Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 15, 2008
Free the Vendors!

Will street vendors be allowed outside the new Washington park?

Twenty-three licensed hot dog vendors and souvenir peddlers were fixtures in front of RFK Stadium, where the Nationals played while awaiting the construction of the new stadium.

But they worry that the Nationals' concerns about competition for revenue is the reason the city Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has not given them a definitive answer about vending at the new stadium.

"We have not had any resolution of vendors being at the stadium at all," said Brenda Sayles, 60, who sold souvenirs at RFK.

Of course they should be allowed. The competition might do something to keep food prices down in the stadium.

Street vendors, however, can be anti-competition as well. There was a woman who used to sell pretzels from a cart outside the Science Center at Harvard, Pretzels from Heaven. They were good pretzels. She'd also show up at Fenway Park before games, at the Brookline Ave. end of Landsdowne Street. No one cared. Then one day, she put a steamer in her cart and started selling Hebrew National hot dogs for $2, half the price of the other street vendors. They were better and cheaper. Not long after that, the other vendors started complaining about her licensing, and she was gone.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:38 PM | Stadiums | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Capitalism....Protectionism....Let's all take a break from spring training and refresh ourselves on the works of John Locke and Adam Smith, the LAST Americans with any kind of original thought. Did I say that? When is opening day? Play ball !!!

Posted by: leco at March 16, 2008 12:07 PM
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