Food Truck Bans: Good or Bad for Business?
Regulators have discussed bans on them for "cannibalizing" local businesses. But is that anti-competitive?
It's happened most recently in Maplewood, where city leaders have discussed possible restrictions on where food trucks can operate — or even if they can operate in the city at all. Council members have said the trucks could cannibalize the existing brick-and-mortar businesses in the area. The city hasn't yet made a decision on the issue. Eureka bans the practice, which also came to light again several months ago when a Chesterfield cupcake maker tried to operate in the area and generated Facebook buzz when it didn't happen. The Show-Me Institute has campaigned in its writings against the bans on food trucks, which it says are anti-competitive. In a recent post on the Maplewood situation, the authors said a move to ban food trucks would "…
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Tony
5:51 am on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
I think these are good points that could be mitigated by having a designated area of the public street whee food trucks could operate. Rather than mire it down in complex formulas as to who can operate where and when (and I dont think you are doing this) a simple area or areas where food trucks can pull over and operate (like a no parking zone except a food truck parking zone). I'm also not … more ›