Another crazy drunken idea...

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Here's one for ya'll to wrap your heads around. I'm always strapped for cash and have trouble finding jobs that can work around my school schedule. I do have a part time job, but the pay and hours both suck. I had a strange idea last night and whilst surfing the internet for the other crazy person who had my idea before me, I found it here: Neville's Financial Blog: Bottled Water Experiment

If you don't feel like reading the whole story here's the jist of it:
1) Buy ice and bottled water in bulk
2) Sell bottled water from cooler to motorists on busy street corners
3) Wash, rinse, repeat

This seems to be a simple enough plan to make some extra cash in my spare time in between work and school, and would give me some extra mulah to spend on homebrewing. Anyone have any thoughts on the idea? My only real concern is the legality of selling bottled water without a license; I'm assuming if a cop were to hassle me I could just say I'm doing a fund raiser or something like that to get them off my back. Other than that, this does have the potential to make a few hundred bucks on a hot summer day...
 
Interesting first post.

Not sure what the legality of this is, bet it depends on the location.
 
people do that everywhere in houston. Depending on your location, you may be in for a "turf war" with the local window washer/water sellers. I bet you'd make a crap ton of money in June July and August!
 
Interesting first post.

Not sure what the legality of this is, bet it depends on the location.

Sorry, hope my first post didn't break any forum rules...I've been brewing for 2.6 years now, every time I've had a question I've found the answer on this site via a google site search. I figured since I've had all my other questions answered by ya'll, I'd give this one a whirl.
 
It is not legal. That aside it might work. I feel for you. I started brewing in college too. I spent all my money on beer, fine spirits, and brewing.

I once stretched a jar of pickles over a full week. (only the jar of pickles) Another time, I only had peanut butter and flour, so I rolled the peanut butter in the flour to make little peanut bites....

On the bright side, when you are done with college you can eat right, put on 20 pounds, and not have as big a budget for beer and stuff because you have a wife a house and all matter of responsibilities. :D
 
It is not legal. That aside it might work. I feel for you. I started brewing in college too. I spent all my money on beer, fine spirits, and brewing.

I once stretched a jar of pickles over a full week. (only the jar of pickles) Another time, I only had peanut butter and flour, so I rolled the peanut butter in the flour to make little peanut bites....

On the bright side, when you are done with college you can eat right, put on 20 pounds, and not have as big a budget for beer and stuff because you have a wife a house and all matter of responsibilities. :D

A little more background on myself; while I am a full time student, I do have a wife, a house, and a book of responsibilities...no kids yet though :rockin: My wife is constantly strained by me, she gladly supports my hobbies but we are always tight on the budget...I'm just trying to find ways to ease her money woes. As I said I do have a job, but I can only work about 30 hours a week there, have school/homework that takes up another 40 hours a week, I still do have a few extra hours and would like to be able to make extra cash doing something like this in that little bit of spare time...
 
If you give this a try hit up Costco for the water. It is definitely the cheapest I have seen around.

I frequently sell photos and stuff at a local farmer's market in the summer and I always have a cooler full of Costco water selling for $1 each. some days I made more selling a couple cases of water than I did selling my photography!
 
Here's my marketing materials:

watersign-back.JPG
watersign-front.JPG
 
If I saw some guy selling ice-cold water at a busy intersection I'd shell out a buck to get me some. Driving always seems to make me thirsty...
 
I'm working with an SBA agent to find out the legal logistics of doing something like this...just to be on the safe side :)
 
On summer weekends and holidays, the lines for the ferries out here spill out to the point where you end up waiting on the shoulder of the highway a mile or two from the waterfront sometimes. Last time we were stuck waiting like that some kids that lived in the area came through selling bottled water and pop out of a wheeled cooler. They were making a KILLING just walking down the lines of cars.

Personally, after driving for a couple hours and then getting stuck nowhere near a bathroom, I think they'd have made more money if they had a pay toilet on wheels instead. :D
 
i say go for it dude. if u have the patience and need for green do it until someone tells u to stop. then move to a new location and do it again ( as long as its legal where u are )
 
To become a legal mobile vendor in San Antonio, you would have to pay $44.25 for a background check, and $49.44 for a "Foot Peddler of Prepackaged Foods" Mobile Vending License. The background check is good for 2 years, the vending license is good for one year. So for $150 bucks for 2 years, you could make some serious cash and not have to worry about cops...not a bad deal considering the amount of cash you could make on a hot summer day. I may be doing this myself :)

Sources:
Requirements for Mobile Vending

San Antonio metropolitan Health District
 
It should be noted that the background check takes about 45 days to be completed. So if you're interested in doing this, I'd recommend at least going and getting that done right away. You can get everything else in order while you wait.
 
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