coffeeshark said:

The problem is that taco stands operate on the corner where Taco Bell sits, and the store owners are complaining to the local leaders, who are very attentive to their local business owners.

When you open a shop in a mall, you get a non-compete agreement with the landlord so a similar shop doesn't open right next door. Simple business. Taco stands should have to compete on a fair level with a business that has to pay rent, taxes, utilities, etc.

In the system known as "capitalism", using something called a "free market", bussinesses compete to provide the best service at the lowest price, for the lowest cost.

This is called "competition".

If the person competing with you finds a way to cut costs (such as by eliminating rent payments), then you can either figure out a way to compete with that, OR...

...you can bribe the local city council to use the powers of the government to shut down the competition through force.

Oh... forget what I said about capitalism and free markets. Doesn't apply in this case.

;)

coffeeshark said:

General Zang,

I'm sure you would open a restaurant, pay tens of thousands of dollars to get it going, and then you'd be perfectly happy that someone wheels a cart in front of your restaurant and sells the same stuff for less because they have no costs.

You're sure? You're sure that I'm the kind of idiot who would open up a new restaurant, pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privelege, and then bleed money like an open wound for two years until the restaurant gained enough bussiness to start turning a profit?

And you're sure that I'm the kind of guy who'd do all that, instead of just buying a $400 cart and jumping right into making a profit my thrid week in bussiness?

Don't be so sure ;)

It's not "competition", it's "unfair competition". Try to reason that through as the business owner. I don't have that kind of problem, but I can definitely see through their eyes.

Try to think this through like a smart bussinessperson.

Bussiness is about providing goods or services, at the lowest cost, and then charging the lowest possible price.

If some competitor is paying $1000 a month in rent, and another $500 a month in utilities and other crap, then that's his choice... but it doesn't obligate me to make the same choice.

Perhaps you think that all of the bussinesses doing bussiness on Ebay operating out of people's garages are "unfair competition" because they aren't paying rent for an office in some office-park?

Or perhaps you think that Netflix is "unfair competion" for video rental stores, because the poor mom-and-pop video stores have to pay rent AND local and state sales taxes?

Perhaps you think that Itunes is "unfair competition" for the record stores, because Itunes doesn't have to pay rent on thousands of local outlets in each town where they do bussiness with the locals?

Too bad, so sad. Ebay, Netflix, Itunes, and the local guy with the mobile taco stand have figured out how to shave expenses so their bussinesses will be more efficient.

Heck... the reason that they guys running an actual Taco restaurant CAN'T compete with this, is because the restaurants are specifically designed so that the owner can sit at home while high-school students making minimum-wage can do the labor for him.... whereas the guy pushing the mobile taco stand around IS the bussiness owner, and is doing the work personally.

So the fat guy sitting at home while others do the labor for him will cry that this is all so "unfair", because there ain't no way in hell he's willing to actually go out in the hot sun and earn his living by his OWN sweat, like the taco stand owner is doing.

coffeeshark said:

Trust me, I did think this through as a small business owner. Now it's your turn.

Me too. I also thought this through as a small bussiness owner.

Because, as you keep trying to ignore, the taco stand owner is also a small bussiness owner.... and one who is able to compete with bussinesses that have 1000 times as much capital investment.

coffeeshark said:

Sounds like you DO want a bunch of food carts pushed around town instead of restaurants. Nice town you'll have there. But at least it'll be cheap.

Actually, if it were up to me (and it isn't), and I had the choice between a town full of bussinesses that were run by owner/operators... or a town full of bussinesses that were all run as store #946 by some half-assed management team on behalf of some corporation five states away.... then I'd much prefer a town where the locals ran the bussinesses.

Why? Because the locals are real Human Beings. They are your neighbors, they are people you pass in the street every day, people who know you, and people who you know.

The corporate-run places are run like the local customers are interchangeable peas-in-a-pod, or just numbers on a balance sheet, with no humanity or soul, or neighborliness in their operations whatsoever.

Me... I prefer Human Beings. Which is why'd I'd general be inclined to support a real Human Being who ran a taco stand, over the carbon unit known as manager trainee #7863 who speaks on behalf of Taco Bell Franchise #897345.

But, hey, I guess I'm just an old-fashioned guy.