What Kind of Regulations Should Food Trucks Have? Part II

The clash of micro business street vendors and the small brick business have been competing for centuries. 

Every country has created laws to protect one sized business over another. 

One example is on NPR's Fresh Air, where they talked with Marc Levinson on the topic of “How the A&P changed the way we shop.”  Levinson suggests that during the 1920s to 30s, there were anti-competitive laws created by taxing different companies differently by their size, to support the anti-chain store movement that were crushing locally owned small businesses.  A&P started small and became a major corporation, which clashed with many micro street vendors and small businesses. 

The current issues that Atlanta street vendors face to get ahead is no different than what A&P faced. 

In human history, every major city has created laws to protect brick businesses over street vendors, much like large corporation have much more protections than small businesses. 

In Robert Neuwirth's book Stealth of Nations:The Global Rise of the Informal Economy, he gives an example on how one law protected one sized business over another.  In 1883 in Los Angeles, “a banker whose business was worth more than $50,000 paid $35 a year for a city license, while a peddler with a horse-drawn cart paid $40.”  Fourty dollars was expensive for a license in 1883, just like the high rent in Atlanta has made it hard on businesses. 

In the AJC article “Street vendors lose with new pact” by Christine Gallant, Gallant mentions that Atlanta wants to “improve the quality of life downtown by constructing large metal vending kiosks” with corporate advertising on them.  Like the 1883 peddler paying more for a license, these new Atlanta kiosks would charge $500 in rent per month, which would cut into the profits of any street vendor. 

Running any business is expensive, especially for a micro street vendor business, but if the idea of running any business is making a profit, how can you make a profit with such high rent?  This is why some laws favor some over others.  Even vendors in the article “Street Vendors near Turner Field sue over new rules” mentions how they would be affected with the new laws by “force them to pay $6,000 to $20,000 in rent to use new kiosks during Atlanta Braves' home games.”  This law benefits larger sized businesses over the street vendor.   

Laws can crush businesses, but sometimes laws can be worked around by a simple idea: lobbying. 

Lobbying is the best way for any business to push thru permits or licenses quickly in city and state government.  Of course, a micro business such as a street vendor, may not have the money to hire a lobbyist to petition the local government, which is why some businesses have an advantage over others and is not a free market.  Of course, if the Atlanta street food vendors hired a lobbyist through their coalition, then they would have another advantage.