Labor Day Entrepreneurs

03May09

Merlin -- the wizard of beers.

You know those times when an idea comes up in conversation that seems so enticingly plausible that everyone says “Oh my god, we should DEFINITELY do that!” ? Things like starting a band, opening a bar or a business, or all getting an apartment together in New York City. Of course, those things rarely get carried out, which is why they’re so fun to think about.

Well that’s what happened to me a while ago, when my roommate Francesca suggested we sell beer at Rome’s colossal outdoor Labor Day concert on May 1. It made a lot of sense.  Concert-goers love beer, right?  They’ll be in the hot sun, in need of refreshment so we could turn a tidy profit just by walking through the crowd. They’d probably pay up to €4 or 5 for a drink! “Oh my god, we should DEFINITELY do that!” we all exclaimed, and promptly dropped the subject.

I came home from work on April 30, and thought it was strange that no one else was home. Even more surprising however, was about ten minutes later when Francesca and the rest of my roommates stumbled through the door carrying bags, backpacks and even a couple suitcases full of beer. But not just any beer. They had gone to the discount grocery store and purchased 144 half-liter cans of “Merlin Beer,” at about €0.45 apiece. (Never heard of Merlin beer? There’s a good reason for that.) “Ah, so I see you’re going through with it then?” I asked, amused. “Sure are,” they replied. “And so are you!”

And so, the four of us set off the next day, some of us more grudgingly than others, laden with our stock of still-warm beer.  The plan was to drop it off at a friend’s house near the concert, chill it in her freezer while we had lunch, and then we’d get started.  But as soon as we got there, we were overwhelmed with enthusiasm (well, some of us) so we decided to give it a shot right away.  Francesca and I took the first two backpacks, and told the other two to put the rest in the freezer.  “We’ll go sell these real quick and meet you back here in about a half hour.”

To our great surprise, our unchilled, unrecognizable brand of beer did not fly out of our hands, nor were the euros stuffed in our pockets faster than we could count.  We also realized that it was impossible to pass through the crowd, as the devoted fans in the audience were packed in closer to the stage like passengers in a Tokyo subway train.  We resigned ourselves to walking around towards the back of the crowd, where the people had come more to party than to see Vasco Rossi live in concert.  Needless to say, this type of person came prepared with his or her own beverages.  In the case that they forgot, there were vendors nearby with tubs of ice-cold, name-brand beer for half the price we were asking.  We did manage to sell about 3 or 4 beers at €4 euros, but probably more because of our (ok, Francesca’s) flirtatious marketing strategy than because of a demand for our product. 

After an unsuccessful hour or so, we began to accept lower offers.  Those offers were usually in the neighborhood of €1, and we jumped on it.   By that point, it was no longer even a pleasant room-temperature, so many people refused  our new, much more reasonable price.  When we rotated our stock with the beer from the freezer, things picked up a bit, but they didn’t pick up past a euro.  After a few more hours of this demoralization though, we didn’t care anymore.  Our only goal became to get rid of the damn beer, no matter the cost. 

At the end of the evening, we managed to sell all but two cans of Merlin.  Of course there was some collateral damage along the way, like the can that rolled into the street and exploded beneath a car’s tires, and the several beers we ourselves consumed.  To stay hydrated and all.  We each pocketed an impressive €32.50, which, when you subtract our inital investment of €16 per person, worked out to be €16.50 net.  I guess that means it was a success, since we techincally more than doubled our money.  But the next time one of those ideas comes up, and everyone else is saying “we should DEFINITELY do that,”  I think I might just have to disagree.

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Tags: beer, labor day, rome