Japadog definitely has a USP – Unique Selling Proposition.
In other words, they have given people a reason to buy from them instead of the all the other “same old” hot dog carts. The USP allows them to sell at a premium price point.

You can tell by the long lines that people will pay for a quality dog and and a unique customer experience.

Do a little experiment with me. You’re not a hotdogger. You’re a customer.
Think hard about how you would feel standing in line at Japadog for the first time. I bet you would feel…

Excitement. Anticipation. A sense of adventure. A feeling of novelty. Extreme curiosity. Exclusivity. Luxury. Perhaps even decadent in a culinary way…

How many people would you tell about your street food experience over the next several days? What would make you talk about it so much?

How would you feel being the guy or gal that turned all their friends on to this new kind of hot dog? Do you think your friends would thank you for discovering this for them?

Yeah. They would. A lot.

That’s the power of a USP.

OK – come back to earth. Put on your business hat. Check out Japadog’s menu (click for a big picture). Pay attention to the price points – we’re learning something very important today.

Q: Do you have an awesome-can’t-fail-kick-ass-great-super-cool-
wowee-neato-keen idea for a hot dog cart, but don’t know where to start?

A: I cover everything you need to know at www.HotDogBiz101.com. I’ll show you how to make your dream a reality. That’s what I do.

What is your USP? Tell me about it in the comments!

-Steve

Hi Steve; thought this might be worthy of posting on newsletter or other type of member notification.

November 2009 issues of Popular Science & Popular Mechanics have Harbor freight 20% off single use in store only coupons with expiration date of 2/13/2010.

Page 84 for PS & page 101 in PM.

Anyone needing big ticket items for EZ Built carts can save a bunch.  I know I just saved $100.00 on a Haul Master trailer with in store discount and coupon together.  Even though
the coupon says not with other discounts etc.  They still let me use it.

I have attached picture of coupon only to show the text that outlines how it can be used.

Take care;

Kent Foster

Awesome Kent – thanks for letting us know!

**************************************************

And this from an email:

Steve,

Thought you would like to know that MyRubberneck.com has the Eccotemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater really cheap.

http://www.myrubberneck.com/mrl5.html

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You guys are awesome. We all really appreciate it!!!

With savings like this, now is definitely the time to build your own hot dog cart.

-Steve

The following article appeared in a recent issue of the Tennessean. Hope you enjoy it.  -Steve

By Dessislava Yankova

When a Sumner resident arrived at a friend’s house for their first date, she saw two tables covered with food.

“I asked, ‘How many people are coming?’ and he said, ‘Just you,’” Jennifer Shofner recalls. “We had four meats. There was enough food for 20 people.”

It turned out that Shofner’s date and now-husband Jesse has a passion for food and cooking that after years of practice recently materialized into a hotdog stand as part of the venture Top Dawg’s that also offers catering.

Having watched people their age — mid 50s — lose corporate jobs in the volatile economy, the pair wanted to establish something on their own that could bring financial security and help others.

“We’re competing with people who just got of school, and they can pay them half as much,” Jennifer Shofner, 56, said. “The way the economy is going, we’re not expecting any retirement. And we wanted something that we can do in our retirement years that we can enjoy.”

“People our age are having such a hard time finding a decent job,” Jesse Shofner, 55, added. “And if this grows, why not share it?”

If the enterprise — that now runs from the lot in front of Woodard Bonding Co. on Smith Street in Gallatin across from Sumner County General Sessions Court — develops, the entrepreneurs hope to establish a franchise that would create extra jobs and smiles.

“We’d like to see how many people wave at us in a row,” Jesse Shofner said. “You’d be surprised how many people would wave and smile back. It makes my day.”

Chef pursues lifetime culinary hobby

In hearing the enthusiastic couple speak of the enterprise, a listener can’t help but surmise the venture seems easy and relaxed as though it is more of a profitable hobby than a job.

The pair, however, had to work their way through a number of life and professional experiences before they got to where they are now, and they acknowledge that their work is far from over.

For almost 20 years, Jennifer Shofner worked as a mortgage lender, driving almost 70 miles to Brentwood and back each day. In July, she quit that job to manage finances for Top Dawg’s using QuickBooks software.

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Note from Steve: Don’t run out and buy Quickbooks – I’ve got a special surprise coming which will help you with your bookkeeping. It’s ten times easier than learning Quickbooks. Keep your eyes peeled…
*******************************************************************************

For just as long, Jesse Shofner’s music business involvement included everything from writer to record promoter until the quickly saturating and cutthroat industry pushed him to pursue his lifelong culinary hobby.|

After working as a chef for several years in Nashville, Jesse Shofner opened the Hendersonville-based Bo’s Kitchen and Catering Company in 2003. For four years, he delivered up to 100 mostly luncheon meals — casseroles, sandwiches and soups — to anywhere between 35 to 50 area businesses daily. Working those 12-hour days didn’t seem to bother the food enthusiast.

“I like (holidays) just because of the ability to sit on a table filled with food,” said Jesse, who fixed 60 Taquito enchiladas for his four guests over to watch a football game this past Saturday. “With any event, for him is not about the event, it’s about the food,” Jennifer said.

Since Sept. 8, Top Dawg’s first day on the street, Jesse Shofner has shared his zeal not just with family and friends but also with any hungry resident craving a hotdog at lunch Mondays through Fridays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. except on rainy days.

The Polish Dog has been most customers’ favorite so far.

“You can put anything you want on it, but most people like grilled onions, peppers and mustard,” Jesse said.

The recommended specialty selection is the Chicago Dog with all-beef grilled frank, spicy or yellow mustard, sweet relish, onions, tomatoes, banana peppers, celery salt and a dill pickle.

“Unless you’re from Chicago, you wouldn’t know what it is,” the chef said. “It’s wonderful.”

“It tastes like a salad hotdog to me with all the fresh vegetables and everything,” Jennifer added.

Cookies, too

With all dogs, clients can choose from a variety of soft drinks or water while first-time customers get a free chocolate chip cookie.

One new customer is Ashton Pangburn, of Gallatin, who stopped by on his way home Monday after seeing the stand earlier in the day.

“Mmm…it’s really, really, really, really good,” said Pangburn upon biting into his Chicago-style dog, followed by a promise that he would return.

Tammy Carrol, who works next door in Medial Billing Partnership, stops by just about every day.

“It’s like a bite of New York right here in Tennessee,” Carrol said. ‘The hotdogs are nice and fresh and juicy, and I love the daily conversation.”

‘It’s been an adventure’

Launching the venture, however, has at times seemed like a giant jigsaw puzzle for the Shofners, whose biggest pieces have been conforming to various city and county regulations. Finding a place was the hardest obstacle, as the cities of Gallatin and Hendersonville do not allow portable businesses to operate on city or county property.

Wanting to be situated in a busy area, the pair approached numerous entities with a request to locate their stand there. Eventually, the owners of Woodard Bonding Co. gave them a home – in their lot.

Being a catering vendor, Top Dawg’s also needed to have a commercial kitchen. The prospect of building such a kitchen would have involved too much of an investment for a single hotdog stand. So the couple started knocking on doors until a local church offered them a rarely used spare facility.

“We’ve been ricocheting around on the discovering path,” Jennifer said. “It has been an adventure.”

Because of health regulations, Top Dawg’s does not offer dairy products that run the risk of spoiling quicker than other products. While simple in concept, the stand with its accompanying grill as an accessory allows the venture capitalists to experiment.

“There’s a limit to what we can do, but in that realm we can still be creative,” said Jennifer, who plans to add specialties such as a Mexican salsa dog. “Sometimes less is more. You can do anything with a dog.”

Business delivers within walking distance

Perhaps the trickiest part since opening the business has been setting up and taking down the booth —about 30 minutes each time — but “we’re getting better at it every day,” Jennifer said.

The rest is a song. “Then we crank up the radio to old-time classic country and rock, and we wave at everybody,” Jesse said.

“And we love the people,” Jennifer added. “We meet people from all walks of life, and it’s wonderful to give them a hotdog and watch them enjoy it.”

Not having done any major advertising yet, Top Dawg’s has already gained some regulars from surrounding businesses, which, if within walking distance, can also enjoy a delivery. Jesse Shofner was nicely surprised when he handed out some business cards to general session employees, who referred to him as the Hotdog Man.

“It’s all fun, fun, fun, and it’s American,” he said.

Original article at The Tennessean

P.S. The Shofners are using a “Big Dog” cart from Ben’s Hot Dog Carts.

I’ve seen the Frank’s N Brats stand outside Busch Stadium when I go see the Cards play, but I’ve never stopped. Something I need to do, especially now that they are the best in town!

I ran across the following story in the Riverfront Times, a St. Louis news blog. There’s a great marketing hook in there that could make you huge money, so pay attention…

Busch Stadium sells more nachos — 120,000 pounds of chips and 32,000 gallons of cheese sauce a year — than any other ballpark in baseball. This gut-busting statistic can probably be attributed to the fact that the hot dogs available inside the stadium are overpriced and underwhelming.

Luckily for the city’s hungry baseball fans, Frank Merrins has his hot-dog stand on the corner of Clark Street and South Broadway. (When it’s not baseball season, he can be found on the riverfront near the Arch.)

Frank, the silver-haired mustachioed guy behind the grill, sells all his items to go in brown paper bags that are allowed inside the stadium. Try the frank, the owner’s namesake, an eight-inch wiener grilled to perfection and laid on a bed of grilled onions.

It’s a darn good dog, and at a mere $2 (or $3 if you want a brat) it’s a darn sight cheaper than what you’ll find on the other side of Busch’s gates.

RFT

A few months ago, I posted one of the first pictures ever taken of an elusive new species of street vendor – the Grillwalker. Now we have video!

Apparently multiple grillwalkers have been sighted in Berlin, selling wurst (sausages) to locals and tourists alike.

The first grillwalker was spotted in 1997 after Bertram Rohloff invented the contraption to get around local street vending laws. As long as nothing touched the ground, no permits were required.

The Grillwalker franchise is growing in Germany, with Mr. Rohloff hiring subcontractors to wear the devices in Berlin and other cities.

What do you think – great idea, or just a novelty? Would you strap one of these things on? Will we see grillwalkers in New York, Chicago, or L.A. anytime soon?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks Hannalisa and Tom for bringing this to my attention!

-Steve

Toby was recently written up in his hometown newspaper and I thought you’d like to read about the latest in a long line of Hot Dog Cart News readers who have found success under a hot dog cart umbrella.

Enjoy!

Dogs on the Square
Former Maytag worker opens downtown lunch cart

By JOHN R. PULLIAM
The Register-Mail

GALESBURG —

Not everyone finds hot dogs to be their breakfast food of choice. But this past week, Ray Babcock of Galesburg took advantage of a new business, Toby’s Hot Dogs, to start off his day with one of America’s favorite, low-cost taste treats.

“I’ve seen him here for a couple of days,” Babcock said of Toby Brady’s push-cart operation at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“I’m originally from Chicago. I’m used to seeing this. There’s something about hot dogs.”

“What’s it going to be today?” Brady asked Babcock.

“A hot dog and a brat,” Babcock said.

Brady opened Sept. 1 in the area of the Public Square. Hot dogs for $2 and brats for $2.50 pretty much complete the menu for now. He hopes to add an authentic “Chicago-style” hot dog soon and he does have chips and soda pop.

“Oddly enough, I have one or two people from Chicago that stop here every day,” Brady said. “I’m here to serve the public. Whatever the public likes, I’m going to try to serve them.”

Brady is a classic entrepreneur. As is the case with many people in this area, he was somewhat shoved into entrepreneurship when Maytag left town in 2004.

“I worked at Maytag for 12 years. From there, I went to Western (Illinois University) and got a bachelor’s degree. That bachelor’s degree somehow landed me here,” Brady chuckled.

What landed Babcock at the hot dog stand was a yearning for yesteryear.

“What attracted me is the whole nostalgia thing,” Babcock said. “I love classic cars, anything old. My dad kind of talked about how great things were in the ’50s and this sort of seemed like it.”

Babcock used a squeeze bottle to put a dollop of brown mustard on his “dog.” He also had yellow mustard and ketchup to choose from.

“I know a lot of people say ketchup doesn’t belong on hot dogs, but a lot of people around here use it,” Brady said, sounding almost apologetic. “I haven’t had anybody bashing the ketchup. Galesburg has it’s own unique tastes. I’ve had a lot of people use the ketchup.”

In Chicago, the unwritten law is no ketchup on a hot dog. Perhaps downstaters are more laid-back, preferring not to set up too many rules when it comes to how one should eat one’s food.

Asked how the brat was, Babcock said, “It’s good, I love brats.” He was even more enthusiastic about the hot dog.

“Good hot dog,” Babcock said. “Good hot dogs have to have a snap to them. Thanks for breakfast, I’ll probably be back for lunch.”

Brady said the food was from Thrushwood Farms Quality Meats Inc., including the Johnsonville brats.

Brady seems to have the knack for this type of job; he seems to truly enjoy talking with his customers and has a good sense of humor.

Brady earned a Board of Governor’s degree from WIU. He minored in manufacturing engineering, hoping something similar to Maytag would return to town by the time he finished his education. But he is by no means unhappy with the way things worked out.

“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit in me,” Brady said. “I tried selling gold-plated chains at Railroad Days one year. I had a used-records store downtown in the ’90s.”

His father also ran his own business.

“As far as the food service goes, I worked at Alfano’s off and on through the years when Maytag was slow,” he said.

Brady was asked how long he plans to keep the push cart open once the autumn temperatures begin to drop.

“As long as it’s not too cold for you to stop and get a hot dog, I plan to be out there,” he said.

What if it rains?

“I haven’t had that occasion come up yet,” Brady said. “I just haven’t crossed that bridge yet. I don’t know what the boys in Chicago do.”

Brady has a great location — lots of traffic going around the square, with a convenient place for them to pull over and order a hot dog or a bratwurst.

“I have a lot of people pull up like it’s a drive-through,” he said. “So far, I’m happy with the response. I haven’t had a million stopping by, but I’ve had new people every day.”

With the success of events like Cafe in the Park, Brady said, “I’m really surprised nobody has tried this in Galesburg before. Hopefully we won’t have 50 carts next year.”

Chris Banning and Roy Sanchez, both of Galesburg, were taking a break when they pulled up.

“We just saw something new,” Banning said. “We had to try it. Anything new in Galesburg, you’ve got to try it out.”

Sanchez, who just moved to Galesburg from suburban Chicago, wasn’t hungry enough for an early morning hot dog, despite Banning’s offer to buy, but Banning also gave Brady’s product rave reviews.

“I’m not the biggest connoisseur of hot dogs, but that’s a pretty good hot dog,” he said.

Toby’s Hot Dogs is open from about 10 or 10:30 a.m. to about 2:30 or 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. He plans to stay in the area of the square.

“If you want to buy a hot dog, I don’t want you to have to drive all over town looking for me,” he laughed.

.

Let’s hear it for Toby in the comments everyone!!!

Frankly speaking, business is booming at sidewalk vendor’s hot dog cart.

Mike Sullivan had just been laid off from his job as a DHL deliveryman after some 15 years.  The process-serving company he’d set up after his layoff was not making ends meet. The 55-year-old wasn’t sure what would, until he sat down to watch a movie.

In the background of one scene he saw a man selling hot dogs. The gears started turning in his head.  “I decided I would try this, give it a shot,” said Sullivan of Braintree, as he prepped a sausage with peppers and onions at his roadside cart on Quincy Avenue this week. “It’s just a little steam table, that’s all it is. With a grill on it.”

Mike’s Hot Dog Cart may be a simple operation, but it’s been good enough to garner Sullivan a following.  “I don’t want to see you once. I want to see you over and over again,” Sullivan said of customers.

Since he set up his New York-esque stand at the Quincy/Braintree line, Sullivan has developed several repeat customers. All of them know the story of how he went from delivering parcels across the state to grilling dogs in the parking lot of Viking Hall in Braintree.

Original article at the Patriot Ledger

Check it out!

-Steve

Well, just like nearly every other aspect of our culture, what you put on a hot dog reflects where you come from.

Luis Echeverry came to the U.S. from Colombia in South America, spending his teen years in New York. He moved here to work for Windstream. On the side he runs a hot dog cart at Plaza Fiesta, the Latino-themed mall next to Carowinds.

He’ll fix you a New York-style dog: “Relish, sweet onions, brown mustard – the spicy kind.”

But his eyes light up if you ask for your hot dog as it’s traditionally done in Colombia.

First into the bun go potato chips. Then the hot dog. Then crushed pineapple. Crumbled white taco cheese. A squirt of mustard. A squirt-line of honey. A squirt-line of mayo. A squirt of salsa rosada, the mild pink sauce beloved in Colombia.

Then more crushed chips, topped by a hard-boiled quail egg. A quail egg? “Oh yes, that’s the thing in Colombia. On hot dogs, and on hamburgers, too.”

You can find Luis Tuesday-Sunday noon to 7 p.m at the food court at Plaza Fiesta mall; I-77 Exit 90, 3700 Avenue of the Carolinas, Fort Mill, S.C  He also caters 704-439-6818.

Thanks to Renee Crenshaw, Renee’s Dogs for sending me this story!

-Steve

original story by Tom Hanchett, Charlotte Observer

The Wall Street Journal called Speed’s hot dogs the best in the country. They are as good as advertised.

While $7 might seem a bit steep for a cart hot dog, the loaded dog (special sauce, mustard blend, onions) is a steal considering the massive size and how damn delicious it is. Service moves a little slow, I was 8th in line and waited around 10 minutes for mine. Cash only.

Speed’s is tucked away in Newmarket Square, but easy enough to find. Coming from Boston just take a left off Mass Ave onto Newmarket Square road and you will see it on your right shortly. For those in Boston for July 4th they are setting up shop on the corner of Beacon and Clarendon from 9am until all the dogs are gone.

original article at Belly Love