Today we’d like to introduce you to John Wang.
Hi John, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I graduated from law school and business school during a recession (’09) with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student-loan debt. I bit the bullet and took a job as a corporate attorney in NYC, directing every dollar to repaying those loans. As soon as I repaid that debt, which took about four years, I left the legal world in search of a more personal calling. That soul-searching ultimately led to the Queens Night Market. I gave myself a year to chase after a crazy, risky idea to create NYC’s most diverse, most affordable, and most welcoming community event… fully expecting it would fail miserably just like most ventures in NYC. That was eight years ago. In the interim, the Queens Night Market has represented over 90 countries through our vendors and their food, welcomed over 2 million visitors, and helped launch approximately 350 brand-new businesses in the city. We introduced a novel $5 price cap on food (which now has some $6 exceptions) that has ensured that the hundreds of thousands of visitors we see each year represent, insofar as possible, a true socioeconomic cross-section of NYC.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It certainly hasn’t been easy. I’ve lived and breathed the project for the last eight years. I didn’t take a single day off the first three or four years, and it took at least that long for the business model, which prioritizes affordability above all else, to show any signs of sustainability. We grappled with an endless chorus of naysayers, detractors, and bureaucratic skeptics at the beginning. And when we did get up and running, we struggled with a few scary instances of over attendance as hordes and hordes of New Yorkers descended upon the event, not realizing we are a weekly event, not a one-off occurrence. Definitely a bumpy road to say the least. But I’m sure that’s true for virtually any business endeavor.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Queens Night Market?
The sole purpose of the Queens Night Market is to be NYC’s most affordable, diverse, and welcoming community space. That mission has been our north star since the project was just an inkling of an idea, and every decision made has been in pursuit of that goal.
We’re probably known most for the $5/$6 price cap we impose on any food sold at the event and for the diversity of our vendors, who have represented over 90 countries through their food. Because we ask our vendors to sell their food at a fraction of the price they would and could charge elsewhere, we pass along every cent of operational savings to the vendors so that they can ultimately be passed along to our visitors. If you want to be uniquely affordable for visitors, I think you have to be uniquely affordable and flexible for vendors to participate.
What am I most proud of? Definitely that the hundreds of thousands of visitors we see each year come as close to a true cross-section of NYC as I know of. Our crowd on Saturday nights looks and feels like a representative mosaic of the diversity that makes this city so inspiring and so great. And I really think that’s only been possible because we’ve been so uncompromising on our values, no matter how hard they are on the business model.
If we let go of our unique price caps or turned the event into a ticketed attraction, the event would be quite lucrative as a result… but each of those tweaks would incrementally compromise our mission and the visitor experience, and that’s a slippery slope I’ve insisted on avoiding. Honestly, if the paycheck were really a priority, I would have stayed a corporate lawyer and probably been pretty close to retirement by now!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Sorry, no time! Having a one-year-old is intense and time-consuming!
Pricing:
- Food price caps: $5/$6
- No admission fee
Contact Info:
- Website: queensnightmarket.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/QueensNightMarket
- Facebook: facebook.com/QueensNightMarket
- Twitter: twitter.com/QnsNightMarket
Image Credits
Storm Garner, Sharon Medina
