One of the great things about Los Angeles is that there is a
double standard with people trying to make a living and people who try to do
things legitimately in terms of running a business. I was outside of Big Lots
when I spotted the bacon hotdog cart. No vendor’s license. Just a little bit of
tin foil, a cart which consisted of some bizarre box slapped together mobile
heating unit braced against a van. They are in a business lot. A few things
came to mind:
The law in Los Angeles requires you have a usable bathroom
within your eating establishment. The food trucks make deals with businesses to
do so. I guarantee neither Big Lots or K-Mart set anything up with this vendor.
I also doubt this lady knows this law. I only found out, because a food truck
vendor outside a cigar shop I frequent told me why the food cart doesn’t come
everyday. It requires they post up next to a business that allows its patrons
to use their bathroom. They cut a percentage of their sales to that business.
There’s no health code standards. This lady made bacon
wrapped hot dogs. I spotted her using the same tongs at the raw goods as she
did the vegetables. A total no-no. And a bin of condiments that aren’t chilled.
On a 90 degree Los Angeles day, this bad news. Especially with the mayonnaise.
Did she give a fuck? She gave no fuck. In fact, there wasn’t even water (that I
could see) to wash anything.
They are next to their van and using a heating element. If
they set fire to themselves…Big Lots/Kmart has themselves a massive lawsuit.
For what? It’s their parking lot. And it’s near impossible to regulate any
safety, as they are not in the cooking food business. Too bad though, it’s hard
to ignore this setup and not prohibit this.
Do I care? No. I bought a dog. Slapped some mustard and
onions on it. Paid my $3. The dog was solid. Good eats on a hot day. I felt
like a cop posted up against my car watching the human traffic. I watched as
people drove by in their car, stepped out, bought a dog and drove off. It’s
more than likely untaxable income too.
The thing that bugs me, is the debilitating laws that choke
out the ma and pa that want to open up a small business in a store. In a way,
this hotdog cart lady is what everyone should require to run a business. Nope.
If you set up a legit brick and mortar, the regulations and rules you follow
destroys your will to open a food business. If I got poisoned by her hot dog,
big fucking deal. I’m dumb to buy street food. IF I get poisoned at a legit
business, they’d be shut down. This is the hypocrisy of Los Angeles. I’m sure
no one begrudges this lady. I certainly didn’t. I patronized her business. I do
believe that there are things that we can overlook if we just use our heads and
not rely on a foolish “zero tolerance” policy. I guess my gripe is, stop
regulating small business with so many rules and laws. The liability is on the
business. Consider that now we have Yelp, the people’s opinion could kill a
business much faster than any regulation could.
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