Debut
So the cart is out. July 5th was the first night, and I went out to the corner of Ludlow and Stanton. We (I had help from Mol and my Mom) got the cart there by 11 or so, and I called it a night at about 2:45.
I felt pretty good out there, and there was a fair amount of interest, but I didn't actually succeed in selling anything. Not one single thing. A lot of people commented on the cart (though mostly not to me), saying things like "Oh, cute!" and "look!" One asain woman thought it was "hilarious" that I was selling Korean-style barbeque. Two people asked for hot dogs. But no sales.
Looking back on it, I guess I kinda had to believe that once I got out on the street there would be some sort of explosion, an immediate apprehension of what I was trying to do, an instantaneous understanding of how food-carts can build urban culture and enchant the urban landscape. I had to believe this just to put in the effort it took to get through the regulatory process with the city, and to have the strength of conviction it took to persuade my parents to lend me the money, and to keep in mind the hope I have for our city and the trust in my fellow New Yorkers. At the same time, it was wildly optimistic. Life is a gradual release from ignorance, and like so many unexamined assumptions we hold in our minds, this belief was useful as a placeholder, but can now be usefully discarded.
Like every other part of this project, it looks like building a market for the foodcart is going to be a struggle...OK. "It is what it is" -- this phrase is getting a lot of use these days.
Accentuating the positive, the technical difficulties have been steadily yeilding to our problem-solving abilities. The equipment was much more difficult (and less fun) to get a hold of than we originally thought, but we have finally gotten most of what I will need. We went out for a test on the 2nd of July, and technically it was a little...ahem...rocky. We are very lucky we had Jeremy to help us bring our materials down to the lot, because although we had the foresight to get a hand-truck (and a nifty folding one, at that) , we had a very murky idea as to how were were going to put the stuff on the hand-truck. We thought it would just sort of, well, go on. But collections of oddly-shaped items in plastic shopping bags do not stack at the best of times, let alone on a bumping, jerking hand-truck. We have since bought a large plastic tub to put the heavier stuff in, and a styrofoam cooler to put the meat in. It works much better.
I took the cart out for the second night at an experimental location on Avenue A between 7th and 8th streets, this time with more signage and a few hot dogs. Other than a slight altercation with a guy at the news-stand, who didn't want me to park on "his" sidewalk, resolved by a 10 yard move down the avenue, and some minor friction with some guy who insisted I had "big balls" parking near the Odessa Restaurant because "they pay taxes," it went pretty good. I made a few sales totalling $16, and this was on a Tuesday! But it is a long way to push the cart.
That is all I have to report so far...I am still processing the emotions of this as opposed to other jobs I have had, but I need more input to really make anything more than guesses. I am going out again on tomorrow (Friday the 11th) at the Ludlow/Stanton intersection. I will try to get to the location by 10 or 11, and stay until 4 or 4:30. More dates, more data..
Posted by Sam at July 10, 2003 10:47 PM
