Hot dog vendor Ray White of Big Ray’s Hot Dogs might be new on the block, but he has been in the business for 14 years.
White recently decided to set up his stand on the southeast corner of North Second and East Taylor streets on the Downtown campus.
White worked in consulting prior to selling hot dogs, and he moved to Arizona from Rhode Island in 1997 to further pursue his passion for street food.
“I was tired of being on the road with sales. I thought, ‘This looks like a good place to sell hot dogs,’” White said of his new location.
The vendor also sells his hot dogs in the parking lot of Sun Devil Stadium during ASU’s football season, as well as in front of Chase Field during baseball season.
White hopes to establish a relationship with students on the Downtown campus in order to generate business.
“It is a matter of building. We want to establish this corner,” White said. “Students are fickle when it comes to hot dogs.”
White had previously attempted to sell his Polish and Italian sausages off a light-rail stop on the Tempe campus and near the Student Recreation Complex pool, but he was forced to close both stands due to lack of sales.
White recently acquired his current location through the city of Phoenix’s downtown vending district’s bidding system, which awards sites every December.
The district includes the area from Fillmore Street to Jackson Street and Seventh Avenue to Seventh Street.
Prior to White’s relocation to the Downtown campus corner, Joe Grant, a hot dog connoisseur of sorts, worked there.
Grant was known to give students an IOU if they didn’t have cash on them. The vendor always appeared upbeat, according to Downtown student Jordan Hamm.
“(Grant) was great. I initially went for the food, but then I started going just for the conversation,” said Hamm.
Grant lost his vending spot in January, when complications regarding his taxes arose. At the vending district’s auction, Grant was asked to provide receipts from the year prior, which were at his house 30 minutes away at the time.
The city of Phoenix had two accounts open under the name “Big Daddy’s Dogs,” so Grant was accidentally sending his tax information to the wrong one.
Grant lost his spot to White that day.
“It was disappointing,” Hamm said of Grant’s move. “He was almost like a local celebrity to the students.”
“All I know is that he wasn’t allowed to bid,” White said of the auction. “(The corner) was the last one to come up, and no one was bidding on it, so I did. I wouldn’t have bid on it if he had been.”
There are no hard feelings regarding the loss, Grant said.
“It was an ignorant situation,” he said of the tax-related confusion. “I was ignorant, and so was the city.”
The former hot dog vendor now revamps and deodorizes repossessed homes with his sons.
Grant reflects positively on his hot-dog-vending experience, although he does not plan to get involved in the business again.
The corner’s current occupant plans to keep his stand open throughout April and May. White said he will most likely shut down during June due to the heat and lack of traffic around the campus.
“It’s a matter of doing it the right way and keeping prices right,” he said.
Big Ray’s Hot Dogs is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Contact the reporter at alexis.p.smith@asu.edu
