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Sunday, Portland was fortunate to have some decent weather although some would say it might be a little hot others would say it was much needed and a great day to join about 75,000 other people to listen to Barack Obama speak on the waterfront.
My plan initially was to go down there wait in line and see him speak. After a bit of reality kicked in I decided that it would be best to stay home mainly for 2 reasons. First, I hate waiting in line and second I don’t particularly like large crowds either. Rebecca changed my mind with a phone call at about 2:00 telling me about some massive lines and about the people selling all sorts of stuff from Obama shirts to frozen goods.
I didn’t really want to miss out on this opportunity and I wanted a good excuse to leave the house. The first step was to borrow a cooler. My roommate who was out of town over the weekend just so happened to leave one out for me, I took the liberty of using it. The next step was a trip to my favorite store Fred Meyer. The 2 for $3 sale on popsicles was pretty good and I was fortunate this day there were still about 5 bags of those left and a handful of other cheap frozen treats. I spent about $13 on frozen goods to sell and $1.29 on a bag of ice for the cooler. I had 114 popsicles in my cooler and my plan was to try to get a buck a piece for them.
I suppose part of the cost was the $1.75 for the bus there and the $1.75 for the bus back so all together I spent $17.79 on this venture.
So packed with a backpack cooler, I hit the waterfront. After a scope of the crowds and area, I found a nice bench in the shade where I sat and said the word “popsicles” to passers by. I didn’t want to be too exposed as I’m not totally sure what the laws are on selling stuff out of a cooler backpack. I was asking $1 each for them although if people didn’t have the money or if it was someone that was less fortunate or seemed nice or was some cute kid or just looked like they needed a frozen goody, I would just give them one. I came home and had a grand total of $28.50 from sales. $28.50 – $17.79 = $10.71. That’s not too bad for 3 hours worth of work. I probably gave away about as many popsicles as I sold and I probably ate about 7 or 8 myself.
It was great to be that close to the Obama energy, I even caught a brief glimpse of him as he left the stage.
I learned a lot from this little experiment. I think next time I might just give out popsicles to promote this site.
It’s late and I could write a bunch more about this stuff although. I think I should go to bed for now.
My fellow Oregon voters, don’t forget to drop off your ballot today before 8:00PM!
Vote.