Looking for the perfect holiday gift for that friend or relative who has everything?
Hot dog entrepreneur David Tischler may have an option you haven't considered.
Tischler operates the Web site DollarHotDogs.com.
The site lets visitors order hot dogs and have them sent to whomever they like via the U.S. Postal Service.
Seriously.
The 29-year-old Phoenix resident started the site in early 2007 as a joke. He was working at his tech-support job at a local IT company (he requested that we not name the firm) when he got the idea.
“I see terrible Web sites all day long,” said Tischler, who still works for the firm. “I don’t understand how any of these people stay in business with these God-awful Web sites.”
On a whim he decided to set up a site to prove he could create a better Internet business.
“The first thing I thought of was, ‘I’m going to sell hot dogs,’” he said.
Soon after DollarHotDogs.com got mentioned on Fark.com, a site dedicated to strange news.
Tischler’s Web traffic shot through the roof. He subsequently sold about 100 hot dogs in two days.
He estimates he has mailed between 500 and 700 hot dogs since founding the business.
He charges $1 plus shipping to send the hot dogs. That includes the cost of the wiener and the bun.
Condiments are an additional 89 cents each.
When he gets an order, “I toss a hot dog in a bun, toss it in an envelope, write the address on it and it’s a done deal,” Tischler said.
To prevent anything from seeping through, he also puts the hot dogs inside Ziplock bags.
Tischler’s concept is so strange it caught the attention of StartupNation.com.
The online community for small businesses recently ranked DollarHotDogs.com on its Home-Based 100, a list of the top 100 home-based businesses in the U.S.
The list was divided into 10 categories. Tischler’s company ranked second in the “Wackiest” category, described as “the zaniest, most outrageous home-based businesses that actually work.”
Tischler currently makes about $20 per week on orders, he said. He keeps his overhead low by purchasing the cheapest brand of hot dogs he can find at Walmart.
He also makes sure the hot dogs don’t weight more than 3.5 ounces otherwise the postage costs more.
“I can’t be mailing out no kosher dogs or anything like that,” he said.
The site has had customers in just about every state. Tischler said he’s even received orders from customers in Australia, Spain and other countries. He refunds those orders, though, because the shipping costs are too much.
“The billing address and the shipping address are damn near never the same,” he said. “This is people mailing them to friends and enemies.”
In addition to individual hot dogs, customers can order gift baskets that for $20 plus shipping that include several dogs. The site also sells T-shirts.
