Reference no: EM133041314

Case: Keeping Out the Food Trucks

Read the following case and discuss whether the proposed course of action in the case is ethical and consistent with any of the four views of ethics, i.e. utilitarian, individualism, moral rights, and justice views. Next, identify a different alternative that takes into consideration other stakeholder interests (e.g., community, local government/city council, customers, new entrants/businesses).

You own a restaurant in a mid-sized, fairly well-to-do town. Your restaurant is located near many other restaurants in a part of town that has a lot of foot traffic and visitors day and night. You offer diners a nice experience and serve high-quality, but not, gourmet food. Reviewers on Yelp typically give your restaurant four or five stars. Prices at your restaurant are well above fast-food prices but not exorbitant ($ on Yelp).

One day, you notice a van parked on the curb near your restaurant. Quite a few people are coming and going from it. On closer inspection, you find that the van is a food truck, and by the smell of it, the food it is selling is not half bad. You see that the truck's menu is interesting and the prices are pretty low-lower than your own. Threatened by the appearance of this food truck, you start talking to the other restaurateurs in your neighborhood. You find out that the city has been granting permits to food truck owners to locate in your neighborhood during peak lunch and dinner hours. In fact, the city council has been offering incentives to start food truck businesses because it thinks food trucks add to the character of the city.

You start to consider your options for dealing with this scary new phenomenon. One idea that arises in your mind is to try to work with your fellow restaurateurs to pass a law forbidding food trucks within 1,000 feet of existing brick-and-mortar restaurants. A quick look at the map suggests to you that this would pretty much eliminate food trucks from your part of town.