Hey, folks! I love it when I get to share an inspiring story from a new hot dog vendor. The Central Whidbey Lions (CWL) shared their story, complete with costs, income, and photos!

First Day Selling Hot Dogs

Attached are photos of Central Whidbey Lions (CWL) first real outing with our Cater Pro cart. Our first offering under fire was at the Coupeville WA Farmers Market on May 6.

It takes us about 20 minutes to get everything loaded in a Frontier pickup with a 5′ bed and the trailer attached. At the site it takes about 30 minutes to get setup, fires lit and ready to serve hot dogs. Our menu was limited to Costco dinner dogs, Coney dogs (Walmart hot dog sauce and Ragu cheese sauce), chili, chips, soda, and bottled water. We sold out in about 2 1/2 hours.

We broke everything down, loaded up, and we're on our way home in 25 minutes. High temp pan liners made cleanup a breeze. We had planned to use just condiment packets. Some insisted on squeeze bottles. This plugged up the traffic flow with​ condiments (mustard, ketchup, relish and chopped onions) on top of the bun locker. We are adding another 4′ table with skirt to the rear of the cart.

Customers​ will then order, pay, get their dog at the front table and add condiments at the rear to create a continuous flow in a horseshoe pattern. Drinks are in soft ice chests on the inside of the horseshoe.

And the Money?

I just finished the total count of money from the sales. Here is the breakdown:

Total money in hand from sales – $752.00 (includes $350 for cash drawer)
Tips – $10.50
Expenditures – Costco receipt – $110.05 Space fee $5.00 – Total $115.05

Gross sales total -$402.00
Minus expenditures- $115.05
Profit $286.95

Great work, gentlemen. I walked around to the booths after you ran out of dogs and everyone said how good the hot dogs were and they were glad you were there so there was food. They remarked at how delicious and LARGE the dogs were and some had two of them.

Great Job!

I want to say congratulations to the Central Whidbey Lions Club on their successful launch, and thank them for sharing their photos, story, and numbers with everybody!