This video was made possible by Squarespace. Build your website with Squarespace for 10%
off at Squarespace.com/HAI. 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.
Gotta say, hot dog carts really lost their charm when they started charging $73 for a hot dog with no napkins because go fuck yourself.
Damn they’d need to sell about 800/day every day to break even. I guess it’s worth it but damn.
I don’t believe that a hot dog vendor can make so much
Visited the Met the other day, single guy manning a hot dog cart and halal food cart side by side, wouldn't expect he could've spent about a million on those two spots alone.
Yeah, it's bs.
NYC should allow a lot more streetfood.
Uber disrupted taxi licenses. I wonder who will disrupt this? Sounds like a great way to limit competition and offer a shittier product
Interesting fun facts. You shouldn't eat hotdogs in general though.
I would also like to know hear about the halal stands and those stands that just sell fruits that are always there all night. I wonder how they compare to the hotdog stands.
I stayed through the whole video to see if there was an upper limit to my ability to hate another human being for being annoying, smug and unfunny.