Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Ice Cream
New York City Ice Cream Venders, circa 1930, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
July is national ice cream month. Historically many new immigrants in New York turned to selling food as street venders as one of their first forms of employment because it required little in the way of licenses, language barriers, or formal training. If one was savvy, had a product in high demand like ice cream on a hot day they with a good location could make a bundle. In addition, having a catchy signature cry that advertised your product represented a key marketing strategy that separated the top entrepreneurs from the average ones. This proved particularly the case when selling a highly perishable product like ice cream on a hot summer day on the streets of New York.
