Ed Aaron Quotations

Whole Foods has become, obviously, a Wall Street darling in the recent past and for good reason.

Certainly Katrina eliminated boating activities in that part of the Gulf Coast, but for West Marine, 15 stores were directly affected by the hurricane. Last year, they had 60 stores in the path of major hurricanes, and it affected earnings by about a penny. At least with respect to the hurricanes, it should be less (of an impact) than what happened last year.

In some years, we see the boating season just being delayed, and they might be able to make it up later in the year. Based on the tone of the last earnings call, I?m not expecting to see a spike for them in the third quarter. The next big question is: What is 2006 going to look like in terms of how the boating season shapes up and how successful will these new initiatives be that the management is waiting on?

If you look at the company's track record, it's hard to argue with. Over the last decade, they've been consistently the fastest-growing RV manufacturer.

They have done it by really knowing their customers better than perhaps probably any other food retailer,