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Using government to put your competitors out of business!
If your business sucks and can't beat your competitors on price, products or location, you can always asked the government to put your competitors out of business. In the case a restaurant in Mesa seems to way the government to put street vendors out of business. Mesa mulls revising vendor code Mesa may alter peddler code to protect restaurants by Gary Nelson - Jan. 5, 2012 09:40 AM The Republic | azcentral.com When Sam Clark opened his downtown Mesa coffee shop this year, he knew there was competition from neighborhood shops that, like him, had invested in bricks and mortar. What he didn't count on was competition from street vendors who, because of their low overhead, can give the brick-and-mortar places a literal run for their money. Clark began complaining that some of the sidewalk vendors were making it hard for his new shop. He now has the ear of at least one city councilman, the president of the Downtown Mesa Association and City Hall's tax and license administrator, who said proposed changes to Mesa's peddler code may go to the City Council early in 2012. Clark opened Lo Fi Coffee late last spring in the historic Nile Theater. "It's going," Clark said, "but as a small business you've got to capitalize on every single customer that walks down the street." But sometimes, he said, those customers are impeded by carts and tables on the sidewalk, and in a recent e-mail exchange with DMA president David Short, he said, "For every $10 I sell, those hot-dog carts are doing $50." Short told The Republic that street vendors are normal in urban downtowns, but they can make life harder for other businesses. "Vendors can easily move, whereas in-store permanent locations have a lot more overhead and are a lot more invested," Short said. Even more bluntly, Short told City Councilman Chris Glover in an e-mail, "It is my opinion (the vendors) do create an unfair environment with our bricks-and-mortar businesses." The vendors, Short said, may have a place "once our downtown restaurants become more established." But for now, he said in the e-mail, "they are unfortunately taking business away from our restaurants." The hot-dog guys don't see it that way. During a recent weekday noon hour there were two of them -- Albert Farmer on the southeastern corner of Main Street and Macdonald, and Earl Rogers on the northeastern corner of the same intersection. "We pay to be here," said Farmer, who has been running his stand for about four months in the same spot where previous vendors have operated for years. Farmer doesn't think he's competing with the Main Street eateries that have proliferated as downtown works to capture more of an eclectic, artsy feel. "I've done about $45 worth of hot dogs today," Farmer said when a reporter checked back at midafternoon. "If $45 makes or breaks the coffee shop or the restaurant, they're in trouble." Rogers is an out-of-work maintenance man who said he's selling hot dogs between regular jobs. "If I get a real job offer, I'm gone," Rogers said. In the meantime, he said, there are days when he does only $20 worth of business. That doesn't include coffee -- he said he won't sell it because that's the coffee shops' job. There's even a poster for Clark's shop on Rogers' stand. Rogers said the people who stop by for a hot dog are not the same people who otherwise would go into a restaurant. "What clientele am I after?" he asked rhetorically. Both carts are charitable enterprises, in a way. Farmer said his proceeds help support the Transitional Living Center, a downtown substance-abuse recovery program. Rogers said at the end of the day, he often gives his leftovers to homeless people. Tim Meyer, Mesa's tax and licensing administrator, said he has had conversations with Short and is working with other city staffers to revise the code that governs such vendors. "We are looking to try to address the concerns that have been raised by the businesses downtown," Meyer said. One possibility would be to forbid vendors from operating within 300 feet of a restaurant. That would force both of the downtown hot-dog stands to move. Meyer said he aims to present the proposed revisions to the City Council early next year. Meyer said downtown vendors are typically careful to obey the law because they operate right under the city's nose. "If we see a vendor set up downtown it's kind of a red flag and we're right on it," Meyer said. Glover, meanwhile, said he has met with Clark and urged him to speak to the council during the public-comment part of an upcoming meeting. "I'm not on a witch hunt," Clark said, suggesting downtown might sponsor a day when all carts are welcome, while banning them at other times. "With them setting up every day, it reaches this level of saturation where it doesn't benefit anyone but that food vendor," Clark said. "I want everyone to succeed," he said. "My only enemy is a closed business." Rules for vendors Rules for sidewalk vendors are found in the "Peddlers, solicitors and transient merchants" section in Chapter 8 of Mesa's city code. The law allows the sidewalk operations as long as they're properly licensed and they don't impede pedestrians. To get a license, a vendor has to pass a background check, pay for license fees and post a bond. A license does not give someone exclusive claim to a particular spot, and vendors are not allowed within 300 feet of public schools. |