How City Kids Run Lemonade Stands
This is great. NY Magazine recently interviewed a bunch of kids about the profitability, strategy and marketing of their sidewalk lemonade stands — with results that are equal parts adorable, shrewd and hilarious. We’ve re-posted our favorite interview below.
Stand 1
REBECCA HORWITZ, 8
ARI HORWITZ, 5
(SIBLINGS)
Location: On the sidewalk outside their Dumbo apartment.
Price per cup: $1.
Who’s your typical Customer? ARI: Most are in their thirties or forties. Usually more boys than girls.
Do people give you tips? REBECCA: People will sometimes give you $10 and say “Keep the change.”
Why? Because the lemonade is so good and the service is so good.
Maybe also because you’re cute? No.
Has the [rising] price of lemons this year affected your stand? REBECCA: Last year, we charged 25 cents for a half cup and 50 cents for a whole cup. But this year, we had to double our prices. My mom said she was shocked at the price of lemons.
What’s the best age to have a stand? REBECCA: The best age to start pouring is 6. Or 5 or 4. Or 5 and 6. Or 7 and 8.
Do you enjoy selling? REBECCA: Sometimes I worry that the bakery across the street will get angry because we steal their business. ARI: Rebecca is freaking. We’re really not stealing their customers because we’re not taking them without asking.
Earnings . . . . . . . . . . $92 to $240
Read the rest of the interviews here.
LEMONADE STAND CONTEST
If you know a kid who can give these other lemonade stands a run for their money, INC is having a lemonade stand contest you can enter. Enter before August 15 for a chance to win a $1,000 savings bond and a Nintendo DS.
Click here to enter.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Quote from Ari: …” We’re really not stealing their customers because we’re not taking them without asking. ”
Funny!
July 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I never made that much when I had a lemonade stand on Cape Cod as a kid.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Sounds like motivated young people with terrific support at home! Hahahahahaha Keep up the great hard work kids and enjoy your success. Hey, you know what? As a child I loved “Hot Lemonade” when it was a chilly Autumn day and maybe a little rainy after playing outside, the other kids and I would put our socks in the dryer, and sit and read together with our babysitter. Take the suggestion if you have interest in expanding your business into the cool days of late Spring or early Fall. May rake in extras bucks for your college funds! Its never too early to start compounding interest in an IRA, and yes kids can open IRA’s w/a guardian’s signature. Good luck!