Man creates professional line-sitting company for people who hate to wait
CNBC - Samuel is founder and owner of S.O.L.D., or Same Ole Line Dudes, a professional line-sitting company that fields requests to wait (and wait and wait) for everything from sneaker launches to concert tickets...
Impatience has a price. Robert Samuel pegs it at $25 for the first hour and $10 for each additional half hour.
Samuel is founder and owner of S.O.L.D., or Same Ole Line Dudes, a professional line-sitting company that fields requests to wait (and wait and wait) for everything from sneaker launches to concert tickets.
“Whatever you want, we wait for it,” he said.
CNBC caught up with Samuel waiting in line for Dominique Ansel Bakery’s Cronuts in New York’s SoHo. The Cronuts, which sell for $5, are SOLD’s most popular request. He charges a flat rate of $60 for two. He usually shows up two hours before the bakery opens at 8 a.m.
The idea for SOLD sprang out of an unemployment stint for Samuel after he was fired by AT&T — ironically for being late.
To make some quick cash, he posted a Craigslist ad offering line-sitting services for an Apple iPhone launch. After a 19-hour wait (his longest) for the gadget, Samuel made $325, and an idea was born.
“I just put the idea in my back pocket, and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is a money-making opportunity. Let me hold on to this,'” he said.
A few months later, he launched Same Ole Line Dude. “Dude” turned plural as business picked up.
Samuel, 38, who also works part time as a security officer, now has about a dozen employees who collectively sit for an average of seven to 10 gigs per week.
Typical clients include busy professionals and executives along with people with out-of-town guests who want to try popular items like Cronuts but whose hosts prefer to skip the wait.
The most interesting request so far?
“I had a Cronut delivery by a gentleman who wanted to deliver one Cronut to each of his girlfriends, so I had to ask for two separate boxes — one Cronut each. One was going uptown. The other was going downtown. And he said, ‘Please don’t tell the other about the delivery,'” Samuel said.
He stressed the importance of being cordial and friendly to fellow line goers — in part to avoid the “instant amnesia” people can get when someone steps out of line to take a break and attempts to return.
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