A $30.00 hot dog? I'd cry too if I dropped it.
Posted on 06/07/2015 11:30:22 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m shocked by one aspect of the story of the guy selling $30 hot dogs to tourists near the World Trade Center — shocked that he was fired. Who knew hot-dog men could be fired?
As for that other detail — selling a hot dog for considerably “more than it’s worth,” so what? Apple makes a huge profit on every device it sells. Does anyone think Apple is guilty of “price gouging”? Moreover, a hot dog is guaranteed not to shatter when it falls on the sidewalk, and I’ve never had to reboot my sauerkraut. No hot dog has ever been rendered obsolete by a new model that has a slightly thinner bun.
Hot-dog guy Ahmed Mohammed — let’s be accurate and call him Hot Dog Hero — was simply exercising his right to sell stuff in the marketplace for whatever he can get for it. Why begrudge him a large markup if he took advantage of the fact that some people are stupid? Taking advantage of stupidity is an important driver of the economic engine. Without taking advantage of stupid people, how would haute-couture designers sell a couple yards of shiny fabric for $2,000? Without taking advantage of stupid people, how would the New York State Lottery rake in $3 billion in profit? Without taking advantage of stupid people, how would the Franklin Mint have sold off millions of dollars worth of plastic copies of Jackie Onassis’ plastic pearls? If the stupidity were ever wrung out of the system, our economy would be the size of Bangladesh’s.
All of these stupid people are exactly what Hot Dog Hero’s “victims” were — willing customers....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I once worked for a company which sold equipment to overseas companies. The mark-ups used were unbelievable. ;-)
There is a restaurant here in Houston which sells $20 hamburgers. LOL
Was it a sabrett’s? They are worth $30. Wouldn’t pay more than $25 for a Nathan’s
“reboot my sauerkraut” HAHA
Was it a Papaya King?
“Agree. “
Agree that the boss was pissed about his unethical conduct ruining the name of the BOSS’s business?
Agree that it was ok for him to rip off his BOSS!
Agree that that the BOSS wouldn’t be pissed off about learning this on TV!
“He is a socialist hero. He took from each according to their ability and gave to himself. “
Not a good socialist. He ripped off his boss.
No, I agree that any product or service is worth whatever you can get for it.
“Who knew hot-dog men could be fired? “
His boss knew.
A $30.00 hot dog? I'd cry too if I dropped it.
The ONLY reason that they shut this guy down is that he didn’t grease the right palms of the right politicians. NYC is like the soviet union when it comes down to business goes like this: If you don’t pay off the right businesss interests and politcians, then you don’t do business in the city.
This is common practice in cities nationwide, not just NYC.
If you challenge that fact, then you’ll more than likely you’ll become just another unresolved murder statistic.
I heard from some people in Biloxi years ago that the man who owns the majority of the carts on the Gulf Coast (New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, etc.) would hire winos and other bums and not allow them to stop working until they’d made a specified amount of money.
“I heard from some people in Biloxi years ago that the man who owns the majority of the carts on the Gulf Coast (New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, etc.) would hire winos and other bums and not allow them to stop working until they’d made a specified amount of money.”
The typical operation we see is some ‘homeless shelter’ providing free room and board in exchange for working the intersections.
One ‘home’ in the Tampa area is suing Tampa for lost ‘revenue’ since the ordinance was passed to only allow panhandling on Sundays.
We have $20 burgers in LA too LOL. The good thing is that they nuke the bastards in front of you which is different from that microwave “burger” from McD’s.
“The ONLY reason that they shut this guy down is that he didn’t grease the right palms of the right politicians. “
HuH! His boss fired him when he saw what he was doing on TV. He was ruining the BOSS’s reputation AND ripping the BOSS off!
In New Orleans, they have the Lucky Dog vendors. They are all winos. Never tried a Lucky Dog. I was too afraid...
But getting the law involved? No. IMHO, a fundamental part of the way America used to operate was relying on a self-policing society. If somebody cheated at cards, other patrons tossed him out. If somebody played fast and loose with the preacher's daughter, the locals ran him out of town. These days people can't even take a dirty look without running crying to "the man." Keep the law out of it.
“I fired him over it yesterday after I watched the news,” said Abdelbaky, whose father owns the food cart and vending license.
“He told me he charged the people $2 a hot dog. He lied to me.”
Abdelbaky said the vendor pocketed the extra dough — and left his family with hundreds of dollars in fines to pay off.
http://nypost.com/2015/05/22/vendor-fired-for-selling-tourists-30-hot-dogs/
I believe in the free market but he stole from his employer.
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