Buy stocks like you buy your groceries, not like you buy your perfume.

The line contrasts two consumer mindsets. Groceries are typically bought with price-sensitivity and comparison-shopping because they are necessities purchased repeatedly; perfume is often bought as a discretionary luxury, where branding, emotion, and impulse can outweigh value. Applied to investing, the quote urges treating stocks as items to be acquired when they are sensibly priced relative to their underlying value—rather than chasing fashionable, “glamour” companies at any price. It aligns with Buffett’s broader value-investing stance: focus on fundamentals, demand a margin of safety, and resist the psychological pull of prestige and excitement in markets.