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How Much Do Hot Dog Vendors Make, Anyway?
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 14, 2009
Modified Aug 14, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 14, 2009
Modified Aug 14, 2009
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The recent eviction of Pasang Sherpa—the hot dog vendor who was booted from outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art after refusing to pay the full $643,000 a year rent to the Parks Department—got us thinking: Why didn't we major in hot dog vending? The previous permit holder outside the museum paid $415,000 annually and didn't go under, so one imagines there's a tidy profit to be made there or other tourist magnets around town. But street vendor advocacy groups tell Slate that selling dogs isn't as glamorous as it might seem, and most food vendors make just $14,000 to $16,000 a year after they've paid for permits (and, inevitably, a few tickets). Vendors on city streets (not the ones at or near park areas) pay $200 a year for the permit, but the city caps the number of permits at 3,100, creating an extensive black market. Some unscrupulous companies buy up permits for dozens of carts and then lease them to individual vendors at highly inflated prices. And now there are these fancy new food trucks horning in! Kenny Lao, an owner of the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, says his life was threatened by other vendors he opened flast year, telling the Times, "The old vendors are edgy."
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hot dog
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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