Hot Dog Economics

The other night, Aramis and I ended up at a Gray's Papaya joint and were about to devour some dogs.
I struck up a conversation with one of the guys manning the counter...

Porthos - "How many dogs do you sell in a day?"
Worker - "In today's climate, 1500..."
Porthos - "Fifteen Hundred?!"
Worker - "Yah, just about that... "
Porthos - "What the... What about on your busiest day of the year?"
Worker - "On Halloween, we do about 10,000."
Porthos - "Holy Shit! Ten Thousand hot dogs?!"
Worker - "Yah" (With a smile)


















Here's some simple math.
You get 2 Hot Dogs and a Drink for $4.75
It used to be $2.75 a few years ago, and then $3.50 about last year. Now it's a wopping $4.75.

Breakdown at $4.75 per set of 2 dogs.
1,500 Hot Dogs = $3,562.50
4,000 Hot Dogs = $9,500
10,000 Hot Dogs = $23,750
And it's safe to say the wholesale food cost for 2 hot dogs is less than 50 cents.
(About 10% food cost)

Just to put this into perspective...
There's over 15,000 restaurants in Manhattan alone. And the average 60 seat bistro in NY is lucky to bring in $8,000 of business a night.
Nobu 57 in Midtown New York City does about $30,000 a night. This is probably one of the busiest restaurants in the city.
They employ 30 chefs and cooks, 50 waiters, and 6 managers. Not to mention they pay Midtown rent for a gigantic 275 seat capacity restaurant furnished with custom made seats, tables, counters, bars and just about everything else they keep on premise.
Food cost is well above 30% so therefore the $30,000 of food and drinks sold every night, only $20,000 is left to divy up between 80 workers, a considerable overhead capital, prime real estate rent, and an alcohol license, to name a few.

On the other hand, at Gray's Papaya, you can operate comfortably with 6 people. 2 cooks, 2 cashiers, and 2 doing prep. No fancy furniture, no mess with liquor licenses, no reservations to deal with, and definitely no nasty customers to bitch and moan about bad-service or if the Miso Cod is a little cold or too dry.

Just goes to show, image isn't everything.
The hot dog peddler plays an important role in society and can also make a very good living.