The Real 'Cane Play: Gillette's Batteries
This column was originally published on RealMoney on Aug. 29 at 10:33 a.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.
You want a hurricane play? You feel like you have to buy the stocks of shingle and decking makers? Window makers? Makers of hammers? Give me a break.
Those simply don't even register on sales, and many of those companies have so many other things going wrong that you can't profit from just Hurricane Katrina's effect.
No, the pure play is really a simple one, and while it won't matter, it won't hurt either: Go buy
Gillette
(G) - Get Genpact Limited Report
.
Anybody who was on what I hope will be the last Gillette call because of the pending merger with
Procter & Gamble
(PG) - Get Procter & Gamble Company Report
knows that the real hurricane play is
batteries
. That's what people stock up on, and they use 'em, too! (There was a tax-free hurricane preparedness option in Florida that really did help sales markedly, but the real thing beats any tax-free program.)
On that last call, Gillette was actually downbeat about batteries because it doubted that it could have as "good" a hurricane season as it did last year. One look at the television shows that such downbeat projections are going to turn out to be wrong.
You know what I like about this play of buying Gillette? Unlike all of the others that I am hearing, including all of these retail plays, the
TheStreet Recommends
Fed's
with you on Gillette because it's doing everything it can to slow the economy. That helps the
insurers, who benefit from anti-inflation plays, and P&G, which benefits from a slowdown in the gross domestic product. So, this idea has an actual basis, not just anecdotal news stories.
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At the time of publication, Cramer was long Gillette.
James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for
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