53K a month to sell hot dogs

NotaSuv
NotaSuv Posts: 3,849
edited August 2009 in The Clubhouse
Damn maybe not to bad to say "My Dad sells hot dogs for a livin"


A hot dog vendor was kicked from the curb outside New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art last week for failure to pay his monthly rent—of $53,558. Pasang Sherpa was under contract to pay the Parks Department $362,201 a year for a stand on the south side of the Met's entrance and $280,500 for another on the north side. That's a lot of hot dogs. With rent astronomically high, how much do New York City hot dog vendors actually make? It's hard to say. Neither the Parks Department nor the Health Department (which oversees food sales outside parks) requires vendors to report income. They don't bother calculating expected sales, either—in part because rent is set at auction (with vendors battling it out) rather than by the city. What we do know is that even though Sherpa, a rookie, got in over his head, vendors have long been willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to push $2 dogs outside the Met. (The museum attracts 5 million visitors a year, and the hot dog stands are the only food outlets for blocks.) Last year's occupant paid $415,000 a year for the Met stands plus at least $25,000 for supplies and labor, and didn't go under—so we can assume he brought in significantly more than $440,000. :eek:

Vendors on city streets (as opposed to outside park areas) don't have to pay rent for specific spots; their only real estate expense is the cart permit the city requires them to buy. Theoretically, that'll put you back just $200 a year. But since the city caps the number of food vendor permits at 3,100, far below demand, there's an extensive black market. Some companies buy up the permits for dozens of carts and then lease them to individual vendors at highly inflated prices.


THIS IS NOT FROM THE ONION.....................
Post edited by NotaSuv on

Comments

  • Airplay355
    Airplay355 Posts: 4,298
    edited August 2009
    Well with 5 mil a year that's about 416k a month so if everyone averages 1 hot dog at $2 a dog it would make sense. I say averages 1 hot dog because some people would buy none and some would pound 4. Soda and dogs with the works on them would probably help sales as well. Makes sense to me.
  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited August 2009
    Wow, I NEVER would have guessed there's that much money behind the hot dog stand business! :eek:
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
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  • thuffman03
    thuffman03 Posts: 1,325
    edited August 2009
    That is hard to believe. Do you have an url with this story?
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,806
    edited August 2009
    I read that yesterday and we did some math.

    Thousands of people go in and out of the Met every day, 7 days a week. We'll say 4,000 for giggles. If the guy gets just 10% of them to buy 1 hot dog for $2 a piece, that's $800 a day.

    If he works just 5 days a week, that's $4,000 a week. (This is all pre-profit revenue and pre-tax if they even report it). Take that $4,000 a week and multiply it by 52 weeks in a year and you end up with $208,000 a year selling hot dogs.

    Now if he works 6 days a week peddling tube steaks, it comes out to $4,800 a week. Multiply that by 52 and you get $249,600 a year.

    But that's just hot dogs, doesn't include drinks and side stuff.

    Then again, during the week, your business isn't just Met people, it's workers during the week too. You can bump that number up maybe 100 per day for those 5 days. So if you can move 500 hot dogs a day at $2 a pop, that's $1,000 a day. Multiply that by 5 days in a week and it's $5,000 a week. 5,000 times 52 is 260,000. If you work a 6th day and pull down 400 a day on that 6th day you can pull down another $21,000 of so in just hot dogs a year with your yearly total being almost $300K a year.

    I know I'm being conservative because it depends on foot traffic and there honestly are more than 4,000 people running around the Met every day. It's feasible to be able to handle $418K a year for a vendor license. Especially if you have multiple other carts with cheapy licenses elsewhere with lower levels of foot traffic still raking in 6 figures a year with 1/3rd of the sales that the Met location would provide.


    I'm startin' to think I'm in the wrong business!

    If you REALLY want to get sick, take a look at the numbers that Philadelphia "roach coaches" move in a year! One guy I know had 5 kids, put them all through college and paid cash from sellin' cheesesteaks and soft pretzels on the side of the road..
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
  • Gaara
    Gaara Posts: 2,415
    edited August 2009
    They don't bother calculating expected sales, either—in part because rent is set at auction (with vendors battling it out) rather than by the city. What we do know is that even though Sherpa, a rookie, got in over his head,"

    Supply/Demand, price is set by auction so they need to be making some dough for prices to go so high. Kinda like cab tokens.
    thuffman03 wrote: »
    That is hard to believe. Do you have an url with this story?

    Google is your friend -> http://www.slate.com/id/2224941/
  • thuffman03
    thuffman03 Posts: 1,325
    edited August 2009
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,163
    edited August 2009
    Just like they always say:

    LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Lot's and lot's of constant foot traffic.
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
  • thuffman03
    thuffman03 Posts: 1,325
    edited August 2009
    Gaara wrote: »
    Supply/Demand, price is set by auction so they need to be making some dough for prices to go so high. Kinda like cab tokens.



    Google is your friend -> http://www.slate.com/id/2224941/

    You beat me to the punch.
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,806
    edited August 2009
    thuffman03 wrote: »
    That is hard to believe. Do you have an url with this story?

    You don't need a URL, it's grade school mathematics.

    But if you must, here's a link: http://www.slate.com/id/2224941/

    And yes, the Met does attract that many people and it's in one of the busiest spots of NYC. The Met gets that much traffic but 3 times that are in and out of that area yearly. At $2 a pop, which is how much a hot dog costs with nothing on it from a cart, it's possible to push 7 figures if you have enough carts around the city.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
  • wizzy
    wizzy Posts: 867
    edited August 2009
    Jstas wrote: »
    You don't need a URL, it's grade school mathematics.

    Don't forget to add expenses in your calculations ... cost of hot dogs, cost of buns, insurance, cart repair, gas to get there and back, parking, etc. etc.
  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,806
    edited August 2009
    wizzy wrote: »
    Don't forget to add expenses in your calculations ... cost of hot dogs, cost of buns, insurance, cart repair, gas to get there and back, parking, etc. etc.

    That's why I stated it was revenue, not profit.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
  • strider
    strider Posts: 2,568
    edited August 2009
    Just heard that the little girl with the lemonade stand in California is taking over the spot.
    Wristwatch--->Crisco
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,461
    edited August 2009
    strider wrote: »
    Just heard that the little girl with the lemonade stand in California is taking over the spot.

    Hehe.....
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


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  • AudioGenics
    AudioGenics Posts: 2,567
    edited August 2009
    with every POLK AUDIO speaker you buy or sell
    a complementary hotdog and lemonade is included.... gladly pay next tuesday
  • wizzy
    wizzy Posts: 867
    edited August 2009
    jvc wrote: »
    gladly pay next tuesday

    Here's a clip from Robot Chicken (which if you don't watch, you should)

    It's a Wimpy & Popeye clip

    http://flimmr.passagen.se/movie/robot_chicken_j_wellington_wimpy.action
  • obieone
    obieone Posts: 5,077
    edited August 2009
    As bad as the permits outside the MET are, I wonder what they are outside Yankee stadium?:eek::confused:
    Especially, the NEW one:rolleyes:
    I refuse to argue with idiots, because people can't tell the DIFFERENCE!