believing that both are good businesses, but that Coca-Cola has a deeper economic moat, while McDonald's needs to run promotions and give away gifts to attract customers. The exact timing of Buffett's comments is unclear (it was probably around twenty years ago), and unexpectedly, consumer preferences for Coca-Cola have changed. Meanwhile, McDonald's has been expanding, and over these twenty years, McDonald's stock performance has outpaced that of Coca-Cola.
I tend to think that Buffett overlooked a very important point: he underestimated McDonald's global expansion, while Coca-Cola had already reached its peak global penetration twenty years ago.
If you had to choose between investing in McDonald's or Coca-Cola over the next twenty years, I believe McDonald's certainty as an investment is slightly better than that of Coca-Cola.
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