Reflective Vests- The Solution To Our Failing Economy?

In Israel it's not a rarity to see people selling various goods to people in cars at intersections. I have seen people selling such things as hats, CDs, holy books and today reflective vests. You know those snazzy things that people like crossing guards and security personnel get to wear without people laughing at them (too much).

As I was heading home today from my base I looked out of the bus window when we stopped at an intersection, and saw some teenagers selling reflective vests. The more I thought about it the more I thought it was a great idea.

A law was just passed in Israel that all drivers must have a reflective vest in the front seat of their car at all times. If the car breaks down (or gets in an accident), the driver must don the vest before stepping out of the car so that cars driving by see the driver and more damage isn't caused. I personally think this is a really good law, if not a little dorky. I've already seen a few people wearing the vest on the side of the road. The problem with this law is that only recently people found out about it (I think it was only passed a few months ago) and it took effect as of January 1st. What does that mean? Well think of it this way- How many of us have reflective vests just lying around at home? Not surprisingly, there has suddenly been a large boom in the now very lucrative reflective vest market. These kids were just smart enough to tap in to it.

Think about how big the profits could be. Lets say you can purchase 200 vests in bulk for 5 NIS each. You work 8 hours a day and manage to sell 5 vests an hour, for five days, at a price of 10 NIS each. In a week you have doubled your investment, and made yourself 1000 NIS profit. Not bad for a weeks worth. Now, anyone not driving with a vest in their car is currently breaking the law. So let's say you hike up the price to 15 NIS and manage to sell 10 vests an hour. Now you've made yourself 3000 NIS profit in a week. Did I mention that this is tax free? I think I may just quit my day job (if only I could).

I'm not really sure how much they were selling them for, or how many they really sold in a day. However, I think one could make a pretty nice amount of pocket money, without too much effort. Kudos to these guys for thinking of it (or to the guy who's making 70% of the profits because he thought of the idea, made the initial investment, and is using illegal child labor to make some extra cash).