The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA) is campaigning strongly against the progression of food-truck culture in Hamilton. They have issued a letter to the Mayor and Councillors of Hamilton in an effort to stop the proposed amendments to the bylaws that will give food-trucks some more freedom to operate and serve the people of Hamilton. They are also campaigning on foot, going door-to-door to restaurants and businesses around the city seeking support and creating an atmosphere of misguided fear amongst the restaurant community. Gorilla Cheese and the members of the Ontario Food Truck Association refute their claims, as they are based on misconceptions that seek to misinform not only those for whom the letter is intended, but also their own membership.
Their letter is in response to City Council’s draft proposal to change the bylaws in Hamilton regarding Food Truck operations. The draft has not been posted to the City’s website at this time, so we can’t link to it, but the key points are reducing the distance that we can operate in proximity to a restaurant from a vast 100-metres of the property line to 20-metres from the entrance, providing a plan for our water and grease disposal, and a minimum distance of 1.5-metres from a property line on a private lot that we can operate. We worked carefully with City Licensing, BIA’s and Councillors to create a draft that gave food trucks fairer freedoms to serve the community, while still respecting the operations of local restaurants.
We are reaching out here to ask for your help. There are numerous ways that you can show your support:
1- Please sign our petition.
2-We ask citizens, business owners and restaurateurs to please draft a letter in support of food truck culture that we can use next week at City Hall. You can email your letters to letterofsupport@gorillacheese.com .
3- We urge you to attend the meeting at the City Hall Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at 9:30am.
4- We further urge you to SPEAK at the meeting. You can apply for delegate status here so your voice can be heard.
We apologize for the short time frame, but we didn’t count on requiring your help. We have the support of the great majority of City Councillors, BIA’s, business owners and the citizens, but ORMHA’s aggressive stance indicates that we need to rally further support quickly. Please read on for further details.
We met with members of ORHMA in good faith about 3 weeks ago, in an effort to clear up their misconceptions. During our discussion, they agreed that much of the information they dispel in their letter is incorrect, however they continue to use it and are still disseminating the false information through their website and in their discussions with the restaurateurs and businesses of Hamilton.
One thing to clarify is that ORHMA has denied us membership in their association. Are we not simply a restaurant with a different business model? The only true difference is that our restaurant is on wheels. We do not seek to compete with restaurants. In fact, many of you reading this know that we promote the food service industry on a regular basis, and encourage our followers to eat at many of the quality establishments around the city. We routinely promote local restaurants, recognizing that they are the main component of a strong food culture. We seek only to enhance that culture.
Here are some of their untruths and misconceptions, with our comments.
“…food trucks typically bank a profit equivalent to about 40 per cent of sales. For a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, the average profit is closer to 4 per cent on the high end.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. This information was based on a Globe & Mail interview early last year with Zane Caplansky, of Caplansky’s food truck in Toronto, that took place months before their truck hit the road. Zane, also a restaurant owner himself, will tell you today that his figure is far from accurate, now that he has the real-world experience of having his truck in operation for a year. Food trucks have many different factors that offset our profit margins considerably, like high fuel expenses, limited capability to carry stock, limited hours of operations, high event fees, truck repairs, food storage expenses, high insurance rates and many more unforeseen expenses. We, at Gorilla Cheese, have not been in operation for a year yet, so we can not give a fully accurate assessment of our profits. However, if you want a real-world figure, our bank account balance is the most telling data. It certainly does NOT reflect anywhere near 40% profit! It is more realistically closer to the figure ORHMA claims for their restaurant membership.
“The notion that the trucks attract people to a certain location is arguable, as they tend to gravitate to where the people are-they’re not stuck in a location that can’t make money.”
You can argue it all you want. We have PLENTY of real-world examples that we attract people to locations, and most of them are not where the people are. Upper Gage Garage, King St. in Stoney Creek, Frid St. – these are not exactly centres of urban sprawl. The current rules don’t quite facilitate food trucks to “gravitate where the people are”, as we have had to maintain the 100-metre distance rule, barring us from operating within 100 metres of a restaurant, park or school, unless we have prior-written consent. Take a drive through Hamilton, and try to find a busy area that does not have a restaurant within a 100 metre distance. And that’s from their PROPERTY LINE, not their entrance! This is a huge factor- the food court at Centre Mall is about 300 metres west of Kenilworth, but we have to maintain a distance of 100 metres east of Kenilworth, due to their property line, creating a distance of 400 metres from that food court. And even there, there are more restaurants!
As far as being “stuck in a location that can’t make money”, hmm… If I had a restaurant in a location that can’t make money, I would move, close up shop or make REALLY good food in order to attract people based on reputation. When location, location, location is such a key factor in the success of a business, the onus is on the business owner to choose a location that is conducive to their success. The absence of a food truck does nothing to improve a business’s location. Rather, the customers we attract through our social media and reputation are quite apt to discover that area, and patronize the businesses located within it. It sounds like an idealistic concept, but we’ve seen time and time again that it is an absolute reality, and we have a multitude of examples to prove it.
“Pressures from weakening economy have not been kind to the restaurant industry.”
Hey! We live in the same economy! Every business and every individual has had to adjust to the economy. Personally, I still wait in lines every time I eat out. Whether I’m ordering a sub from Queen’s Subs, making reservations at Rapscallion’s, or going through the drive-through at McDonald’s, the places where I eat are BUSY, despite the economy. People will always need or want to eat out. If an eating establishment is empty, it is not due to the economy, and certainly not because a food truck shows up for 3 hours every once in a while. Again there is a misconception that food trucks take business away from brick & mortars. Food trucks rely on their websites and social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to attract their clientele. Restaurants have the same tools at their disposal to market themselves as we do.
“Unpredictability of when and where a food truck may show up, creates an unfair disadvantage for brick and mortar restaurants”
Does a restaurant need to tell the other restaurants in their area when they are putting a food item on sale? No, of course not. Is that also an unfair advantage? Again, food trucks bring their own clientele via social media and their websites. We stand an equal chance that our customers may opt rather for a restaurant in the area when they are intent on coming to our food truck, but we certainly can not blame that restaurant for existing.
“Unfair playing field of start up and operational costs and permit burdens.”
The costs associated with opening a restaurant also give way to a massive advantages. They have the ability to stay open 24 hours a day if they desire, the ability to obtain liquor licenses and a far greater space to store their foods allowing them to serve as much food or drink as they wish.
“Restaurants have contributed to cities economies for many years with fixed expenses and have been paying taxes.”
Food trucks have only been around for a year in Canada. In a few years, we’ll say the exact same thing. Because we are such a new industry, Hamilton does not yet have a structure in place to appropriately tax food trucks. We are not adverse to contributing to taxes and fees that are proportionate to our operations- we use a reservoir for our onboard water that is taxed at the source, and we dispose of our own waste at our homebase that we rent.
Brick and mortar eateries concerned the trucks costing less to operate than traditional restaurants have an unfair advantage over the restaurants that:
o Pay high property taxes and premium rents;
So do we! We have to store our truck when not in operation, you know.
o Employ locals, including many youth and students;
So do we! We currently have 8 employees, and are hiring 2 more for the summer.
o Start up operational costs are much higher, including licensing, permitting and inspection compliance requirements;
You get what you pay for. Restaurants are able to generate far more daily income with the ability to stay open longer hours and the ability to sell liquor. Our inspection compliance requirements are the SAME. We apologize for having a different business model.
o A typical restaurant has the expense of marketing their location and drawing customers to the location;
So does a typical food-truck. We highly advise the use of the internet.
o Long term leasing/capital expenses;
Same here!
o Requirements for availability of serviceable washrooms, garbage disposal, parking, safety and traffic.
Same here, except for the washroom part. But we’ve never seen a washroom at a drive-through window, nor has any customer ever expected us to provide them with one.
We can’t stress enough that we are not in competition with restaurants. We patronize them often, and so do our customers. The stance of ORHMA is not shared by the restaurants that we frequent. The majority of ORHMA’s claims are based on petty jealousies of a new business model. Restaurants that are confident in the quality of their product have a genuine interest in food culture as a whole, and support the excitement that food truck culture can bring to a city.
The other thing to keep in mind, is that ORHMA is speaking for a very small percentage of Hamilton’s businesses, being those restaurant-owners who feel threatened by the presence of food-trucks. There are a great many other businesses in the city who can benefit from our presence. Due to the current 100-metre rule, we routinely have to turn down businesses that request our presence to generate their own sales by leveraging our marketing network, bringing people to their property and creating an atmosphere of excitement.
We are seeking your support in helping Hamilton progress towards a strong, exciting and vibrant food culture. Please,
1- Sign the petition.
2- Email your letters to letterofsupport@gorillacheese.com .
3- Attend the meeting at the City Hall Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at 9:30am.
4- Apply for delegate status and speak at City Hall.
Thanks so much for your help!
The Gorilla Cheese Team
