County Sideswipes Taco Trucks

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Whew! I’m relieved. I didn’t realize there was a growing menace in our midst, and yet there is. The Los Angeles County supervisors last week took a bold step to rid our community of that menace. What is it? Taco trucks.

You might not have noticed it either, but taco trucks have been thriving. Yes, right here in our own community, particularly in East L.A. Thriving. Customers apparently like them because and this is the nefarious part they sell good food at a low price. Thank goodness our elected officials are putting an end to that.

In case you missed it, the supervisors last week unanimously decided to crack down on mobile food vendors by forcing them to move every hour or face stiff penalties even six months in jail. In parking-scarce Los Angeles, that’s close to booting them out. After the vote, one driver was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying, “If I lose my catering truck, I lose my home, my family.”

Hah! That’ll teach him to be entrepreneurial. This is Los Angeles County, after all.

The problem, according to area nonmobile restaurants, is that taco trucks are “unfair” because they enjoy a cost advantage, which means they can sell food at low prices. Restaurant owners pleaded for protection from the taco trucks, and the supervisors stooped to interfere in what otherwise would have been a normal round of business competition.

If this issue seems piddling, it is. That’s the point. When it comes to businesses that are competing with each other, it seems there’s no matter too small for local elected officials to poke their noses in, and pick the winners and the losers. Surely there are more important issues in a county of 10 million people for the supervisors to address.

I know this is an unconventional position, but here it is: Businesses are supposed to compete. Yes, it’s true. When businesses compete, they tend to come up with better products or superior service or lower prices. Customers benefit from better service or lower prices, etc., and they get to choose which they prefer. The onus is on the out-competed businesses to improve their products, services or prices even more. This kind of competition, if left basically alone, creates a cycle of constant improvement.

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is basic stuff. Econ 101. But apparently some elected folks around here need to get acquainted with it.

In the case at hand, it’s hard to see how the taco trucks are being unfair. They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. They’ve devised a way to deliver good food at a low price. The trucks cater to folks in a hurry, on a budget, or who simply don’t want to sit down in a restaurant. The only “problem” is that many customers are choosing the trucks.

The onus should be on the restaurants to compete. Can they boost their to-go service? Open a stand on the sidewalk in front? Lower their prices to beat the trucks?

But, nah. Why do any of that when you’ve got elected officials around who’ll intercede on your behalf and run out the competition?

Sarcasm aside, here’s a suggestion: County supervisors should back off their Draconian anti-taco truck law, secure in the understanding that business competition is not always pretty but it’s good. The taco trucks should be allowed to resume selling. The restaurants should figure a way to out-compete them.

That way, consumers would get to choose from whom they want to buy. After all, in our system, it is the consumers, not county supervisors, who should be the ones to pick the winners and the losers.


Charles Crumpley is the editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at

[email protected]

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