Gainful employment?

March 29, 2005 9:46 AM

Have you ever driven/operated an ice cream truck, coffee cart, burrito wagon, or the like? Was it a fun way to spend some time or just mind-numbing? Did you make any dough?
posted by gottabefunky to work & money (13 comments total)

Street vendors always look bored to me, but at least they're self-employed.

Have you ever driven/operated an ice cream truck, coffee cart, burrito wagon, or the like? Did you make any dough?

Dough would be a donut cart, gottabefunky.
posted by Shane at 9:56 AM on March 29, 2005

I drove an ice cream truck one summer. The truck was really hot inside and broke down all the time. I had a bad route and was constantly chasing the Good Humor guy who would cruise my streets before I got there. Someone unplugged my truck one night and all my ice cream melted. I think I made about 50 bucks that entire summer, all in nickels.

Still, I did it with my brother and we laughed a lot. It was worth it for the memories.
posted by gfrobe at 10:17 AM on March 29, 2005

Not especially thrilling, but this girl did: I Was An Ice Cream Man: Part 1 and Part 2.
posted by fandango_matt at 10:17 AM on March 29, 2005

I haven't, but I can tell you that the guys who ran the various cheese steak/hamburger trucks on my college campus made incredible amounts of money. They only worked three, maybe four nights a week (Thursday - Saturday), stayed open until probably 3am feeding drunk students. One guy did this for probably 20 years, and put his kids through college (where they likely spent his money on late night cheese steaks, thus completing the circle).
posted by schoolgirl report at 10:18 AM on March 29, 2005

I've done food concessions at street fairs and festivals. Selling any number of hot dogs, burritos, knish, deep fried vegetables, garlic shrimp, sandwiches coffee and gyros.
My thoughts for what they are worth...
Being on my feet all day wasn't something I enjoyed. There is a smell that starts to permeate you that can often not be washed off - it just sort of wears off eventually. A lot of this is grease related - so something with no prep and no cooking (an ice cream truck for instance - would not have this particular issue) When its busy - the time flies - but when its slow - it is painfully slow. The people watching is a definite side benefit. There was always a running commentary in the booth about our customers. I wasn't an owner but a seasonable employee but they seemed to do pretty well. They paid us better than any other summer job I was qualified for and they took late fall to early spring off.
posted by Wolfie at 10:24 AM on March 29, 2005

Our local student burger van man (when I lived in Manchester) was apparently involved in some sort of potentially-deadly turf war with the local gypsies. So that might be one market to avoid.
posted by cillit bang at 10:25 AM on March 29, 2005

I was a Dickie Dee (Canadian only - a bike with an ice cream cooler on the front) ice-cream salesman as a teenager for one day, summer of 1995. I made about $50 bucks in sales, and then got "rolled" by a bunch of jocks. Not fun.
posted by Quartermass at 10:49 AM on March 29, 2005

The novel Joe College, by Tom Perrotta, has a narrator who takes over his father's lunch truck route during breaks from college. It doesn't sound like fun--long hours, turf wars, etc. etc. Perrotta's into verisimilitude and it may be autobiographical, so I trust his description.
posted by scratch at 10:57 AM on March 29, 2005

Quartermass: I was a Dickie Dee salesman too. I did it in 86 or 87. Nothing beats a space split! I lived in a small town and it was fairly successful. I was actually in elementary school and I would run home every day at lunch and ride the bike over to the school and sell ice cream to all of the kids. I cleaned up. I would always sell out my entire cooler. I even made enough money that I got invited to the Dickie Dee sales event at the West Edmonton Mall. Eventually, though I got tired of peddling the thing around and my family ate too much of the ice cream and both my profits and enthusiasm dwindled.
posted by bove at 10:59 AM on March 29, 2005

My stepbrother actually drives an ice cream truck on weekends. He bought and refurbished his own truck and stores it at a secure garage, which runs him about $120 a month. The ice cream itself is ridiculously cheap with a very high markup. On a Saturday or Sunday, during the Florida winter, he makes anywhere from $175 to $250 a day. He expects to double this during the summer.
His wife goes with him. He drives, she sells and they have a great time. I say go for it!
posted by willmize at 11:33 AM on March 29, 2005

My fiance runs a food cart. She lost ten grand last year, but was only open twice a week at small neighborhood farmer's markets.

Whether or not it's fun depends on the day. Some days she really enjoys it, but there are other days, when the truck breaks down or she runs out of certain items, or she forgets some of her equipment, those days she hates it.

My guess is if you can minimize the prep work for whatever food you served (she does southwestern/burritos, which needs a lot of prep) and have an original take on that food, you could do well if you found the right location to park.

Drunk college kids are a good bet.
posted by rocketman at 12:04 PM on March 29, 2005

I drove a Joe (ice cream) truck in Seattle for one summer. It was very good money, especially considering my lack of skills, and the freedom it allowed. I wasn't supposed to, but if I didn't feel like doing the full route, or wanted to skip bad (as in no $) streets, I could lie in the sun, or even drive around and get some errands done. The income was very dependant on the route, and your ingenuity. I had a bad route, but started to go into mechanics shops, etc.. and deliver full cases of ice cream for a discount every other day. There were people who had plum routes in wealthy neighborhoods with tons of kids, and they made up to twice as much.

And the song isn't annoying, it's the people asking if it's annoying that's annoying. Oh, and the guy who learned my song (the entertainer) on banjo, and was compelled to perform it for me.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 12:13 PM on March 29, 2005

I was an ice cream man for one day in Tucson, Arizona. Summertime... no air conditioning in the truck. That music is relentless... but you can't turn it off, as no one will know that the ice cream man is lurking about. No customers = no commission. So, the music stays on... after awhile, you can hear it in the wind.

It will haunt your dreams. It will destroy your mind.

It was suggested to me that the only way that ice cream men really earn money is by selling drugs.
posted by ph00dz at 6:48 PM on March 29, 2005