DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

This incident happened while I was traveling back to Delhi from Chandigarh a fortnight ago. Since I and my friend reached the station just on time, we did not get time to buy water from the station. As soon as the train started on its journey towards Delhi, a number of uniformed vendors started selling their goods, especially water and other refreshments. We stopped one vendor, and asked him for water (Rs. 12), a packet of chips (Rs. 10) and biscuits (Rs. 10). We gave him a Rs 50 note and the vendor cooly gave us back Rs. 10 saying that the total was Rs 40. Then there ensued a big fight, after which the vendor started pleading (when he say fellow passengers pitching in) that there is hardly any money left if he sells at the MRP. We then returned the products back to him, took back our money and let him go.
This made me and my friend do a quick calculation among ourselves. If a vendor covers 10 trains daily   and manages to sell his products to 30 people per train (we assume an average number of passengers per train: 1000), this means he sells his products to 300 people. If he sells his products for atleast Re 1 more than the MRP he earns Rs 300 X 30 = Rs. 9000 extra per month! This is assuming that he charges just Re 1 extra per product (which is often not the case). Moreover, he also earns a profit of an average of Rs. 2 per product given to him by the distributor.
Read related  DARE story on Profitable Businesses with Products under Re 1 and blog on Most low-profile work earns Rs.20,000 a month.