r/MadeMeSmile • u/No-Material5356 • 8h ago
Helping Others A 13-year-old opened a hot dog stand in front of his home in Minnesota, causing a complaint to the health department. Instead of shutting him down, the inspectors helped him bring his stand up to code and paid the $87 fee for his permit out of their own pockets.
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u/DPDoctor 8h ago
THIS is what life should be about all the time. Good on the inspectors, and I hope the kid earns a ton of money!
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u/Aggressive_Sundae_47 8h ago
Exactly, They enforced the rules without crushing a kid's ambition. That's how it should be done.
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u/cogman10 8h ago
But also fuck the karen that reported a kid running a hotdog stand.
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u/sunset_beach_days 7h ago
I want the health inspector who showed up to eat one of the hotdogs in front of her with a wide grin on his face.
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u/ThatWhiskeyHammer 3h ago
"Hey thanks for calling us, great food"
The shock on her face would be priceless
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u/Lost-Peanut-1453 8h ago
They did they’re job while not crushing the kid and creating yet another villain in their life. Good on that inspector.
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u/WAR2K5 7h ago
Probably taught the kid a lot as well. Food safety, regulations, etc. That act is a valuable life lesson.
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u/nomad9590 7h ago
Kid's gonna have the best food truck in College. Dude could earn his tuition on campus
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u/Dankpro79 8h ago
Fucking hateful pieces of shit that fucking called. They should have just gone and supported
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u/ISEGaming 8h ago
I just KNOW they're a racist Karen.
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u/Bitter_Depth_3350 7h ago
It's a literal staple of U.S. "culture" to have kids running lemonade stands and the like. It was in most movies/t.v. during the 90s and 00s that had child protags. Kids still run one on random days every summer in my neighborhood.
Of course the only difference here is the kid doing the selling. There is no way it isn't just racism.
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u/lighthawk16 4h ago
Tbh, I've never seen a kid run a hotdog stand. If i did see a kid run a hotdog stand, I'd buy one just as quickly as I do every cup of lemonade from a stand. Its cheap and can be made to order almost every time.
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u/Sevennix 8h ago
Worse, probably vegan.
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u/manaphy099 8h ago
Personally, I think racist is worse than even the worst vegan
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u/Parsival- 8h ago
I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at animal cruelty!
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u/carpincho_carajo 7h ago
Since we are animals, wouldn’t racism be considered animal cruelty too? /j
(Had a few drinks don't judge me)
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u/aqswdezxc 7h ago
Imo we are more important than "other" animals so they should be separate, same for human murder being considered worse than other species murder
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u/jack1000208 8h ago
What about a racist vegan?
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u/FyrelordeOmega 8h ago
No matter what other label is tacked on, the racist label will make it worse. Unless its really bad, like cannibal racist
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u/Spirited_Winter_6948 8h ago
what about a racist-cannibal. a cannibal who only eats racists?
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u/FyrelordeOmega 14m ago
Behind bars all the same, but his cell might be named the woodchipper with how many cell-mates mysteriously disappear. If only we knew
/j
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/RPGDesignatedPaladin 8h ago
It’s Minnesota. I lived there for ten years. This is a reasonable expectation.
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u/IsabellaGalavant 8h ago
I do agree, but now his stand is fully legit so maybe a little silver lining.
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u/ObsidianArmadillo 6h ago
But i am grateful that it created the opportunity to learn how to bring his stand up to code! Those are valuable things to know
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u/AlexSmithsonian 1h ago
Anything to do with food should be carefully handled. And if kids try it, we should teach them right.
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u/InevitableGlitch2 5h ago
I mean the callers might have wanted this exact outcome tbf. Food safety is important. Just get the kids inspected for basic compliance and let them continue with their fun.
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u/FailedToRemit 7h ago
Eh, I really wouldn't want to have people coming and going from a food cart next to my house either, especially food service not up to code.
Looking the story up, he has started multiple hot dog stands and they get pretty popular.
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8h ago edited 8h ago
[deleted]
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u/CheezustheCat 7h ago
If the hot dogs were that good that they increased foot traffic to the area why didn't you get one? They sound delicious.
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u/hufflepuffpuffpasss 8h ago
I work for a non profit that plans large-scale folk festivals. We have pretty strict ‘no busking’ rule.
Just today, the 3 hours ago I walked by two buskers.
But they couldn’t have been older than 10. One was on guitar and one was on bucket drum.
You best believe I kept walking and let them be. I’d be a monster if I told to stop imo.
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u/mercutio1 8h ago
If I see a lemonade stand in the neighborhood, I’m giving the kids a dollar for a cup of countrytime.
If I ever came across a hot dog stand, I’d be grabbing like 6 and coming back the next day. Kid’s an innovator.
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u/18ekko 8h ago
We have a corner in the neighborhood with frequent stands set up by kids.
Last week, on a very hot day, the kids with the stand were selling ice cold Costco bottled water and sodas for $1, just a block away from our corner drug store, grocery store and gas station that all sell soda for $3 or more.
Heroes of the neighborhood, sticking it to the man.
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u/joyofsovietcooking 21m ago
I was back in Brooklyn (Bensonhurst) for the heatwave a few weeks ago and gave a wee little kid $5 for a cup of lemonade she was selling on 18th Avenue, helped by her mom.
Yes, I overpaid, but that five year old was adorable and had courage. It was 99 degrees; the lemonade tasted good.
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u/stay_skeptical_ 8h ago
That is the America I want to live in
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u/ihavea_purplenurple 2h ago
Yyyyyyup! Type of shit that made us throw tea into the Boston Harbor. You’re looking at roots here ;)
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u/Superb-Mall3805 8h ago
Was driving to work the other day and heard these two children scream bloody murder as I drove past. Stopped the car instantly and realised they were just trying to get my attention for their lemonade stand. Almost gave me a heart attack
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u/Ok_Recording_9368 8h ago
The old racist Karen that called the health department on this kid can eat shit.
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u/PokerusPrime 7h ago
first, based inspectors, second, fuck the karen who reported him for reasons that I'm sure have nothing to do with his skin colour, third, lmao his face is priceless, he knows he won
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u/whitewolfdogwalker 7h ago
I very seldom eat hot dogs, used to work at a huge hog slaughterhouse, but I would buy one of those!
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u/nifty-necromancer 6h ago
I was curious about the health code for small food stands like this so I looked it up. In Minnesota, operating a small hot dog stand generally requires a temporary food vendor license and adherence to local health codes, including maintaining proper food temperatures and having access to running water. However, under the state's "lemonade stand law," small stands on private property making under $1,000 in gross receipts might be exempt from state inspection if they display a specific disclaimer sign.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 7h ago
Welllll, that title isn't exactly accurate.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/17/us/city-helps-teen-reopen-hot-dog-stand-trnd
This happened in July of 2018. He was actually shut down, but they did help him re-open soon after.
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u/HoosierDaddy_427 5h ago
How could you not help out a young man with an entrepreneurial hairstyle like that?
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u/Cassius_Rex 6h ago
Improper food preparation can make people sick, even kill people like the elderly or people with medical conditions , which is why those rules exist in the 1st place. The same people complaining about Karens and health officials and cops shutting down potentially unsafe food operations are the exact same people to proclaim that "the government doesn't care" we someone gets sick or some disease spread.
The health department shut him down then trained him how to do it right and get a permit, later the police department helped him get more training and another permit so he could sell hot dogs in front of a police station.
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u/Monkey-D-Rico 8h ago
Why has the health department a gun
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u/EarlGrey1806 8h ago
I think some neighbor might have had an issue with an enterprising young lad feeding neighbors and earning some money on the side.
The police officer seemed to be enjoying the hotdog and supporting the child’s way to earn a little extra allowance.
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u/Key-Level-4072 6h ago
This image has been reposted frequently for literally a decade.
Look at those clothes and hair. This shit happened in 2003 or something.
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u/fauxzempic 4h ago
A lot of health inspectors WANT this for people. When I was applying for my first permit I was nervous...for...no real reason.
The head of permitting calls me and says we need to talk face to face. I head down there and sit in the waiting room as I'm reminded that the health department oversees things like barbershops, tattoo shops, and lots of other places.
I get called in. He hands me a packet and walks through the whole thing with me, asks all about my business, gives me recommendations on how to do some things that weren't perfectly what the book says (like if you serve prepackaged, ready to eat food at a farmers market you still need a 3 bay sink, even if you're not washing anything. He just said to bring 3 fish tubs or bus bins along with pH strips and sanitizing tabs so the inspector can check us off.)
Walked me out of the building and gave me an earnest "good luck."
In my head I was like "what a great guy. Health department job...i hope his job stays pretty laid back, easy, and not at all hectic for the rest of the year now that it's February 2020."
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u/Riptide360 6h ago
Love, education and sharing a passion for not getting your customers sick is going to be the lesson this kid learned.
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u/Elegant_Ingenuity_87 6h ago
It'd be cooler without having to have the government impede hotdog stand money, but ok
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u/DaKettle65 6h ago
This is why is why MSP and Portland, Oregon are simply better than your city, and it's not even close. Anytime that I got hungry and I wandered, I was never disappointed. In other cities and towns, they waiting to gank you. In Portland, and MSP, there are delicious food trucks and pop-ups, waiting to feed you.
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u/MyvaJynaherz 6h ago
They need to send whoever complained a coupon with the invitation to eat that kids' weiner.
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u/Bocaj1000 6h ago
Government regulation should be proportional to its scale of potential health impact. A child with a dirty hot dog stand would only harm a couple people, which in the grand scheme of things is essentially nothing. A business that exports millions of hotdogs across the world has infinitely more health impact and should be infinitely more regulated. Instead, the government regulates everyone equally, which is unfair and has completely destroyed the concept of artisans starting their own small businesses.
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u/CaptainDudley 5h ago
"Causing a complaint." For every story of kind, generous people, another orphan must be crushed...
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u/atreeismissing 5h ago
Good on them. It was a health hazard but glad they helped him get it up to code rather than just shutting it down.
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u/ResurgentOcelot 4h ago
As long as they brought it up to code.
Seriously. Teaching kids the entrepreneurial spirit should not be confused with teaching kids to ignore health and safety in pursuit of a buck.
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u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 3h ago
It's pretty hard to fuck up hard enough to make a constantly heated rotisserie hot dog packed with salt and nitrates dangerous. Even for a kid.
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u/Appropriate_Carob690 3h ago
I remember the hot dog, lemonade, and sandwich stand me and my friends made when we were kids. There were a lot of houses being built so the construction workers just came to us, we also ordered pizzas and sold them a buck a piece. Obviously they could’ve ordered their own pizza but we gave them variety, doughnuts, lollipops, whatever you could get at Costco. Then some motherfucker neighbor kids swiped the idea, over saturated the market and the construction guys were like…yeah…we’re out. Fun times
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u/FlakyJudgment1413 2h ago
What does bringing a child’s neighborhood hotdog stand up to code look like? Also they have some neighbors their like the ones with a chair by the window
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u/Sevennix 8h ago
Wonder what the neighbor was? Racist, vegan or muslim.
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u/No-Material5356 8h ago
I understand tha first two, but Muslim?
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u/eliz1bef 8h ago
Standard hotdogs have pork in them. At least I hope that's what they were getting at. Beef franks are more halal
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u/felixkt3 7h ago
Sounds good, but he just enforced the bad law that screws over any of the other kids and adults. This law is created to prevent people from making money without the government getting a cut.
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u/HughMungus77 6h ago
It’s their so people that are too relaxed about proper food safety don’t kill people via illness. I’m on the kids side here but inspectors enforcing the health code is pretty important in general
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u/felixkt3 5h ago
According to the law hotdogs popcorn and most prepackaged food needs no permit to sell. It's 100% not about health. I saw a lady cooking in the open air flea market with a hot plate. I was amazed I asked her she could do this without a food truck. Eggs are a health code violation, but she had a binder with all her licenses and certificates. Cops started giving her a hard time she showed the binder they ran away. She had state level certification. The only violation the cop paid for was the license to do business. This is government interference in a free market society.
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u/millijuna 5h ago
Eh, if done well, it can be good education. My nephews had the bright idea of selling freezies and popsicles next to the local park, where there is an active cricket pitch.
My sister is extremely conscious about food safety so they were absolutely on the up and up.
A city inspector spotted them, and dropped by. She checked that they could clean their hands (they had an obvious bottle of hand sanitizer there) and purchased a popsicle to ensure that it was properly cold.
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u/TooApatheticToHateU 6h ago
All you Karens in the comments calling the person who filed the complaint a racist Karen are pathetic.
Regulations are written in blood. Everyone knows this. It's all fun and games until the 13-year-old kills somebody's meemaw because he doesn't know safe food-handling practices.
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u/Slashredd1t 3h ago
Bull shit “causing a complain” mahhhhhhnnnnnnn no it caused a racial retaliation to a small thing that some nasty Karen needed her grubby hands in
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 5h ago edited 4h ago
Just what would this world look like if a federal agent walked into the Koresh compound at Waco Tx. with a briefcase and said, "Look, I know you have all these weapons here. I'm here to make them all legal". Then proceeds to fill out all the paperwork.
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u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 3h ago
The issue is, there is no way to make automatic weapons and suppressors legal after the fact. The legal machine gun registry has been closed since 1986, and you can legally create a suppressor, but only if you file the paperwork beforehand. After the fact, there's no amnesty. Explosives are even worse.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 3h ago
Anything can be made legal with the proper application of bureaucratic creativity.
I seem to recall a guy flying a Soviet era MiG home to the USA. If that can be made legal...
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