ClaimsWarren Buffett

“the company now employs probably 10,000 people”

Warren Buffett, Berkshire CEO 15 December 2020 CNBC Transcript: Buffett and David Solomon (Dec 2020) (CNBC) archived copy

Factual Their own work or organisation

The company Mrs. B started at the Furniture Mart now employs probably 10,000 people.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

What would count as true or false

The measure is total employees of Nebraska Furniture Mart (the company Mrs. B founded), including all its stores and affiliates such as R.C. Willey only if the claim's 'company' clearly covers them, as of December 2020. The claim is hedged ('probably'), so it is not held to an exact figure. True: headcount is about 8,000–12,000. Mostly true: 6,500 to under 8,000, or over 12,000 to 14,000. Mixed: 5,000 to under 6,500, or over 14,000 to 17,000. Mostly false: 3,000 to under 5,000, or over 17,000 to 25,000. False: under 3,000 or over 25,000.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (2)

  1. E1 Nebraska Furniture Mart foresees growing pains in Omaha Nebraska Examiner · 25 January 2022

    “According to NFM, the company employed more than 2,000 people in Omaha in 2020 with a $104 million local payroll.”
  2. E2 Nebraska Furniture Mart Selects Workforce Software for Its Retail, Warehouse, and Corporate Employees Marketwired (press release distributed via Yahoo Finance), issued by WorkForce Software · 1 March 2016

    “"Nebraska Furniture Mart's workforce is more than 5,000 strong, and we're pleased to offer a solution to that addresses their diverse needs," said Michael Jepsen, senior vice president of sales, WorkForce Software.”

Reasoning

E1 reports that NFM employed more than 2,000 people in Omaha in 2020, but that covers one market only and gives no company-wide total. E2 puts NFM's workforce at "more than 5,000" in March 2016. That is a lower bound from almost five years before the claim date and could fit several verdict bands. Neither source gives total NFM headcount as of December 2020, so the criteria cannot be applied.

Cite this claim

Warren Buffett, “The company Mrs. B started at the Furniture Mart now employs probably 10,000 people.” (said 15 December 2020). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_f0c5892efaf5, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_f0c5892efaf5

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Warren Buffett, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

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All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.