• 有人靠替别人排队，一小时就能赚40美元。纽约市有一家名叫Same Ole Line Dudes的公司，它的老板罗伯特·萨缪尔雇了45个人来专门替人排队。不管是明星诉讼案开庭，还是高端时尚特卖会，只要是你想参加又懒得排队的活动，他们都可以替你排队。他们的收费一般是每小时25到37.5美元，而且现在还有很多人想加入他的团队。
俗话说，赚大钱的方法都写在《刑法》里了。但是这位老兄用实际行动证明，老老实实替人排队，也是可以赚大钱的。
今年49岁的罗伯特・塞缪尔在纽约开了一家名叫Same Ole Line Dudes的排队公司，它的客户一般是通过电话下单请他们排队占位，费用通常为一小时25到37.5美元不等，具体要看客户的需求。塞缪尔是从2013年开始做这项生意的，现在他的公司已经有了45名专业排队员。只要是在纽约市，不管是法院开庭，新鞋发售，抢购百老汇门票，样品特卖还是网红餐厅等位，你都可以找他的公司替你排队。
纽约是全球知名的时尚之都，这也意味着这里每个星期都会冒出一些吸引人眼球的新东西，因为塞缪尔的公司全年都不缺业务。最近一段时间，由于“吹牛老爹”尚恩·库姆斯的官司快开庭了，他接到了不少来自《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》等主流媒体以及新媒体主播的单子。就这起法庭排位占位业务，他的收费标准是每小时32美元。
以前可能很少有人想过，替人排队也能成为一种职业，但是塞缪尔凭借这个绝妙的点子，打造了一家成功的公司，而且一干就是13年。随着业务蒸蒸日上，他的员工靠替人排队，最高甚至可以赚到40美元的时薪。
塞缪尔在接受《财富》采访时表示：“要始终对周围的一切保持观察。当人们抱怨一件事时，我们应该想一想，能不能为他们抱怨的事提供解决的办法。有时你都会被自己的答案吓一跳，然后你就可以迈出下一步了。”
替人排队：一小时可赚40美元
塞缪尔表示，来他公司求职的人源源不断。他的员工队伍的规模取决于纽约市的时事动态。不过即便“吹牛老爹”的官司结束了，纽约市很快也会有新的事情发生，比如广受欢迎的夏季活动“公园里的莎士比亚戏剧节”又要来了。
Same Ole Line Dudes公司的收费标准如下：
最低收费：2 小时起订，费用 50 美元，之后每小时额外收取25美元。
恶劣天气附加费：如遇雨雪天气或极端高低温，每小时加收 3 美元。
夜间时段附加费：午夜12点至凌晨7点排队，需额外支付15美元。
加急费：当日紧急下单的请求，需缴纳 20 美元加急费。
特殊场景溢价：节假日期间，按正常费率的1.5倍收费。热门品牌运动鞋（如 Supreme等）发售活动的排队服务，时薪为37.5美元。因为这类潮鞋抢购活动现场往往比较混乱，商品供应情况也很难预测。
塞缪尔表示，通过自主定价，加上他的公司已经主导了纽约的代排队市场，现在他的收入要比在AT&T工作时高得多，更何况现在他还是自己当老板。不过，就算你没能加入他的公司，也有机会成立一名独立排队人。
在热门求职网站Taskrabbit上，代排队的服务时薪从20到40多美元不等。不少人已经承接了几十次排队业务，这显示出市场对该服务的需求持续加大。他们也会根据天气情况收取附加费用，有的还表示最长可以代排24小时，以满足客户需求。按照他们的收费标准，有些长时间的排队任务，单次收费可达近1000美元。
从AT&T销售员到排队公司老板
在自主创业前，塞缪尔是AT&T公司的一名销售员，过着朝九晚五的牛马生活。
2012年，因为新款iPhone 5发布时间的问题，塞缪尔错过了一笔销售佣金，心情十分沮丧。为了让自己心里舒服些，他在生活网站Craigslist上发布了一条广告，提出可以替人排队代买在当时还很紧俏的iPhone 5。有人花钱雇了他三个小时，然而就在塞缪尔终于排到队伍最前面并且准备付款的时候，客户却告诉他，自己已经在网上下单了。
一脸懵逼的塞缪尔灵机一动，当即喊价100美元，卖掉了自己的排队位置。拿到钱后，塞缪尔立刻意识到这是个赚钱的机会，于是又回到队尾排了起来，接着以同样的价格卖掉了另一个位置。加上他替那个网友排队赚的钱，他当天一共赚了 300 美元。
塞缪尔回忆道：“当时我想，我就在人行道上坐着，什么都没干就赚了好几百。于是我创建了几个社交媒体账号，生意就这样渐渐起步了。”
在创业的前9个月，塞缪尔一直处于单干的状态，每一个订单都是自己亲自去排队。2013年他的故事被媒体报道后，他才有了钱去雇佣员工。当时纽约有一款叫CRONUT的甜甜圈卖得非常火爆，每天几乎都是秒售罄，所有人挤破头也要尝尝这款网红烘焙。所以塞缪尔经常要排队好几个小时，买到这款甜甜圈后再送货给客户。直到现在，他的公司仍在提供这款网红甜甜圈的代购服务，两个甜甜圈的代购费用是65美元。
现在，塞缪尔的公司越做越大，承接的业务范围也越来越广。光是法庭排队，他们就接过山姆·班克曼-弗里德、吉斯莱恩・麦克斯韦的案子，以及特朗普在纽约市的提审听证会等。他还有很多来自全球各地的客户，他们主要是想参加纽约的各种样品特卖会。本月早些时候，塞缪尔甚至受雇飞往内布拉斯加州的奥马哈市，为巴菲特的伯克希尔-哈撒韦的股东大会提供排队服务。
塞缪尔接到的订单既有纯粹的商业事务，也有客户的私人心愿——比如有人一辈子就想看一次百老汇的演出。而他也很热爱自己的工作，因为这份工作能够帮助人们实现梦想。
塞缪尔说：“仅仅通过排队这样简单的事，就能给人们带来快乐，这正是这份工作的美妙之处。”（财富中文网）
译者：朴成奎
• People are being paid as much as $40 an hour to wait in line for others—and Robert Samuel, owner of Same Ole Line Dudes in NYC, has a staff of 45 taking on the gigs. Waiting in line for anything from the Sean “Diddy” Combs case to high-fashion sample sales, Samuel typically rakes in between $25 and $37.50 hourly, and people are eager to join his operation.
There are a lot of unconventional ways to turn a dime into a dollar—and one entrepreneur struck gold by taking on the everyday annoyance of others.
Robert Samuel runs a line-sitting business in New York City called Same Ole Line Dudes; customers call and ask for someone to hold a spot for them in line, with hourly rates typically ranging from $25 to $37.50, depending on the request. The 49-year-old’s business started with the “cronut” frenzy in 2013, and now Samuel and his 45 employees queue up for hours for criminal trials, sneaker launches, Broadway tickets, sample sales, and restaurants.
In the city—where there’s a new passing craze every week—that means steady business rolling in all year. Right now he says requests are surging for the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial from media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and news bloggers. Samuel’s hourly rates for that trial are $32 an hour.
Line-sitting may be an occupation that few people know exist, but Samuel took a bright idea and turned it into a successful company and 13-year-long career. With business booming, people have the chance to reel in $40 an hour waiting in line for others.
“Always be observant around everything around you. When people complain, just put your thinking cap on and see if you have a solution to what they’re complaining about,” Samuel tells Fortune. “You would probably shock yourself and be on the verge of the next steps.”
You can make upwards of $40 per hour on the job
Samuel says that he always has a steady stream of interested applicants. And how big his employee base is depends on the happenings in New York. But even when the “Diddy” trial wraps, he said there will be something around the corner, like the wildly popular summer event Shakespeare in the Park.
Same Ole Line Dudes charges a two-hour minimum of $50, with an extra $25 per hour onwards. The business also has an inclement weather fee of $3 per hour in case of rain, snow, or intense temperatures. There’s an additional $15 charge for any line request going from midnight to 7 a.m., and a $20 rush fee for same-day inquiries. Hourly rates are 1.5 times higher during the holiday season, and for “hypebeast” sneaker drops, like Supreme. At $37.50 an hour, those shoe events can get rowdy, and are extremely unpredictable with supply.
In setting his own prices and ruling NYC’s line-sitting scene, Samuel says he makes far more than he did at AT&T. Plus, he gets to be his own boss. But in case you can’t snag a job working with the Same Ole Line Dudes, there’s also the chance to become a line-sitter on your own terms.
Line-sitters on popular employment website Taskrabbit charge anywhere from $20 to over $40 per hour for their services. Some of them have taken on dozens upon dozens of these waits, showing a steady stream of desire for the service. Upcharging extra dollars for things like weather, these taskers advertise standing in line for as long as 24 hours to fulfill a client request. At their independently-set rates, those lengthy jobs can mean a nearly $1,000 paycheck in just one sitting.
From AT&T salesman to launching a line-sitting business
Samuel’s business journey all started in the middle of his last 9-to-5 gig as a sales representative for AT&T.
It was 2012, and he was bummed he was going to miss his commission check due to the timing of the new iPhone 5 release. To make himself feel better, he posted an ad on Craigslist offering to wait in line to snag the highly sought-after phone. Somebody hired him for three hours, and once Samuel was at the front of the line gearing up to pay, his client informed him that he had placed an online order instead.
Unsure of what to do next, he turned around and sold his spot in line for $100. Samuel instantly recognized the exchange as a money-maker, and returned to the queue to sell another spot for the same price. Alongside the money from the Craigslist ad, he walked away with $300 that day.
“I said, ‘Well, what can I do? Wait a minute. I made hundreds just sitting on the sidewalk,’” Samuel says. “So I made social media accounts, and gradually it took off from there.”
For the first nine months, Samuel was running his business solo. He took on every line-sitting gig that came his way, and finally came into the funds to hire workers when the media covered his story in 2013. It was in the thick of the croissant-donut “cronut” craze, when everyone was fiending for the intensely popular bakery item. It always sold out in the blink of an eye, so Samuel would wait in line for many hours, pick up the pastries, and deliver them to customers. Same Ole Line Dudes can still be hired to pick up the sweets today—at $65 for two cronuts.
Now, Samuel and his employees take on a whole host of jobs. They’ve covered Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ghislaine Maxwell’s case, as well as Donald Trump’s arraignment in New York City. Drawing in clients from all around the world, most of his business revolves around holding a spot in line for popular sample sales. He was even flown out to do Warren Buffett’s most recent Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier this month.
Samuel’s inquiries can range from strictly business to a life-long wish to see a Broadway show—and he loves his job, because he gets to make people’s dreams a reality.
“It’s the beauty of bringing joy to people just by doing something as simple as waiting in line,” Samuel says.