The Hot Dog Vendor and Real Estate...Revisited

A while back, while we were in the midst of the gloom and doom forecasts for the Real Estate market, I posted a story about a hot dog vendor that was a great parallel for today's Real Estate market. I admit that my skill at writing a blog was a bit unpolished at that point, so the content wasn't that exciting. I've learned a few things since then. While reading Rosario's post today about the 20/20 special to be aired about the Real Estate market, I realized that maybe I should pull this story back out and repost it again with some polish added. I also realize that I sell homes in the Wilkes-Barre, PA market, which might be different from your market, but the concept remains the same no matter where you are. Enjoy...

I was in the retail business for a few years (over 14 to tell the truth) and have seen ups and downs in a few different industries. I remember this story of a hot dog vendor and thought it was appropriate for today's crowd of doom and gloom soothsayers. It went something like this...

A gentleman had a road side hot dog stand on a very busy highway and enjoyed a thriving business for quite some time. He had learned that he could attract more customers by putting up a big sign to advertise his business, which worked and his business grew. He decided to hire more staff to help with the extra customers and his business grew because the customers were happily taken care of. He began buying bigger and bigger orders to be sure he never ran out of food for his customers and his business grew.

Everything was going great for him until one day, while he was talking with a sign rep about getting a bigger sign, a well dressed man who was obviously a professional and intelligent man said, "You're going to buy a bigger sign? Are you crazy? Don't you know that we're about to hit a recession?" The hot dog vendor, being just a simple man, thought that the man must know what he was talking about, so he didn't get the bigger sign.

He also began to think that he should cut back on the food orders because there was a recession coming after all. He began to lose more and more customers because he frequently was out of food. Better safe than sorry, thought the hot dog vendor. To help cut back on some of his expenses, the hot dog vendor began cutting back on his staff, which in turn began to make his wait times longer and his customers became more unhappy, many deciding not to come back.

Faced with a dwindling customer base and a huge loss in profits, the hot dog vendor finally decided that the best thing to do would be to close the hot dog stand, so he called the sign rep up to see if he could come get the sign. The sign rep asked, "What happened, you had such a thriving business?" To which the hot dog vendor replied. "Haven't you heard, we're in a recession?"

Remember this the next time you hear the gloom and doom preachers peddling their wares. A self-fulfilling prophecy is well named.

Until next time...