Would I want to be a customer? an employee?

Well, I suppose I am an occasional customer. Although we seem to use UPS more routinely at work, I don't have a stronger loyalty to one shipping company or the other, and have never had any major problems using either FedEx, UPS or USPS. As far as employment, I am not sure. In the first quarter 2011 earning call, the Fred Smith discusses the company's People-Service-Profit philosophy in response to questions about consolidation of FedEx freight, which involved closure of some facilities and a reduction in headcount. If I worked there I would definitely want to already have high seniority.

Most Interesting...

What I found most interesting was the story of FedEx founder Fred Smith. According to wikipedia, he wrote a paper "outlining overnight delivery service in a computer information age" for an economics class at Yale, had spent time as an amateur pilot, and was later a forward air controller in the Marines before eventually investing in an aircraft maintenance company and then founding Federal Express. He did have the advantage of inherited wealth as starter money...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith

Stock Price Update and progress since August 27

FedEx's stock price is at 93.99, up 2.87. Comparing to August 27, it is up 13.53 from 80.46, so I would be glad to be an investor in FedEx stock. A $1000 investment would have bought 12.4 shares, returning $168 over about 3 months.