Beginning of the Vendor Backlash: My Case Against the La Cense Burger Truck
The overhyped by the press, but underwhelming from a food standpoint, La Cense Burger Truck announced on Twitter yesterday that they’d be hibernating until Spring. Winter is traditionally a slower time for street food sales, but for most vendors it’s still worth coming to work (as long as you don’t sell ice cream.) So why is La Cense closing up shop? Who knows for sure, but I say good riddance. I know it’s mean, but I feel compelled to be against any street vendor that simply seems to be using their truck for marketing purposes. After the initial lines, the demand for La Cense seemed to die off pretty quickly. But they can afford to stay on the street whether they make money or not because they’re owned by a large mail-order company, who in my estimation is just using the truck to promote their line of gourmet beef. And, sadly, it’s worked. Despite the mixed reviews by the public, they’ve been included in tons of street vendor trend pieces.
So why does this bother me so much?
There are a limited number of street vending permits available in New York City, so for every La Cense Burger Truck on the street that’s one less vendor who actually cares about something more than just media exposure. I’ve been vocally cautious about the influx of new vendors, and how it will effect the overall street vending scene in New York City- but that hasn’t stunted my support for a bunch of the new school vendors- like the Treats Truck, Schnitzel & Things, Wafels & Dinges, Street Sweets, and NYC Cravings. And the one thing those vendors have in common is you can feel the passion behind what they are doing. It’s a personal business for all of them, and it comes across in their twitter accounts, their customer service, and most importantly, their food.
I know some people will say “It should just be about the food! If it’s good, it’s good. If not, so long. Who cares who owns the truck.” I agree about the food part, but the free market doesn’t work that way. While old school vendors, like the Biriyani Cart and Kwik Meal, have to support themselves entirely with the money they make, trucks used as moving billboards don’t. They don’t have to be profitable because the larger company justifies their existence as a marketing expense. And the only person that hurts is us, the street food loving public. La Cense burgers are ok, but there are plenty of better burgers in Midtown- and if they weren’t backed by a larger corporate entity I doubt they’d stay in business for long. Sound familiar? It’s the same reason that Midtown is now filled with so many corporate fast food chains.
I still think that the forces against “Vendrification” will prevent large companies from taking over street vending in New York City. But the La Cense Burger truck model represents my biggest fears going forward. Single day, silly street vending marketing stunts are one thing. But permanent street vending trucks, operating as loss-leaders, whose sole purpose is to promote a larger entity? No thank you. I guess what I’m saying is, let the backlash against corporate marketing trucks begin here! Street vending should be about street vending, not about PR. Worse case scenario in my mind (next to the city outlawing all vending) is a Midtown filled with La Cense Burger Trucks.
Related:
Why “Vendrification” Will Never Happen in NYC
Your First Look At (And My Humble Suggestions For) The New La Cense Burger Truck
Posted by Zach Brooks at 9:15 am, October 20th, 2009 under La Cense Burger Truck, Street Vendor Issues.
39 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
39 Comments
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Its a bit of a faulty argument. Even though it is more a marketing expense (loss leader) than a profit center, having a truck in midtown that serves mediocre burgers and/or isn’t patronized by many people isn’t going to help sales.
You posting about it may increase the brand awareness but reading about the bad burgers doesn’t make me want to go there or order their grass fed burgers off the internet.
At least they are trying something different as opposed to the generic hot dog vendors all selling dirty water dogs and frozen pretzels sourced from the same commissary.
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One more point… If Popeyes opened a fried chicken cart/truck, you’d be all for it, correct? I can’t imagine you’d be railing against it for taking away a permit from a non-corporation backed individual. You’d probably be sitting on a sidewalk knee deep in greasy and chicken skins…
You aren’t the SVP fighting for the little guy. You are a fat man fighting for delicious food for your gut
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I erased my response to RBS05. It seemed pointless.
However I must concede one thing… Zach, ESNY has got you with that Popeyes remark :) (but that’s probably the exception, not the rule).
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agree with adam and esny. haha, a popeyes truck would RULE THE WORLD!!!
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No no, please share.
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No. A Popeyes truck would be an extension of the restaurants. Like Rickshaw or Daisy Mae’s. It’s not even close to the same thing.
Aside from whether they ‘should’ be out there, the La Cense truck is purely a marketing gimmick. How much do you want to bet the La Cense truck is budgeted under ‘marketing expense?’ on the company books?
I think it sucks. When does the McDonalds truck start elbowing out the Schnitz guys on 52nd? How about a Taco Bell truck on 14th and 8th, where the good taco truck parks? It could easily happen, and I bet there’s plans and proposals already happening at some big companies.
But I really don’t see how you would or should keep them out.
I do wonder how La Cense got their permit. If it were through shady mechanisms they should lose it, like anyone else.
Speaking of permits, one rule I would like to see is a limit on how many permits one entity can hold. I would hate to see a situation where, as with taxi medallions, many are held by a very few.
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I had their burgers once and it was fail. That’s it. Never going back because they didn’t prepare it well.
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“I think it sucks. When does the McDonalds truck start elbowing out the Schnitz guys on 52nd? How about a Taco Bell truck on 14th and 8th, where the good taco truck parks?”
Wouldn’t that make it an extension of the restaurant? Popeyes is okay but McDonalds isnt?
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RBS05 – sorry I came off like a douche. That wasn’t what I meant.
What I meant was I don’t think many people really get what Zach’s point is, or at least you arent attacking his point from what I can see.
I don’t think his “whole point” was to bring something innovative to “the scene” (“important point”? sure, “whole point”, not quite). If that were the case he wouldn’t keep arguing that places like the LCB truck are harmful to “the scene”.
It’s not hypocritical because on one side you have a CORPORATION that is using the resources as a marketing campaign, and on the other side you have INDIVIDUALS using the resources to generate a meager* income. (* not referring to the exceptional cases like the hotdog guy planted outside the Met who can pull in a half mil a year slinging *hot dogs*).
So yeah, as funny as the popeyes comment was, It doesn’t seem that Zach is championing food for the sake of food (or his belly), at least not if you read all of his comments on the matter.
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RBS05 I think the popeyes thing is more of a joke. Probably the weak link and the chink in Zach’s (or anyone else’s) armor.
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Adam, I don’t know if your response to Loco was Zach’s main point, but the way I read it is that he is against the trucks that can’t support their own existences – being a part of a significantly larger entity is ancillary.
Zach, do you actually have any idea about the financial state of the truck?
Lastly, there are not many better options in midtown east. I, for one, love the La Cense burger, and last I checked, I’m nobility, so my opinion counts more than all you plebes.
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I want to agree with you Zach and I think you usually make great points, but I just don’t buy this one. La Cense was an easy target for you. The burger didn’t live up to the hype and proved to be a fail. End of story. But it appears that you retro-fitted a general thesis and concern to this specific case. The problem with your conclusion is that it assumes that the food truck extension of a larger brand is going to operate as a loss-leader or to put it differently, your thesis only applies where the food truck actually is a fail. And look at how narrowly drawn your thesis is: “But permanent street vending trucks, operating as loss-leaders, whose sole purpose is to promote a larger entity?” So, to fit into this category, you’d have to be a food truck that has crap food that turns out to be a fail and whose only reason for existence was to promote a larger brand or company. It basically only applies to situations like if Red Lobster decided to use marketing dollars to open an NYC food truck serving disgusting lobster rolls. What was the harm in La Cense taking a shot with the burger truck? It could have turned out to be a great burger and great lunch option…certainly better than those BS pretzel and hot dog carts all over the city. Who really cares that the primary purpose of the La Cense truck was to promote the company’s grass-fed beef? We’re tastemakers here in NYC. Companies pay money to set up shop here to get the word out on their products. I like having the opportunity to walk 2 blocks from my office on Park Ave and try a grass-fed burger for lunch from Montana. It’s pretty damn cool, actually. If you want large corporate entities to stop promoting stuff here, this city will turn into a bankrupt sh*thole. You mention old school vendors like Biriyani and Kwik Meal–but carts like this w/ real food make up probably about 1-5% of the street vendor population. 90% of what’s served on the street is pure shite. Let’s pretend for a minute that Danny Meyer wanted to open some food trucks around the city. I bet people would be all about that. I would. Or let’s pretend Pat LaFrieda was taking his meat national and decided to open a burger truck to promote the different burger blends. People would be all over that, too. Dirty water dog carts w/ disgusting pretzels are a much bigger waste of vending permits than the type of carts and trucks you’re expressing concern about.
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Adam, you’re right, I hyperbolized (word?) with my comment re: Zach’s intentions. Plus we all know his (and our) whole point is really to find more ways to fatten up cheaply in midtown!
But to me, like WinedandDined has said (hopefully next time with some line breaks :)), it’s all about the food. I honestly ask why should it matter whether a corporation is selling us food as some sort of grand marketing plan? If the food is good, it will work and the truck will scrape by, and if its not, it will die out.
I understand that this is one less permit going to an individual who could be doing something better for all of us, while getting by on his meager income, but that’s a huge separate issue, and LCB apparently played by the (bad) rules already in place.
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yeah corporation owned trucks just looses the whimsical and passionate nature of food trucks/carts. I had their burger, and it wasn’t anything I wanted to go back for, so i’m not gonna cry about one less truck on the street.
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please tell me where to get a better grassfed burger in midtown for under $10.
Thanks!
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Danny, nothing is worse than two people arguing off topic (noted that I “started” it), so let’s not drag this out. I actually agree with everything you say but the fact that you can’t control every aspect of your life isn’t an excuse to blatantly blind yourself to the effects of your choices that you can control. Which is how you came across. That is all.
Though in response to your second post I can’t help but point out the fact that many of the most influential people throughout history became so because of their focus to ONE particular issue.
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@Moon,
Agreed, let’s not take this too far outta hand :D We can both agree that we want tasty food, and thank god for ML.
Btw Moons, this can go on and on about your shoes, the wood that was used to build the floor, the metal that’s used in the building you work at.. blah blah blah.
The point is, people concerned about food like to talk about what they have control over. They like to talk about what they’re focused on. So I think it’s really really disingenuous to make people feel bad about their choices as if they’re drones, when the preachers don’t realize what their other lifestyle actions have on the world. The world is too vast and complex, and really I don’t blame people for doing what they do. I only blame the preachers who focus on telling people to be responsible in ONE particular aspect, simply because that’s the aspect that the preacher is concerned with.