>> my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer! welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, i'm just trying to make you a little money. my job isn't just to entertain you, but educate you so call me at 800-743-cnbc. on a not so hot day for the

market, dow backslid nine points, the s&p declined .3%, and the nasdaq dipped 1.4% and maybe it's time to stop fretting so much about tomorrow's big, bad fed event. i can tell you the ceo of boeing, jim mcnerney, isn't worried about what the fed might do, and who runs 3m isn't going let it get in his way for growth. the co-ceos of whole foods will be riveted to tomorrow's 2:00 p.m. release describing the fed's plans for the economy. they're too busy opening stores and making money for the stakeholders. i bet you they'd rather man the register. so, if they're not worrying, why should we? in other words, let me ask you a question. has the fed become our version of "inside baseball?" all of the writers and all of the pundits and the blogs, are we simply wringing our hands

over the equivalent of the infield fly rule? are we focused like a laser on the cover two defense or the pick and roll? rather than thinking about the actual teams themselves? i found myself struggling to answer these questions because while there is no doubt in my mind that it matters and it's trading, i keep wondering can the fed's pronouncements impact investing for the long term? for that, i am far less certain. consider the action this morning. we got good news, lasting news from four great american companies, boeing, 3m, honeywell and whole foods. boeing announced a 50% increase, bringing the yield to a 2.7%, and along with the $10 billion buyback equal to 10% of the float. 3m announced a 35% dividend bump taking the yield to 2.6% and a huge boost in the buyback over the next three years. honeywell had confirmed an aggressive forecast that people had feared would be curtailed and instead it's on track to meet its targets despite government cutbacks.

chief executives at whole foods were supposed to fret about an increasingly natural and organic segment of the supermarket space, instead, they used our interview which you can see later to break news about raising the number of stores from 1,000 to 200 and one that calls into question, whether they're really concerned about cannibalization. these pronouncements did not impact the overall stock market and as we know it did nothing today. why won't the markets are in the throes of fretting. the market, not the stocks. these pronouncements didn't move the needle, if you're hanging on every word from ben bernanke, with the futures bids and ten-year treasury. >> buy, buy, buy. >> sell, sell, sell. >> however, they do impact the fortunes of investors who had the shortfalls in 3m of not long ago and the tales of economic weakness from honeywell and whole foods.

there are plenty of theoreticians who believe what happens in 3m, honeywell aren't what matter. they don't think they can pick out the names in the stock pin of the s&p 500. they contain some not so hot stocks because they firmly believe no one can prediction which stocks will get hot and which ones won't. they think trying to pick stocks is not worth the risk. it's better to accept mediocrity, and an asset class for fear that if you do it yourself you could end up in the wrong stocks. even though boeing is up 80% this year, 3m, is rallying 31% and whole foods is with 25%, they would still urge you to not take any chances, to stay in the index funds, even as the basket itself is much more hostage to the whims of the fed than individual well-run, well-managed companies. to me, the analogy as is often the case comes down to sports. these masters of markets would prefer that you back a team

that's playing .500 ball, an 8 and 8 team in football versus a team that can make the playoffs and go even further. what makes me so confident? what makes me feel that i've been more than just lucky that i've been pushing the stocks since the show began nine years ago. simple. one word. management. let me use these four stocks to talk about the bankability of management, something i wrote that comes out in two weeks. we know the players better, but we also know the players managed by the right coach can vastly outperform the sa me players managed by the wrong one. a bill belichick-coached team is better than one coached by someone who is acknowledged and feared. two harbaugh boys, they each continually win coin tosses and andy reid doesn't turn the 2 and 14 team which are the kansas city chiefs into an 11 and 3 game that has already locked up a playoff position, merely by chance.

all coaches, many all chief executive officers, are pretty much created equally and even if they aren't, there's no way to tell the good from the bad. they like to offset the good and the bad. so be it. inga, curtis, jerome mack and walter rob are the kinds of coaches you can get behind, great coaches that can lead their institutions through what happens with the fed or the next day after that, and these companies aren't constrained by the word of ben bernanke and janet yellen, for that matter. this is not about picking the stock of whole foods. i am not talking about boeing, per se. i am talking about this because i want you to own stocks you like, believe in and have done the homework on. i want you to participate in the great capitalist wealth creation engine by picking ceos you want to invest with, who are doing a terrific job of surfing long-term themes. what are the waves you'll be riding?

for boeing, it's the need for new planes that are fuel efficient because the cost of air fuel can eat up 50% of the budget, which is why you can't get a dream liner to 20/20. take a look at that deck. take a look at the slides they put out today. they had new products like film that enhances lcd panels, and they improved the energy-efficient abilities and reduced the composite materials. honeywell, it's seed planting and producing new products for airplanes and refiners and for whole foods? it's the pursuit of good foods that are healthy, organic and made, in the case of brooklyn, by local artisans and merchants who come together to create a gigantic farmer's market within a supermarket. i don't want to oversimplify the process. making money in stocks is real hard.

if you don't have the time or inclination to do the homework. i don't mind you investing in an index fund with a good long-term record. there's nothing you could do, but what i really don't want is for you to not get so overwhelmed by the notion that the fed may or may not taper the bond buying program that you stay away from stocks entirely because you feel it's just time to go home because it's too hard because you can't predict the fed. i don't want you to be shaken out by the fed either, whether they stop buying or do continue to buy, because it's not going to change with companies like boeing, honeywell, 3m and whole foods will do for you over time. the ceos won't let that happen. when you think about how many times you might have sold whole foods from its bottom in 2008 until now, just because you heard the fed might take some sort of action. that's pretty darn embarrassing. that's what's happened to so many people. i like all four companies and i want you to invest in it, but here's the real bottom line, you need to use the fear of these fed meetings and the disappointment about whatever the heck they're going to say as

an opportunity to -- >> buy, buy, buy! >> these stocks into any weakness, that of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with them or their managements, and that's how you make big money owning stocks for the long term. scott in georgia. scott? >> hi, jim. merry christmas boo-yah from atlanta, georgia. >> oh, man, right back at you. what's up? >> we enjoy following your charitable trust and enjoy what you and stephanie and your staff do. >> thank you. >> i learned about linco and establishing a position and now with the sec investigation behind it and with the merger closed i expect to see a bump in the stock, but it's down over a dollar since the merger and i am just interested in your insight and what's going on. >> i know this is a difficult situation and we talk about every stock constantly because that's part of what action alerts is about. and we were at 5:00 this morning and say someone is leaning online or leaning on link and there are people who want this stock down. is that a vast conspiracy? there are people that want to

knock it down. i'll take that near 10% yield and give it away to charity and i think you should hold onto it, too. the fed, the fed, the fed. what has fearing the fed done for you lately? if the fear spurs a sell-off tomorrow, look for the good stocks that are on sale. stop fearing the fed. start doing the homework and buying stocks. coming up, happy new year? the magic of the holiday season continues, and cramer's got more stocking stuffers that could present you with an opportunity for 2014. from where you deposit your cash to where you deposit your information online, two of cramer's favorite plays are coming up. and later, natural selection. from new york to naperville, organic grocer whole foods continues to grow, and today the company dropped a bombshell. >> we can do maybe 1200 stores in the united states at this point.

>> what does this mean for the future of the franchise? cramer puts you inside their new brooklyn location, just ahead. all coming up on "mad money." don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets. send jim an email to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc. miss something? head to madmoney.cnbc.com. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you: where does the united states get most of its energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.?

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♪ ♪ with the holiday season now in full gear, i've decided to get into the spirit of things, which is why all week i'm giving you a list of my absolutely favorite publicly-traded companies to use as stocking stuffers. stocks are the one gift that truly keeps on giving. sure there are better presents in the scheme of things and i'm sure some people would rather get an ipad air than shares in a company.

it will be obsolete, whereas the stock in a company with top-notch management can still make you serious money. it's a great way to start teaching them to manage their money responsibly, a subject they can also learn by grabbing a copy of my soon to be released "get rich carefully ." with that bit of self-promotion out of the way, let's get down to business. i'm only going recommend my absolute favorite companies as stocking stuffers. the companies stocks i like so much, i own them for my trust, which i run with co-manager, cnbc contributor stephanie link which you can follow along. last week i put a couple of industrials in your shopping list. i like them. ge and johnson controls, jci. tonight i have two more for you. a tech stock for those who don't want industrials, and a bank for those of you that like lowly worm stocks. if you want a company that's a

mobile and social, with a stock that happens to be darn cheap, i say look no further than google. at a time when red hot internet stocks have been absolutely roaring lately, google is the safer, more responsible and less expensive way to play the themes of mobile, social, and cloud, which is why we own it for the charitable trust. even though google is up 51% on the year, and i think you can put it on fabulous for 2014 as they continue to surge, growing at double digit rates. google is the sultan of the internet search business, responsible for 60% of all searches around the globe. 60, 6-0, not only do they control more than half the market, but that 6-0 figure is more than five times bigger than the next closest competitor and it makes google the king of online advertising. get this, 40% of all online advertising revenue in the united states goes to google. the company is a colossus. not only that, but google has an unparalleled understanding of the consumer, thanks in part to the search business, but also through android, its mobile

operating system, as well as chrome, its browser and the fact that it owns doubleclick, an online service, and not to mention youtube. dominance. all of which explains why google is growing like a weed. when the company last reported, they totally knocked it out of the park. google website sales, the search business growing by 23% year over year. a substantial acceleration from the previous quarter and international sales up 32%. i thought they were supposed to be weak over there! google's paid clicks, rose by 18% and another terrific acceleration from the 14% growth in the previous quarter. google has got a fortress balance sheet. 53.3 billion in net cash. giving them enormous flexibility to make all sorts of acquisitions and invest in the robot. going forward i expect the company to post earnings growth in the high teens, not too shabby and thanks to the advertising and yes, the motorola business and perhaps the best thing of all after google is that after all of that, it is still cheap.

yes, this $1,070 stock is cheap. it trades at barely twenty times estimates. it's growing in the 16% long-term growth rate and that may be too low. compare this to facebook which sells for 48 times next year's earnings estimates and google is much less expensive and even on a growth basis. i see the stock headed to 1,135 in the near future and perhaps higher in the next year and if that scares you, remember my rule of thumb. if you're intimidated by a $1,000 stock multiply it by ten and you may feel more comfortable owning it, and you own a stock going to $9.70. get adjusted to that division and you won't be so nervous about what really is an inexpensive stock. suppose you don't want a fast-growing tech stock. how about a play on an industry that's been stagnant for years, one that i expect to have a comeback with a vengeance in 2014. i'm talking about the banks, and

specifically bank of america, bac. another stock the charitable trust started a position. the banks benefit if interest rates rise. if the fed does decide to taper, stop buying the bonds tomorrow, that's a reason to buy the stock, not sell it although i am sure it will get hit. bank of america is one of the biggest banks in the country with leading exposure to everything from consumer, business, large enterprise and the company has a huge large enterprise business that the market will look upon more fondly now that the volcker rule is the law of the land and we can put the hand wringing behind us. bank of america is also extremely cheap versus the rest of the cohort. it's got a terrific turnaround thanks to management's restructuring efforts. the growth has been sluggish for some time and thanks to a rebound in commercial construction and the continual recovery in the job market. they've seen real pockets of strength. bank of america posted a 19% year-over-year growth in

commercial loans and on top of that is net interest income. that's the difference between the ultra low rates it pays for your deposits and the rising interest rates it charges for loans or that it invests in and that number increased by $100 million. wow! that's -- most banks did not have that kind of increase. management said it would rise by another hundred million in the current quarter, given commercial lending. sure bank of america still has legal issues and i'm not saying those are over, but the company reached a ton of settlements with states and regulators, and that means we can go back to evaluating the stock based on what i call normalized earnings stream, which is a big reason why i think it can go higher. it trades 1.1 times tangible book value. wells fargo trades at 1.9 times tangible book. is wells fargo really that much better? i can see the stock heading to $20. a 33% gain from these levels and

that's not much of a stretch, considering it was 19 1/2, and not even in the midst of the great recession. j.p. morgan was at 38. wells fargo, now at 43, and there's a huge amount of catching up for bank of america to do and take it from me, this is a much better bank than when it traded at $19. bottom line, google and bank of america, ideal stocking stuffers for the holiday season and beyond. let's go to fozzy in colorado. fozzy! >> hey, foz, here, jimmy. i just want to give you a big merry christmas boo-yah and talk more about yahoo. >> same thing right back at you, foz. >> the ali baba portion will be worth $50 billion. what do you think? >> i think it will be worth double that. i think it will be worth more than $100 billion. that is why i think people should still own yahoo. yahoo email and -- i don't care.

i think that yahoo is worth a substantial amount more than it is selling for, and that's because of the sum of the parts were s.o.t.p. stocks are the gifts that keep on giving. i've given you johnson controls and general electric, and i'm adding to my stocking google and bank of america. stick with cramer. coming up, whole foods opened its latest store in the heart of brooklyn, new york, today, and cramer got a sneak peek before the ribbon was cut. find out what surprises lie inside and on top of this store in cramer's exclusive.

you know that i think the natural and organic food theme is one of the strongest stories out there in the entire stock universe, but lately it seems everybody in the grocery business has been jumping on the bandwagon, even walmart, and that's got people concerned about the incoming player in the category, including best of breed's whole foods. that's a tremendous stock that's been up almost 1,000% over the last five years, and people are worried? look, at the end of september whole foods had 347 stores in the united states and another eight in canada and seven in the uk. while it beat wall street's earnings estimates by a penny

same-store sales still below the company's guidance as well as the analyst forecast, plus the company shaved down the near-term earnings outlook. the competition could be putting a dent into whole foods sales, which is why it's down nine points from its highs. as for me, i'm not concerned. whole foods is an incredibly well-run company that's doing pretty darn well for any marketplace, let alone any retailer and these new locations are doing incredibly well and it's accelerating those new store openings. just today whole foods opened its long-awaited new store in brooklyn on the banks of the gowanus canal, and i had a chance to check it out with the co-ceos of whole foods. take a look. >> we've got real excitement here, not just because you're opening in brooklyn, but you're upping the number of stores that you think this country can handle. 1,000 goes to 1200. >> the market continues to

evolve, just completely transforming. america is a different nation than it was when we got started 30 years ago. >> and this store is probably emblematic of the fact that you're not just opening a supermarket. this is anything but a supermarket. >> it's also a great point, because, jim, the opportunity for us here. we've been in new york for a number of years, but this is an exciting flagship opportunity in brooklyn, but we have opportunities not just in the existing market and there are lots of new market, as well. >> how is this store different from the other stores that you opened? >> it's got more of a green edge to it. we have the absorbing pavers and the solar and the wind and a hundred new local suppliers and a beautiful community feel to it. those are some of the aspects i think that set it apart. >> knife sharpening and all sorts of cool things going on here. >> also, on top of the roof we're going to have a 20,000 square-foot greenhouse where we'll be producing -- can't get more local than on top of the building, and it's going to be a hugely productive greenhouse. >> this is a borough that

remarkably has been underserved. are you part of the resurgence of a city that was kind of a second banana to manhattan? >> i think that's for others to say, but we're here to be participants in the community and help out. i think we'll lead to traffic, energy and excitement in the community. >> the brooklyn nets didn't move here from new jersey until after whole foods market had announced the new location. >> that's because we started on this project in the last century. >> will you have a better record than the nets? >> this is next to a place where the epa just a few months ago said this was one of the nation's most seriously contaminated bodies of water. a problem? >> we won't be getting our fish out of there. >> but -- >> and there is a lot of remediation and we've spent a lot of money to remediate this project. >> when i lived here for a part of the week and at one point during the summer the river was green and it smelled bad. what do you do if that happens again?

>> i think the authorities are working, investing and putting resources to continue to improve that, but in the meantime, we're taking our step here to open this store and contribute to stepping up in the community. >> brooklyn is one of the most dynamic of all of the communities in america right now. we're really excited to be here. >> you had no problem coming up with different local merchants who are part of this store. it's kind of a store within a store and there are enough little companies in brooklyn to create this. >> are you kidding me? there are so many companies. go down to williamsburg and just look at the energy and the things that are happening here, it's fantastic. >> one of the things that's happening across the united states is this complete renaissance of local food production. it didn't exist 30 years ago. we had a mass market. now we've got all of these artisan producers of food. it's very exciting. they're quality people producing quality products. >> brooklyn is the home of youth trade, which is this group of young people entrepreneurs, 20,

25 years old and there are 10 or 11 companies that started in brooklyn to produce product and create companies and a lot of those are trade partners for us, as well. >> how important is it to have those giveback days to get the community behind you? >> it's about establishing partnerships with a number of people in the community and it's uniquely whole foods. every quarter we do 5% to different groups and the team members here in the store select the organization. john and i don't select it. >> we're part of the community. we should be good citizens in every community that we trade in. we just think that's the right thing to do. >> do you think that this store can be a generator of jobs that can move the needle in brooklyn? not just within here, but in this area, which had been a warehouse district with not a lot going on? >> we created about 450 jobs. over two-thirds of them here are from brooklyn residents. >> one of the things that happens over time when whole foods comes into a marketplace

like this, not in the first year, say ten years from now, you're going see, this will be a very different area and it will continue to gentrify. other entrepreneurs will come in and you'll see housing developments and you'll look back and say, wow! things shifted when whole foods opened up. that's what's going to happen here. >> i think you will bring a certain spirit here. you walk in the store and you can feel the culture and you heard the rally meeting this morning and i think we'll bring that strength of culture and spirit to the community, as well. >> what is the prevailing wage here? there is a lot of talk. we're seeing fast food companies under attack because they don't their pay people enough. some of the large chains, we recognize that they have labor issues. what is the package if i come to work here? >> the starting wage is $10 plus, but the average wage is somewhere around $17 or $18, all in, including their four-week gain sharing check. we're more than competitive. we've been doing that for a number of years and we just

believe in team member happiness and excellence. >> we pay significantly above the minimum wage because we want to have quality team members and they work hard and have high productivity so we can afford to pay better. >> and the benefits, whole foods has been a leader for retail. >> say i'm a businessman on a conference call and an analyst on the conference call, and i'm saying if they didn't do this stuff, and the giveback and they didn't pay the 17 and they paid the 10, how much more lucrative they would be? did that make any sense at all? >> not really. that has the mindset that the stakeholders in an organization are competing with each other. so if one gets more, the other one gets less, and what we discovered is that they're all interdependent on one another. if we pay better but we have a higher quality workforce that gives better service, that helps our sales be higher. higher sales results in higher profits. one thing you can't question is whole foods market had a very successful business formula, so

i would say our strategy is working and the proof is let's look at the stock prices. >> i have to imagine with your package, you just don't have to train as many people as the other guy. our voluntary turnover is under 10%. >> when you're looking at companies, and we talked about this before, is when you invest in your team members the customer experience is better and the loyalty that you create with the team members is valuable. that results in lower turnover. >> this is part of who we are. >> we are all in this together. we have this philosophy of shared fate. we need our team members to flourish. as they flourish the business flourishes. it's not a win-lose mentality. it's a win-win-win business strategy. you stay right there. we'll be back with the co-ceos of whole foods in just a moment. coming up -- >> you also have a trial with google. is that something that if you go somewhere we'll be hearing about next year? >> are things about to get interesting for whole foods?

cramer has got more from the grand opening of its brooklyn location just ahead.

where does the united states get most of its energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

this morning i had a terrific opportunity to visit

the new gowanus whole foods, its first-ever whole foods in brooklyn in new york city and there are more than 2 million people there and it's the first whole foods. it is all about expanding to new locations and the company broke the news here that it will now expand to 1,200 stores in the u.s., trumping the old 1,000 store plan. wfm is also about something more important, our health. so take a look at the rest of my interview with whole foods co-ceos, john mackey and walter robb. >> customers know more about food, where it comes from, what's in it and the connection between diet and health. this store seems to be an homage to that whole conversation that you started. >> yeah. well, i mean, look at the situation in the united states right now. 69% of americans are overweight. 36% are obese. it's primarily because of the terrible diets that people eat, and yet there's a counter revolution towards healthier living, healthier lifestyle and

healthier diets. whole foods market has partly been successful because of that trend and we're partly leading that trend. >> if you look at the big picture of the $3 trillion and 80% of that is lifestyle related, it looks like a headwind's on the economy if we can get that thing turned around. not only would we have more growth, but we would have more personal vitality and energy. >> a big part of the health care crisis is the fact that we aren't taking good care of ourselves, and if we did, i mean, i spend almost nothing on health care and i'm 60 years old. why? because i have a very healthy lifestyle and eat a very healthy diet. i don't get sick and haven't been sick in years. >> whether they shop with us or somewhere else, this is a great thing. the fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh, healthy lifestyle is a great opportunity. >> let's talk about others. today you announced on the show that you're going to go to 1200, not the long-thought-about target of 1,000. you're opening stores more quickly than you ever have and the same thing in the last conference call, you talked about cannibalization and competition.

i'm trying to juxtapose those two. it seems like you should be opening fewer stores because of the competition. >> it's a good thing because it's a sign the whole market opportunity continues to grow and it validates why you think you can grow to a large number of stores. >> kroger, walmart, safeway, fresh market. >> yes, but nothing exactly like whole foods, which is not to say they're not great competitors. they don't have our quality standards. they don't show up in the marketplace exactly and they don't have our team member culture. this is the difference of whole foods with other competitors. >> the whole foods market is tremendously successful so we have more people trying to copy us. that's the dynamic of capitalism. we don't have any patents on what we're doing so people are copying us. that means we have to evolve quicker. this store is an example of that evolution. >> we like the challenge. we relish the challenge and it makes us better. we'll have evolve faster and innovate faster. >> we can't sit still. if you sit still in a dynamic

market like food retailing you'll get passed up, so we have to evolve quicker and create more value for our customers. we know we have to get our prices down while creating more differentiation. if we do that we'll continue to be very successful. >> in this store, do you have the strategic price match that you talk about? >> absolutely. that happened in the q3 and we're moving forward from there. >> okay. the last conference call also mentioned the "c" word, cannibalization, and everyone freaked out. the subtext was that's just something that starts in the first year. when you look at the second it goes away. is that still the case? >> well, in this case we were talking about cannibalization specific to certain markets like boston, where we made an acquisition. >> nine stores in six months. that's a lot. there's been cannibalization in that market. but on the anniversary, we'll probably show double digit comps as well as the new stores that we integrated.

so you'll get a slingshot effect and you will actually see that reverse, but in the short term it does impact company comps to a certain event. >> you have a buyback going on, and it seems like longer term, things will be fine. is this an opportunity for the store and the company to bring if stock while others are doing a woe is me about the attitude? >> you're talking about stock buyback? we just upped the authority, and i think we got three quarters of a billion in stock authority. we've been sort of disciplined about it and we have extra authority. >> we're returning some of the cash flow to the shareholders through dividends. we've upped our dividend 20% just recently and we'll continue to do stock buybacks and we'll probably increase that, as well as we're growing faster, so the best way to return the money to the shareholders is to grow more rapidly and then open more stores, because then you can compound your earnings better. >> where are we in the country? in the conference call, i always think whole foods and i don't worry about the economy, but you

brought up the macro weakness. is that something that you think is going to last a long time? are we a changed country, or is that cyclical? >> i think the opportunity for whole foods to grow and the healthy food space continues to be larger than any economic sort of headwind. it's a bit of an uncertain time with these factors and we're concentrating about how do we charge ahead. >> you know amazon is trying to build -- but you also have a trial with google. is that something that we'll be hearing about next year? >> we hope so. we have experiments in delivery which is going very well in the early stages and we'll have more to say about that. >> you have a delivery map and i happen to be in the blue zone, so i'll have no problem getting two hours. >> particularly we'll get you your food. >> we've been delivering in new york since we opened here a number of years ago, but so -- >> what's the state of

capitalism in the country? there are a lot of people who feel that maybe capitalism isn't the job generator, because we have such a high number of unemployment in this country. is capitalism working? >> capitalism works when you do capitalism. of course, what we do in the united states is we're moving away from capitalism. consider the fact that in the year 2000, the united states ranked number three in the world in economic freedom behind hong kong and singapore. last year we'd fallen to number 18. we are getting less economic freedom, and as our economic freedom declines so does the robustness of the economy. so does our gdp percentage. so in a sense, we are less capitalistic today than we were just 13 or 14 years ago. but if we look at whole foods, whose stock was at seven a couple years ago, it's emblematic how if you invest in people, you invest in stock. that seems counterintuitive that we're down to 18. >> we're coming off the

financial crisis where everybody's stock cratered and we were trading at two times the cash flow in 2008. so part of this is just a rebound to normal conditions. >> i think it's this new envisioning of capitalism and using the principles of john's book, which by the way, sold over 100,000 copies of his book and you ought to pick one up, it's this idea of the broaden sense of responsibility to your team members and your communities that you serve. to all of your stakeholders, and i think taking that sort of a long view, broader approach is a very healthy way forward. >> capitalism needs to be rethought. people don't trust business. business is seen as selfish and greedy and exploitative when in fact, business is the greatest value creator in the world, but we don't tell that story. business is always on the defensive and always being attacked. >> we weren't on the defensive here, and i want to thank you very much for changing the conversation. thank you, john mackey, co-founder and co-ceo and walter robb, co-ceo of whole foods. stay with cramer.

it is time -- it is time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." rapid-fire questions. [ indiscernible ]

play to this sound, and then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? it's time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." i want to start with rod in ohio. rod! >> hi, jim. how are you doing? >> good, how about you? >> i have my portfolio and i'm looking at a company called valero. valero makes a lot of sense and the glut in oil driving down the independent companies is good for valero, the nation's best refiner. jude in new jersey. jude? >> hi, jim, how are you? >> real good. how about you, partner? >> very good. looking forward to the holidays. i have a question for you. what do you think of hawaiian electric? >> that's one of the utilities i really like. honolulu feels the growth is being choked. i disagree, i'll take the 5% yield and wait for the great island to come back. i say mahalo. jerry in arizona. jerry!

>> mr. cramer, with the recent slide in viva systems, and i know it's one of your favorites, what is your feeling at this point now? >> the blogs are down on it, and i think it's a great salesforce.com platform stock. this is a company that has done some absolutely great customer relations management with pharmaceuticals and many data confirms, and i say buy, buy, buy. i'm not done. i'm going to pete in new york. pete! >> boo-yah, jim, from huntington, new york calling about emerson electric. >> emerson electric is one of my absolute favorites and it's an actionalertsplus.com name that is big in china, and i think it's going to have a dynamite 2014. let's go to vernell in north carolina. vernell! >> good afternoon, jim. thank you for taking my call. >> of course! >> from laid back carolina beach, north carolina. i've been a fan of yours for a long time. >> thank you. >> my question to you is a good

stock with dividends that i own is gd. >> general dynamics, i'll see your general dynamics and i'll raise you with lockheed martin. i think that one's better and i think it has more growth and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade.

is it a mere selling squall -- >> sell, sell, sell! >> or is it the real deal? that's what people are buzzing about if they own the kimberly-clark, and the general mills and cloroxes. with dividends yielding 3% and price to earnings multiples that are roughly seven times that. they're buzzing because these stocks are slowly, but surely headed lower. just one of these as opposed to -- but one of these none the these. the seso-called safety plays have been going up in bad times, because unlike more cyclical company, they keep chugging and then they continue to go higher when the economy improves because the fed still kept interest rates down so low that their juicy 3% yields looked bountiful for traditional income seeking investors who couldn't get much yield from bonds and were crying about it.

plus, consumer staple names, they don't sit still. they boost dividends. they buy back a ton of stock. "hallelujah" they try to innovate and take aisle space. they're aggressive in emerging markets and they restructure like mad. the health care segment of kimberly-clark. right now people who own these stocks are in a world of pain. >> the house of pain! >> is that the kind of pain that comes with a big, fast decline that can quickly inspire a bounce? nope. it is chinese water torture. a slow and steady drip down. the 43-cent trip where you have to decide whether you should cut and run and maybe get back in at lower levels or whether you should simply endure the pain, because it does seem like it's 43 cents here, 39 cents down, ten cents up. this is not an easy decision. in 1987, when i started my hedge fund i was very concerned about losing money, even more than i

was concerned about making it. that's how scared i was, and the japanese at that moment were, and the stock market was about to exceed the value of ours and we were all trying to own companies that couldn't be knocked off by the japanese or the chinese for that matter. i figured no one ever got a buy in heinz. hey, come on, there will not be chinese ketchup on the table, and then we caught a rotation out of the soft goods companies like heinz and into the alcoas and the u.s. steels because the economy seemed to be accelerating and nobody wanted that consistency of earnings and they wanted year over year gains of great magnitude. money always seeks out the greatest growth at that particular moment. please remember that. next thing you know, heinz is down 9%. it wasn't the heinz fund, but heinz was emblematic of the portfolio's exposure, and these stocks, as you know from am i diversified, they all tend to trade in lockstep one with another. given that the fund had a down 10% clause, the partners had a right to get the money back immediately. i sold the heinz and all of the

rest of these kinds of names and cleared my head and started over. i never underperformed like that again. it was the right move for a hedge fund because not only was i able to reconfigure, but those stocks didn't come back into play in a positive play until the crash of '87 when people felt we were headed for a recession. it was a valuable lesson. these stocks are simply terrible. they're terrible trades when the economy heats up, but are they terrible investments? a-ha. important distinction. and i think the answer is that these kinds of stocks are good investment, but only if you think long term, and that's why this is such a torturous moment. stocks like heinz and we did no more than trim, because we don't want to give up on solid stocks, even as we recognize the pain we could have on the rotation horizon. my trust can't flip. we aren't that nimble. if you own these kinds of stocks, you must accept that there's more drip ahead and the

economy's better, or you can bolt and bet that you can get back in lower tomorrow morning, you sell. i would say stay the course. i wouldn't take that tomorrow morning's sell strategy. you're not a hedge fund and you don't have a down 10% clause, but if you can't take the pain of this water torture, then by all means, sell some of the staples and move on, because history says they may not turn around any time soon. stick with cramer.

thanks to the terrific people at whole foods who made our experience so great in brooklyn. i'm jim cramer and i will see you tomorrow! [snapping photos] ♪ (female #1) wanna do one on his lap? ♪