Dogged Pursuit: Professionals Find New Livelihood Selling Frankfurters

APRIL 9, 2009

Dogged Pursuit: Professionals Find New Livelihood Selling Frankfurters
As Gloom Spreads, Carts Sprout All Over; The Guajardo Family's Stand in Texas

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
WSJ

BANDERA, Texas -- In hard times, some small-town Americans are turning to a new livelihood with relish. Among them are Andrea and Ben Guajardo. They began selling hot dogs from a pushcart on Main Street in November. Ms. Guajardo is a grant administrator for a health-care system. Her husband, Ben, is a pipeline operator. Theirs is the first hot-dog stand in Bandera, pop. 957, that anybody here can remember. Facing pay cuts and weakened job security, more Americans are turning to this century-old, big-city trade in outposts like Bandera, where cowboys on horseback share the road with motorcyclists. Many of these vendors are working professionals with day jobs, ranging from real-estate agents to train operators. Sales of carts, which start at about $2,000 new, have heated up in the past year. "Every model is...taking off," says Joel Goetz, owner of American Dream Hot Dog Carts Inc. in St. Petersburg, Fla. Since January, he has sold about 25 carts a week, 15 more than usual.

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Today's cart buyers are generally older and have more white-collar work experience than was traditionally the case, says Will Hodgskiss, president and "top dog" at Willy Dog Ltd., a New York cart manufacturer. "People are either buying these carts in anticipation of a layoff or to supplement their incomes," he says. Willy Dog's sales are up 30% from March 2007.
Street Food of Choice Hot dogs are the street food of choice for vendors because frankfurters are sold precooked and therefore tend to undergo less scrutiny from state and city health departments. They're also popular. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans typically consume seven billion hot dogs, according to the American Meat Institute's National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.

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A 25% increase in year-over-year cart sales has prompted one manufacturer, All American Hot Dog Carts Inc., to offer classes in how to succeed in wiener work. Later this month, Hot Dog University will cover everything from the right way to squirt mustard (in a swirling motion with a quick flick of the wrist) to how to heat up buns (steam them over the dogs for two minutes before serving). Then there's the art of the sell. "You got to schmooze people," says Louie Di Raimondo, the Miami company's founder and self-appointed hot-dog king. A skilled cart dealer in a pedestrian-heavy area can net up to $400 a day, say many vendors and cart-company officials. Newer dealers and those in less-ideal locations make one-third to half that amount. Weekend and event-only vendors, like the Guajardos, say that when the weather is good, they too can turn a hefty profit.

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For others, hot-dogging is a stopgap. Real-estate investor Marty Katzenberger turned to it after the housing market tanked and he couldn't sell any of his properties. "I found that I'm a little clumsy with my hot dogs," says the 72-year-old, who withdrew $4,200 from his retirement savings to get started at a Sarasota, Fla., beach resort. Mr. Katzenberger, who generates an average of $150 in profits a day and works five days a week, says he's considering moving to a new location to boost his earnings further. The work -- which requires hours of standing -- can be quite an adjustment for people accustomed to sitting behind desks at 9-to-5 jobs. There's also a lot of preparation and cleaning involved. Then there's the growing competition. Many small cities and towns have never had to worry much about enforcing laws that limit the number of pushcarts -- until now.

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Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

but I'm prone to commenting to anyone who's just taken their first bite of street-vendor food "I wonder where those guys pee."

as a manufacturing job.