NYC Launches Premium Industry Paying Strangers to Suffer in Lines
KEY POINTS
- ā¢Robert Samuel founded Same Ole Line Dudes nearly 15 years ago in Brooklyn to wait in line for viral NYC foods.
- ā¢Clients pay $25 an hour plus rush fees for sitters to grab items like Cronuts, dot cakes, and more.
- ā¢Over 4,900 freelance line sitters on TaskRabbit complement this market amid mixed reactions from restaurants.
In a city where waiting in line is practically a New York state sport, Same Ole Line Dudes, led by Brooklyn native Robert Samuel, have been cashing in on misery for nearly 15 years charging $25 an hour plus rush fees to stand in line for viral treats like $11 dot cakes, croissant cereal, and Cronuts. With 35 paid line sitters juggling requests across NYC and beyond, Samuel recalls dispatching six sitters to snag a dozen Cronuts for Japanese business guests aiming to impress with fried-dough diplomacy. Meanwhile, over 4,900 TaskRabbit freelancers hustle to secure everything from Broadway tickets to LāAppartementās croissant cereal, asking renters for trust, timeliness, and respectful dot-cake handling ('delivered in altered state' upon request). Even notorious West Village steakhouses disapproveāapparently line sitting isnāt classy if youāre not the real customer! Technology like Uber Eats may nibble business, but New York's line culture always finds new ways to make waiting an art formāand a profession.
Share the Story
(1 of 3)Only in NYC do people pay strangers $25+ an hour to suffer through hours-long lines for $11 tiny cakes while restaurants secretly pray itās not their table next. Line sitting: the hottest gig of social-media-funded human endurance.
Paying strangers to line up for your overhyped snack is peak 2020s hustle, but hey, at least someoneās finally monetizing standing still.
The dot cake economy is so booming that being professionally bored in NYC now has a website, a union, and probably a union lunch break.
Source: Eater | Published: 7/9/2026 | Author: Francky Knapp
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