These are three quotes from the President and CEO of the British Columbia Restaurant & Foodservices Association, Ian Tostenson.
“The city put a moratorium on the licensing of new food trucks until they could figure out what the impact was, both for restaurants and food trucks.”
“We never opposed food trucks, we just opposed the continual expansion of it without having an awareness of what the impacts were in the marketplace.”
“In fairness, I think the city cracked down and if any of the food trucks were encroaching or operating in areas where they shouldn’t be, they put some rules in place.”
“[Food trucks] don’t pay anywhere near the same costs as restaurants do.”
Questions that my data does not answer:
My data does not tell me anything about how food trucks impact the food and restaurant industry. While the dataset tells me the locations of food trucks, it doesn’t tell me the concentration of restaurants in that area.
As far as the impact of food trucks, I could only really get that information from the restaurant themselves, if they were willing to give me the numbers on their books. But that doesn’t necessarily link to the impact of food trucks. Like Tostenson said, the city is doing some research to find out exactly what the impact of food trucks are in the marketplace.
The kind of data that’s probably more accessible would be along the lines of operational costs of food trucks and restaurants, including rent and licensing, which I could get from the City of Vancouver and/or the companies themselves, depending on whether they would be open to disclosing that information.
As for the concentration of restaurants, I could get that information by surveying those locations myself. There is also a dataset in the City of Vancouver website that has a list of all business licenses issued. If I could clean that, I might be able to see restaurant locations.
Dude, why isn't your graph in the same post as this one... I got confused and thought you hadn't done the assignment, but I talked to you before class and knew that you did. So definitely put both posts together to alleviate confusion. I'd like to know what "other" means, especially if it's such an important column in your graph. Your quotes are great though.
ReplyDeleteCould you compare the rate of growth of food truck to the rate of resturant closures? I would think food trucks would have negitive effect on smaller resturants that appeal to the same demographic of customer (ie business people working in the city on their lunch break). You could possibly find a correlation there? And yeah I agree with Alex, you should do something to clarify what "other" means in the graph, are they fusion food truck? the data might give you a clue on how to rename it.
ReplyDeleteI am confused on what your story is about. The graph talks about types of food that vendors sell, yet your interview Ian Tostenson talks about costs of restaurants versus vendors and licensing. I think you really need to narrow down your topic and choose one or the other.
ReplyDeleteHey Stu. I think it might be interesting to include in your story how the association is doing to monitor the impact food trucks have on the restaurant industry and how long the moratorium will be in place. I think your bar chart is clear. Do you have data on the location of the food trucks? It might be interesting for readers to be able to interact with a map of where the food trucks are located. Personally, I would want to know where to find my favourite food trucks.
ReplyDeleteStu,
ReplyDeleteYour chart seems to be missing from your update, be sure to include it in the same post next time. Also, I agree with Katrina that your story topic seems a bit broad. However, I have faith that your final product will be clear and concise. Can't wait to read it!
I like the topic but I wish you had your graph within the update. I also find it interesting that so many people would buy seafood from a food truck on the side of the road. Those people are clearly more brave than I.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not having the graph in the same page makes it difficult for the reader to understand. I think your interviewee is very insightful, I think it would be interesting to know how the food trucks affect the restaurant industry. Great topic!
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