Maine Lobster Festival Tries To Stop Food Truck From Selling Lobster Rolls, Moves It Next To The Toilets When Owner Refuses

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It's been a agelong week, but it's yet Friday, truthful I opportunity we each merit a break. Car Week is astir to footwear disconnected successful Monterey, and we'll person rather a fewer reveals to screen soon. For now, though, let's return a infinitesimal and bask immoderate incredibly low-stakes play (for those of america who don't unrecorded successful Maine, astatine least) complete nan Maine Lobster Festival allegedly telling nutrient motortruck operators they can't waste lobster rolls astatine nan show and past trying to hide them complete by nan toilets erstwhile they refused. Food trucks are technically transportation, aft all.

According to Bangor Daily News, aggregate nutrient motortruck operators person accused nan Maine Lobster Festival of trying to extremity them from trading lobster rolls astatine nan lobster festival. When Richard Curtis, who operates nan Mac Attack nutrient motortruck pinch Siearra Cook, refused to do so, he told nan newspaper nan show moved his motortruck down an inflatable bouncy castle and adjacent to immoderate Porta Potties. Amato's nutrient motortruck owner, Omar Hadjaissa, besides told nan insubstantial nan show informed him he would person to manus complete $8 for each lobster rotation he sold, and if he didn't, they'd artifact his nutrient motortruck pinch thing ample capable to hide it from festival-goers.

"I'm a generational fisherman. Lobster is our mascot and lobster is simply a large point connected our menu," Curtis told the Daily News, adding, "Siearra [Cook] and I decided to guidelines up for ourselves" by refusing to motion nan statement to not waste lobster. Hadjaissa, connected nan different hand, reluctantly agreed to nan festival's terms, saying, "How is that fair? I'm a mini business trying to survive."

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When nan Daily News reached retired for a comment, Festival President Celia Crie Knight "said she had nary remark astatine this clip connected nan matter." The city, meanwhile, said that erstwhile an statement reserves nan parkland for an event, they're allowed to move vendors if they want.

Still, it seems a small weird for a lobster show to effort to extremity nutrient trucks from trading lobster rolls, right? Is it not a lobster festival? Well, arsenic pinch truthful galore things successful life, it sounds for illustration it comes down to money. Specifically, nan show wants to complaint a batch of money for lobster rolls, and it wants nan nutrient trucks to summation their prices truthful they don't undercut nan festival's lobster rotation profits. 

Apparently, nan show tried to unit nan nutrient motortruck operators to complaint astatine slightest $30 per rotation to lucifer what it charges. The $8 nan show demanded for each rotation Amato's sells? That's nan quality betwixt nan $30 they're trading lobster rolls for and nan $22 that Amato's charges for its lobster rolls. As for punishing nan offending nutrient motortruck operators by moving them to undesirable locations, that appears to beryllium because nan show doesn't person nan authority to dictate vendors' menus, but it does person nan powerfulness to determine wherever they tin find their trucks. 

You could surely make nan statement that nan show has an liking successful making judge vendors don't value their nutrient truthful low, nary 1 other tin perchance compete, but astatine nan aforesaid time, it still feels beautiful scummy. Especially erstwhile nan minimum value is $30, not like, say, $20.