Can you really buy a Mustang by selling vada pav? Explore the numbers behind the viral success of Chandrika Dixit, the street food seller from Delhi, and find out if it's possible to afford a luxury car from selling street food.

A Mustang roughly costs 80 lakhs in India, and a vada pav costs 50 rupees. To afford a Mustang, the viral vada pav girl needs to sell 1.6 lakh vada pavs. She claims she earns 40K daily, which means she sells around 800 vada pavs a day. The maximum cost per unit (economics) can be around 20 rupees, which means a 30-rupee profit per vada pav. That means roughly 2.7 lakh vada pavs need to be sold to earn 80 lakh rupees.

Ideally, the selling window for street vendors in India is in the morning or evening. Considering a selling window of 5 hours (or 300 minutes), the numbers suggest that she takes about 30 seconds to sell one vada pav. This is pretty doable, especially if you have everything at your disposal. While writing this, I’m also factoring in the cost of establishing a roadside thela because, frankly, I make way less than that by writing articles at CarWyapar.

Nonetheless, looking at the numbers, one would need 333 days to earn a profit of 80 lakhs by selling vada pavs. Out of that 80 lakhs, one cute old aunty named Nirmala will deduct 30% as her cut. This means you’ll be left with 66 lakhs. And certainly, you’ll need 4 more months to hit the 80 lakh mark.

So can you buy a mustang by selling vada pav? The answer is, of course, you can. In fact, I remember once going to a tea seller in Patna early one morning. He set up his stall in a very crowded student area, and I happened to be the first customer there, just as he was opening up. While I was waiting, I overheard him discussing a deal to buy a flat worth 45 lakhs. So yeah, it’s pretty foolish to assume that those who sell on footpaths are poor.

Did vada Pav girl actually owned that Mustang? There were reports claiming that Chandrika Dixit, the vada pav seller from Delhi, bought a Mustang after gaining popularity through her food business. However, as of now, there is no confirmed or verified news source that explicitly states she owns a Mustang. She was apotted in a Mustang which was reportedly owned by some corporate company belonging to a businessman.

But can she afford one?

The short answer is Yes!