Why Tractor Supply Is One of the Most Interesting Retailers On the Planet

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

News, Investing, Business, News Commentary, Business News

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Tractor Supply Co. has grown from a small mail order business set up in the 1930s into the biggest farm and ranch retailer operating in the US. Along the way, its share price has soared from around $1 in the 1990s to well over $200 today. The company has managed to tap into a wave of enthusiasm for hobby farming, pet care and rural living, with its revenues jumping 70% between 2019 and 2022. So what accounts for the success of Tractor Supply, such that analysts have referred to it as "one of the most interesting retailers on the planet"? And can it keep up the rapid growth? In this episode we speak with Bryant University Trustee Professor of Management Michael Roberto, who just published a Harvard Business School case study on the company.

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Eric Schatzger, the editorial director of Bloomberg New Economy.
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0:25.0	Learn more about the Catalysts and what they're doing at BloombergNewEconomy.com slash Catalysts.
0:40.8	Hello and welcome to another episode of the All Thoughts podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
0:45.2	And I'm Joe Wyzenthal.
0:46.8	Joe, did you enjoy the tomatoes that I brought you?
0:50.7	For listeners, Tracy has an amazing tomato garden that she posts pictures of.
0:56.8	And I've become tomato obsessed over the recent years.
0:59.4	And today she finally brought me in a box of tomatoes.
1:02.4	I haven't eaten them yet as of this recording.
1:04.8	But Tracy, they look absolutely amazing.
1:07.3	Thank you. I appreciate that. They look so good. They exceed the hype.
1:11.0	Let me tell you, a lot of equipment goes into growing tomatoes.
1:14.9	So you look at the tomato and you think I have probably spent maybe 50 bucks
1:19.4	in tomato cages and fertilizer and compost in order to grow that one tomato.
1:25.2	How many hours of your labor?
1:26.9	Well, I don't count that. My labor is cheap. It's it's free for tomato growing.
1:32.0	But yes, it's like gardening. All that stuff is a lot of gear.
	...

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