Jean's Blog
Eating All Our Lunches From The Hot Dog Carts…
Posted by Jean
Yes, that’s a line from Little Shop of Horrors — the score from which has been running through my head for the last three weeks (that’s what happens when you see two high school productions and one college one inside of a six-day period). I thought I had actually gotten rid of it — replaced, you’ll be happy to know by Rock Me Amadeus, the song that runs through the new movie Adventureland, which I saw over the weekend — but no.
On the front page of the Wall Street Journal today is a story about the explosion on the hot dog stand business, not in urban centers but in small towns. The carts represent a relatively small investment. The product, since it’s pre-cooked, represents fewer health department hurdles. (Wait ’til they see the scene Adventureland where Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig decide to, what the hell, cook and serve the corn dogs they forgot to refrigerate 24-hours earlier.) And the folks doing it are feeling pretty good about taking their economic prospects into their own hands.
It got me to thinking, particularly as the new jobs numbers were released today by the US Department of Labor:
In the week ending April 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 654,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 674,000. The 4-week moving average was 657,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 658,000.
What would you do if your job was next? What would you do if you were asked to take a salary cut? Would you go along for the ride? Or do you have a plan B? Many people do.
The hot dog entrepreneurs weren’t the only — or even the most heartening — story in today’s papers. The New York Times reported on a woman named Donna Young who was raised in the Bahamas. For extra cash, she used to send her sister back in Nassau women’s clothing and accessories that she purchased at a discount here to resell over there. Then her sister moved to a part of the Bahamas where there was a clear need for designer and bridge women’s clothing and they supercharged their efforts. Now they’re selling $2500 worth a week, turning a profit and thinking about looking for larger space.
All it takes is an idea. What’s yours?
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