Business for Feltman’s of Coney Island hot dogs has surged during the coronavirus crisis, as the brothers who own the company correctly foresaw that people would hoard their product during a pandemic and made plans accordingly, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Although Michael and Joe Quinn feared that hot dogs sales could slump nationwide as baseball stadiums and amusement parks were shut and picnics were forbidden due to the coronavirus, they predicted that another scenario would happen, because Americans looking to stock up on food would choose a product that was easy to make and could keep up to 10 months in a freezer .
To make sure they were in a position to sell more of their hot dogs despite limitations during a pandemic, the brothers purchased beef in bulk to safeguard against plant closings, and by the middle of last month had boosted their inventory by 10 times the usual amount and froze it in cold storage facilities that they leased.
This enabled them to meet demand as the company has seen a 100 percent increase in sales from supermarkets and a 200 percent increase in online orders since March, numbers that outpaced those of their competitors
“Usually sales peak starting Fourth of July weekend,” Joe told the Times. “So far it’s like March and April have turned into July,” adding that “We increased production by 60 percent in March and then again by 170 percent in April,” with May levels similar to those of April.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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