Hot dogs, camping trips and cardboard boxes: What these non-scientific indicators tell us about the economy

Gray’s Papaya hot dog restaurant in Manhattan has served up beef franks to the hungry and frugal masses for the past five decades.

But the bustling business off 72nd and Broadway isn’t just an iconic New York City bastion for cheap eats — it also moonlights as an unofficial economic indicator.

When hot dog sales there see a dramatic pickup — particularly the two-frank-and-tropical-drink “Recession Special” — it’s usually a signal that folks have fallen on harder times, owner Rachael Gray told CNN.

“We noticed a big uptick around 2008-2009, when everything was collapsing (amid the Great Financial Crisis), and we are feeling the same thing right now — to a lesser extent, obviously, but the pattern is the same,” she said.

There are scores of traditional, time-tested gauges of the US eco