Lemonade Stands Are Illegal In Most of the United States
Though they’re usually run by kids who donate their earnings to charities, not everyone is a fan of the classic roadside hustle.
By Jessie Schiewe
Credit: Flickr/Amy Gizienski
It was a hot summer day in August of 2015 when Jerry Seinfeld, his son, and two of his son’s pals decided to sell lemonade. They set up shop on a stretch of grass alongside a roadside in East Hampton, New York, not far from the $32M home the comedian purchased from rocker Billy Joel in 2000.
A nearly 6-foot-tall sign scrawled with wobbly handwritten red text advertised what they were selling so that even drivers zooming by could read what they were missing. Dressed in baseball caps and shorts, the four salesmen hawked their ice-cold beverages to passersby throughout the course of the afternoon. They were raising money for a nonprofit organization started by Seinfeld’s wife, Jessica, called Good+Foundation (then known as Baby Buggy), whose mission statement is to “dismantle generational poverty” among families.
Thanks to thirsty customers and generous tips, they were on their way to raising “lots of money” — until a police officer arrived and parked his cruiser in front of the stand. He wasn’t there because he wanted a glass of lemonade. Rather, a neighbor had called the cops on Seinfeld and the boys for slinging the juice without a permit. And, because they didn’t have one, the policeman had them shutdown the stand.
This is a surprisingly common situation. Lemonade stands manned by children and adults alike are frequently nixed by law enforcement who may have noticed them in passing or been tipped off by a neighbor’s complaint.
As it turns out, the seemingly innocent summer pastime is actually illegal in 36 U.S. states. Only children lucky enough to live in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, or Connecticut can run lemonade stands without permits. The rest are simply breaking the law.
State governments’ main issues with children running the stands usually revolve around health code violations, child labor regulations, or pre-existing laws that require businesses of any nature to obtain permits.
New York only recently legalized lemonade stands in 2019, allowing children ages 16 and under to legally sell the beverage sans a permit, which normally costs $30 a year.
Colorado also changed its tune last year, allowing children to run lemonade stands and other small businesses, but only if they operate less than 84 days a year.
Many people are unaware that lemonade stands are illegal in most states. When a Denver mother named Jennifer Knowles set up one with her three sons in 2018 (one year before the state legalized the enterprise), she was shocked when two police officers showed up and told her that she needed not one, but three permits, to legally remain open.
Fortunately, obtaining permits is not difficult. When a neighbor reported a lemonade stand run by 7-year-old twin sisters in Savannah, Ga., earlier this June, the family promptly filed the appropriate paperwork to make the stand legal.
“What she tried to do, it caused the opposite, really,” the twins’ father told the TV station WSAV. “She helped us more than she hurt us.”
The merits of running a lemonade stand are plenty. Parents see them as opportunities to teach their kids a litany of skills, including mathematics, confidence, teamwork, time management, and problem solving.
“When you’re 5 and talking to an adult, it can be intimidating,” the mother of two lemonade sellers told the website C and G News. “As the stand grew, they learned different people skills and being comfortable around people of different ages.”
Lemonade stands are also a chance for kids to learn about altruism, with the bulk of roadside businesses run not necessarily for financial gain but to raise donations for charitable causes.
It’s also an opportunity for communities to come together. When Corpus Christi resident, Catherine Duarte, announced on Facebook that her brother, who has autism, was starting a lemonade stand to raise money to buy modeling clay, he received droves of customers, as well as donations through the Facebook Cash app.
There are a lot of factors that determine how much one can make selling lemonade — including the initial cost of supplies, the stand’s location and hours, the price of the lemonade, the weather, etc., — but the potential to make money is there. The Anderson twins in Savannah sell their lemonade for $1 a cup and can reportedly make $5,000 in a few days. Since they’ve been permitted, they’ve expanded their wares to include lemonade stand-themed merchandise and now offer 10 different flavors of the homemade concoction, including strawberry-kiwi, blue raspberry, cotton candy, coconut, and banana.
Credit: Flicker/Brian Lawson
Some kids are so dedicated to the art of selling lemonade that they’ve been doing it for years. A 14-year-old named Emily in Macomb, Mich., has been running the “Happy Day Lemonade” stand in her neighborhood since she was 4-years-old. The first year she made only $62, but after keeping at it for so long, and now with the additional help of her 10-year-old brother Michael, the stand has become a cash cow. In 2019, the siblings raked in over $13,600, donating the funds to the Macomb Intermediate School District Homeless Education Project, which has been their beneficiary for the last seven years.
Lemonade stands are technically illegal in Michigan and can result in a ticket and fines. Ultimately it’s up to the discretion of the police officer to enforce the law, and sometimes, as Emily and Michael have clearly experienced, they can be rather lax.
With each passing summer, more and more states are turning towards legalization of lemonade stands. Texas began allowing them in 2019, with Gov. Greg Abbot referring to their legalization as “a common sense law” in a public tweet.
Iowa lawmakers are currently considering letting children sell lemonade in peace. Their bill, which would let minors operate lemonade stands and sell food without permits, is currently waiting for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature for it to become the official new law.
The Country Time Lemonade brand has also taken a stance against anti-lemonade-stand laws, dubbing them “bureaucratic bologna.” In the summer of 2019, they set up the Country Time Legal-Ade website which aims to help children across the country by paying their lemonade stand permit fees or fines. Using slogans like “Take a stand for lemonade stands,” the website provides resources, such as a map showing where stands aren’t illegal, information on how to contact state representatives to lobby for new laws, and downloadable Legal-Ade support signs.
Credit: Wikimedia/John York
As New York State Senator James Tedisco said after his state passed the bill legalizing the enterprise: “There’s nothing that says America more than apple pie and kids running lemonade stands.”
If Tedisco and other lawmakers have their way, more states will follow suit with time, allowing the future leaders of our country to get their first tastes of the business world thanks to a few lemons, some water, and a heap of sugar.
JESSIE SCHIEWE IS THE EDITOR OF OK WHATEVER. SHE BELIEVES IN UNICORNS AND THRIFT SHOPS FOR EXERCISE.
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