New York - Who needs repeat custom?

In my short time spent in New York, NY, I noticed a lot of odd things, many of which were the way they did "business" around there parts.

I liked the spicy hotdog ploy because it was at the very least quite sneaky, subtle and clever, However my encounter with the rapper 5mics in Times Square was a great example of why you don't always have to be subtle, you can just...bully people into buying your stuff.

America is a large country with a large (in many ways) population, point being that there are SO many people that to a certain extent you can just forget about repeat custom as being an issue, as long as there are enough people who will buy off you once, especially if operating on a small scale. Times Sq is a great example of this, Mr 5mics stands there all day "selling" his CD, by intimidating probably exclusively tourists/idiots(me)/people that don't like the idea of gang beatings, but so many people pass through there each day that will never return, whether they buy anything off him again is immaterial. Consider this if he gets 3 people an hour to pay his recommended retail price of 20 dollars..that's 60 dollars an hour ($480 if he worked 9 to 5...115,200 if he works the average working yr in hrs), and considering his cds are home made and printed I would guess his only overheads are paying his "crew" to be near by.

I think I'm going to start a rap group...anyone in?

A stroll down Times Square

5mics: Commercial genius?
On my first day in New York, Me and Enda had a bit of time to kill before heading back to the apartment we were going to be staying in, so we went for a stroll in search of some cool NY like stuff. We eventually arrived at Times Square, When we got there we were subjected to a pretty unique sales technique by a local rap artist, i think it is probably best explained by the dialogue that took place at the time.



5mics: hey maaaan you like rap music?
Ed: eh..kinda yeh
5mics: Yo man, listen to my beats then man, listen to my BEATS
*ed listens to the headphones*
*music is moderatly acceptable*
Ed: eh yeh thats great...
5mics: Yo man *points to enda* listen to this
*enda reluctantly listens to it*
5mics: hey whats his name man
Ed: Enda
*5mics takes out one of his cds and a permanent marker*
*writes "to A-N-D-A" on it*
Enda: thats not how you spell my name man
5mics: how do you spell it
Enda: with an E
5mics: ok ok man, to....E Dizzle
5mics: oh and where you guys from
Ed&Enda: Dublin
5mics: ooooh man, you guys are from dublin!
5mics: ok to E Dizzle... The Dublin ganster, hows that man
*Ed and Enda look at eachother with a "what the hell is going on look"*
5mics: You can take this back to all the homies in Dublin
Enda: Do you even know where dublin is man?
5mics: ....nah man...nah
Ed: its in Ireland
*Ed&Enda laugh heartely*
5mics: OH well you can take this back to Ireland.....For TWENTY DOLLARS
Ed: ...eh..we dont have 20 dollars man

*Ed&Endas jaws drop as they realise they are in trouble now*
*ed also remembers he has 500 dollars in his pocket and doesnt want to be mugged by this guy*
*5mics "buddies" start to surround Ed&Enda*
5mics: MAN, you said you wanted it!!!
Enda: No we said it was ok!
5mics: ... yeh.. WANTED IT
Ed: Man all I have is 5 dollars
Enda: yeh man me too
5mics: MANNNN, alright gimme the ten dollars and GET OUTA MY FACE!!!
*5mics heavies back off and let us leave*
Ed: Well Enda, We arent in Canada anymore



In my time in New York, i was bullied into buying two cds, and some other guy followed me for about 5 blocks trying to sell me his music... I think i have some sort of magnetism for either cds, or crap rappers
You can check out 5mics here he's eh....great