So I came up with an idea (amplified by Matt) to open a barbecue stand on the sidewalks of downtown Springfield. It would be open during lunches and during weekend nights, selling smoked spareribs like it was fair food.

Imagine in my best carney barker voice:

“2 for 3! 4 for 6! Bucket O’ Ribs!”

I’m pushing a cart with a smoker on the front and a warmer/cooler on the back. Matt says it should be shaped like a pig but I’m not sure I could push that around and keep a straight face.

Here’s the plan:

Smoke racks of pork ribs. Cut the ribs into single pieces with the bone like a stick on a corn dog. Sell 2 ribs for $3.00 and 4 ribs for $6.00 tax included, cash only. Partner up with Hickok’s Steakhouse to get the ribs and have a backup smoker. If you figure 14 ribs per rack and smoke 8 racks at once, that gives you 132 ribs–maybe 125 after “waste” or such.

Money? A rack of ribs might be $15 each, $4 in charcoal for each batch and maybe $2 a batch in spices. A full load would be $125. That means my cost is a buck a rib. Can you make any money when you get 50 cents a rib? So a full load of smoked ribs might net $62.50 in profit for say 5 hours of real work selling and tending the ribs.

A weeks worth of lunch–$50 x 5 lunch days = $250 + 2 nights (Fri, Sat) at $65 each so $300 net profit each week. Seems like a lot of work for very little gain.

Pump up the profit with soda? Maybe. You could make 50 cents a soda just like the profit on each rib with a lot less work.

More about this later. Time to think it through more.