I went to a feast recently and I overheard a man visiting a food stand complaining to a vendor about how “expensive” he felt the sandwich and beverage he just purchased was. This comment came after he had taken several bites and seemed to enjoy his lunch. As a traveling food vendor myself for the past 4 and a half years, and also because I like to perpetuate independently owned businesses and not massive chain stores, I frequent farmers markets and feasts even when I am not a participant. All of us vendors look out for each other, many of us travel in the same circles and we have a connection—many of us besides sharing events, share friendships. We can relate to each other and know all about the hustle of our businesses.

We follow the credo that the customer is always right and I personally never want to show any kind of negative attitude, even when the customer isn’t always right. But sometimes, this is difficult to do. It’s tough always holding your tongue and I could see my fellow vendor was seething with this customer’s comments. While overall, my customers understand all that’s involved with serving a food product to the public, such a reaction on price has occasionally been an issue here and there at events I’ve worked.

At this time, I’d like to share just a little bit of what’s involved with being a street vendor—some behind the scenes stuff that one should consider if they’ve never thought about it before. Are my meatballs as cheap as what you’d find in Restaurant Depot? No. Are they as cheap as what you’d get at Subway? Certainly not. But are they of a superior quality? Absolutely. That’s why I offer a money back guarantee if you aren’t 100% satisfied with your meal. That guarantee is not necessarily based upon whether or not you feel the price you paid for the meal is low or high. But if you are indeed satisfied with the taste, you surely should understand that paying a premium for that taste is fair. Especially when you consider everything else that goes into the meatball. It’s maybe a little cheaper if you make your own meatballs. But if you want to enjoy some which are going to be equally as good if not better, would you pay a few bucks more to not do any of the legwork for a change?

Consider what I do. I go to the butcher and get the meat, I get the eggs, the parsley, the cheese, and all the other ingredients. Plus the stuff for the gravy. The balls have to be rolled and cooked by the hundreds and if one doesn’t have a restaurant or a food truck to do this on, you’re renting commissary space or paying a co-packer or a staff of cooks to assist you. Then they gotta be transported to the venue of where they are being sold. Gas and tolls, wear and tear on your van or truck. Propane tanks have to be filled to heat things up, which costs money. Ice has to be bought to keep sodas cold in heavy coolers, tents need to be put up, tables unfolded, everything has to be clean and organized. Not to mention the miscellanous items. The plate you eat your meal on, and the fork and the napkin, we don’t get any money back for those things. So please don’t take 50 napkins.

Also understand, we have to usually pay for our spot like any other real estate, there’s very few “free rides” and it takes months, if not years of trial and error, feeling out events that are worthwhile, testing the waters to see if a gig is truly busy enough to justify our presence there. Or if we’ve been lied to by a shady “promoter” with other interests who swears thousands of people attend when in reality there’s not enough customers to be serviced by one food stand, let alone several. Most of these venues charge an entry fee (what we call a vig), and even the ones who don’t still require you get health and fire permits (which cost money.) Then there’s inspections and paperwork and insurance, food handlers classes, more paperwork.

Then it’s being on your feet for eight hours in the 90 degree heat all day personally preparing and serving the public. Contending with rain and wind which can dictate your fate on whether you’ve made any kind of profit or even covered your expenses. Most of us are just trying to make an honest living, and many of us have other jobs or spouses/family members to help keep things afloat.

All of this prep work and behind the scenes stuff holds true to any street vendor, whatever the product is. Yes this is the life we’ve chosen. The rewards can be very fulfilling but they also can be few and far between. Few of us just show up and sell food and have a big payday. It’s a lot of hard work and time and labor and the best vendors use the best ingredients and don’t cut corners. So that’s why the average cost of a sandwich at a feast is $8 and not $4. If that seems too high, there are other options out there like McDonalds dollar menu. But please understand the only way that the little guys can survive is if we go the extra mile and that costs us a lot of money and time.

We all wish we could give our food away because this type of job is all about passion and we always give our loyal regulars freebies or what we call friends and family discount. After all the other stuff, at the end of the day, the purest form of that passion is when the transaction is made. Not because it puts money in our pocket, the satisfaction comes with the pureness of a customer truly enjoying what we’ve just served them. Service is always done with a smile, and when we get a smile back and some good conversation, it’s the best part of the job and makes everything else worthwhile. The good people we meet keep us going along with the good press and word of mouth—that’s why we protect our reputation so much and get defensive if anyone puts us down or others new to the game try to imitate our ideas and styles.

Being a food vendor means you eat, sleep and breathe it. And I didn’t even mention the fact that we all have to self-promote ourselves whether that’s by handing out flyers the old-fashioned way or networking on social media and sifting through e-mails and phonecalls. That all takes time too. Time away from our families. None of us ask for any sympathy. But please understand all that goes into what we do to serve you.

That’s why our stuff costs a few bucks more. It’s not because we are trying to take advantage of anyone or get rich quick. Our season is short and our workload is packed. Even though it seems to be all fun and games, there’s not much glitz and glamor. But I still would take this over being in an office 9 to 5. As I said, it’s a grind and a hustle. And again, it’s the life we’ve chosen. I hope you choose to visit us all as we continue to do our thing in the streets. And please don’t haggle. Remember this blog and everything I’ve written. Thank you all for your continued support!