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A hot dog is a cylindrical sausage derivative common in the United States and Canada.
Making one involves combining three elements—meat trimmings, preservatives such as nitrates,
and flavorings such as salt which you’re about to have plenty of after learning that
this guy, standing on the street corner selling hot dogs is probably making more money than
you.
If you’ve ever been to New York you know two things—that these hot dogs stands are
everywhere and your overdraft limit because New York is an expensive place.
You may know it as the Big Apple but, I mean, it should really be called the Big Apple Store
since everything costs so much and its filled with mice.
Ughhhhhhhh.
What the writer will never learn… wait that’s me.
What I will never learn is that moderation is key.
New York City knows this—they know that running food stands in such a dense place
is insanely profitable so, to prevent the streets from being overrun with hot dog peddlers,
they need to restrict the number of them.
They do so with licenses, hot dog licenses which are in… hot demand.
How it works is that there are 3,100 hot dog stand licenses in New York City, and that’s
it.
Those are for ones like this stand on 43rd street outside the Westin Hotel from which
I got the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had in my life.
I was… as sick as a dog.
Completely true story.
That’s because how these stands work is that they put hundreds of hot dogs in boiling
water at the beginning of they day and just leave them there until they’re sold and
then there’s really nothing stopping them from saving the unsold ones and putting them
back in the water the next day so please don’t eat a New York street hotdog unless, of course,
you want to recreate the purge.
Not the movie—that’s what I call the day I ate that dog.
These hot dog stands make a lot of money, we’ll get to that part, so some people have
been on the waiting list for a permit for up to 20 years.
For city park spots though, there’s no waiting list.
Instead, every five years, the permits go up for auction.
Classic supply and demand rules apply so since there’s a restricted supply and high demand
prices get high.
Really high.
Like, deciding between buying a Ferrari or a hot dog stand license high.
The least expensive license, though, is for here at Inwood Hill Park setting the owner
back $700 a year.
For most New Yorkers this is basically Canada so the foot traffic here isn’t great.
The owner has said he only makes about $3,000 to $5,000 a year from his cart.
Other cheap licenses are the $1,100 per year one for Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and the
$3,200 per year one for Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn.
Those don’t make much so they don’t cost much.
The most expensive licenses, though, are all for locations in Central Park.
This one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art costs $125,170 per year, this one just off
72nd street costs $233,000, and this one outside Tavern on the Green restaurant costs $266,850.
The grand prize of most expensive hot dog stand license in New York City, however, goes
to this one just outside the Central Park Zoo at $289,500 per year
Let’s do some quick maths.
At that stand a hot dog costs $2 and most drinks cost $2 too.
They also sell more expensive ice cream but let’s assume the average person spends $4.
Expenses aren’t high, a hot dog and bun costs about 75 cents at wholesale prices and
most drinks about 25 cents so $1 in expenses.
2 plus 2 is 4 minus 1 that’s 3.
Working from 8am to 10pm, 14 hours per day, if there’s a customer every three minutes
that’s $60 per hour, $840 per day, and about $300,000 per year meaning they’re already
breaking even.
If we just say that there is a customer every two minutes instead, the stand owner would
pocket $150,000 per year.
Now you can start to see how this can be so profitable.
In fact, the average income for New York hot dog stand owners is purportedly about $100,000
per year.
Don’t sell drugs kids, sell dogs.
What’s unbelievable, though, is that the Central Park Zoo stand isn’t even the most
expensive ever.
In most years that title has gone to the one at the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art who’s yearly lease has peaked at $415,000.
Whoever owned that license truly was… the top dog.
Wait wait wait… we know who, it was Pasang Sherpa who leased the spot for his company,
Himalaya Inc until they were evicted for failing to pay the lease and ended up with… a mountain
of debt.
At least for him… the dog days are over.
As we’ve established you’ve got to be one lucky dog to get a New York hot dog stand
license but I’m sure you, like everyone and their dog, either has or wants to have
a business, a podcast, a youtube channel, or something else.
Because of that, you need to stand out and a great way to do that is have a professional-looking
website but you don’t want to have to work like a dog to build yours.
You might be worried about building an ugly website but you don’t have a dogs chance
of doing so with Squarespace since their beautiful templates and customizable website builder
makes it easy to make something beautiful.
I am dog tired of people who don’t have websites because it’s just so easy to make
one especially because Squarespace is offering you, yes you, 10% off only by going to squarespace.com/HAI.
Hot diggity dog!
Make sure to check them out before commenting about how this show has gone to the dogs.