Hot Dog Vendors Going To War In Suburban Worth
WORTH, Ill. (CBS) -- It may be known as 'The Friendly Village,' but there's a battle brewing in southwest suburban Worth over hot dogs.
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As WBBM Newsradio 780's Nancy Harty reports, there were already a number of places to get a hot dog in Worth last December when Joe Staszewski bought a cart and started selling outside the bars on 111th Street.
The SouthtownStar reports the owners of the other hot dog stands are angry that Staszewski does not have to pay taxes, and is lapping up business.
The vendors say they pay $42,000 in taxes for owning a building, while the stand doesn't pay any.
Staszewski, of Worth, was unemployed in December when he decided to start selling "real Chicago hot dogs," he said.
With $6,000, he restored an old Vienna Beef cart, added plumbing and electricity, tweaked it to comply with health codes and trained himself to be a sanitation manager. Now the cart is shiny and clean enough to attract motorists passing by.
But the many other hot dog vendors in Worth — Windy City Subs and Dab's Hot Dogs on Harlem Avenue and Mickey's Hot Dogs on 111th Street all are within a mile of each other. Staszewski is parking his stand right inside that radius.
"This guy's got to disappear from 111th Street," said Paul Barlas, who owns Mickey's.
Mickey's just started selling Vienna Beef hot dogs a few months ago. "He's taking our customers," Barlas said.
But the competition doesn't really seem to be hurting them, said Paul's son, George. In fact, none of their customers have said anything about the hot dog stand since it opened in early June.
"I don't think a wagon's going to affect us that much," George Barlas said. "We've been here 30 years."
Still, the vendors just don't think it's fair. But Staszewksi says the fact that they pay taxes and he does not is not a justification for trying to run him off the street.
"I don't really care what Paul thinks. Because he pays $40,000 in taxes, he gets to play president of Worth for a day and gets to decide my state? That hardly seems fair," Staszewski said.
Staszewski said he talked to all the hot dog vendors in the area before he opened to tell them he didn't want to step on their toes. No one seemed to care then.
But at the June 21 village board meeting, Worth mayor Randy Keller told Staszewski he has an unfair advantage with such low costs and high mobility. Staszewski said the mayor just misunderstands his business.
"I am in business to work with other businesses, and I think he thinks I'm some sort of threat to them. And he couldn't be more wrong," he said.
Besides, he said, "Nobody asked Barcode if G.O. Fitz could open across the street."
Staszewski was referring to two bars on 111th Street. His hot dog wagon was parked in front of Barcode 111 at its owner's request, because it attracts business and feeds its late-night patrons. Even though Staszewski isn't paying taxes, he said, he is helping a business that is.
He doesn't know what the board is going to decide. He doesn't want to leave Worth — he wants to eventually open his own hot dog storefront there — but if the village passes an ordinance that pushes him out, he'll pack up the stand go somewhere else.
Staszewski's customer asked him how late he would be there. He wanted to come back with his wife to order another few weenies. Staszewski looked victorious.
"I told the board, 'You're right. You can pull out my pockets, I don't have much money.' " Staszewski said. "But I do make a better hot dog."
The SouthtownStar contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire
