What The New York City Caricature Vendor Hustle Can Mean To Your Bottom Line

Sign reads: “Need money for
 beer, pot and Hookers.  At least
 I’m not bull shittin you!

It’s been quite an interesting month for April and I.  First of all we spent Memorial Weekend in New York City.  We typically like to visit the city a couple times a year. We really enjoy plays and the city ambiance.

There is no city in the world quite like New York City. The simultaneous smell of roasted nuts, hot dogs, shish kabob, and urine all combined in one aroma only NYC can bring you!  We stayed in Time Square — a half block from where the Times Square car bomber parked his SUV.  Right in front of Toy’s R Us.  

What was remarkably amazing is that one of the street vendors on that corner was not even aware of the whole car bomber incident.  How do I know?  I asked him.  He was like . . ."What are you talking about.”

I just paused . . . looked at April and said “Geez, dude would have just been dead.”  

Of course, being a marketer, I always try to see the marketing lesson in everything I do and I will tell you one that I is quite clever are the street vendor caricature artists. 

  

You walk by them and they will say “Caricature five dolla!”  Of course, you’re thinking “Five bucks, that’s cheap.” 

Here’s where they get you . . .

The frames are twenty bucks!

As a tourist you can’t travel with your picture not in a frame it will get wrinkled.  They bottom up sell you.  How clever, but is it really. 

It’s the same concept with a free trial offer, eh?  Pay only $6.95 now and we will process your order for $57 for the balance.  Only the street vendor tells you after the fact.  You can of course turn down the card board frame, but no one ever does.

Perhaps.  Here’s what I mean.  April and I were chilling in Time Square one of the evenings when we saw a young guy with a Mohawk holding a sign that read “Homeless, Broke, and Just Looking for Some Weed.”

Shaking my head. Only in New York.  

We saw a Cop approach him and tell him he had to move.  Probably within five minutes the same Cop walked by us and I asked him about the “Weed Dude.”  He laughed.

He told us pan handlers can’t loiter, they have to move.  We talked about the “Naked Cowboy.”  Here’s what was amazing . . . April and I saw this drunk pan handler with a sign that read  “Please donate so I can stay drunk on beer.” 

The cop said that guy has been in New York for years pan handling and took all his money from pan handling and purchased a $75,000 home in Pennsylvania.  Amazing!

At least if you’re going to pan handle, give people a chuckle and they will be more inclined to donate, if for anything your gall. 

Most evidence confirms that panhandling is not lucrative, although some panhandlers clearly are able to subsist on a combination of panhandling money, government benefits, and money from odd jobs.  However, if I were you, I’d keep my day job.