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Operating a food truck is highly competitive in large northeastern U.S. cities, from New York to Philadelphia to Boston. According to the Washingtonian's Jessica Sidman, the competition among food truck owners around Washington D.C.'s National Mall is so intense that residents of the city are jokingly comparing it to the "Mad Max" movies of the late 1970s and 1980s.
"The pirates have commandeered Constitution Avenue," Sidman explains in the Washingtonian. "Hawking neon snow cones and chicken shawarma, their food trucks are squished so close together that, in some cases, the bumpers are literally touching. A few are blocking fire hydrants in front of the National Museum of American History. One of the first trucks we approach has no prices listed. Actually, none of them do. But this one looks particularly suspect, with a janky, rusted pipe jutting from its roof."
According to Zack Graybill, owner of the pizza food truck DC Slices, many of his competitors around the National Mall are not licensed.
Graybill told The Washingtonian, "I think they're 'Mad Max'-ing it. That's exhaust from the generator. We can start with the fact that this is not legal vending.”
The "Mad Max" action movies, starring Mel Gibson, took place in Australia and depicted a dystopian future in the Land Down Under. The third Max Max movie, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" in 1985, famously featured Tina Turner's mega-hit "We Don't Need Another Hero." And by jokingly comparing DC's food truck wars to "Mad Max" films, Graybill is saying that they have truly gone off the rails.
Graybill noted that a competing food truck was spilling gasoline on the street, telling The Washingtonian, "If this was a hot summer day and he was doing that, the chances of a fire actually happening is high. The number-one potential cause of food trucks catching fire is from refilling the generator with gasoline."
The Washingtonian also interviewed Jackie, a Tunisian immigrant who operates a food truck near Constitution Avenue. When Jackie and a competitor got into an argument over a parking space, the person attacked him with a screwdriver and try to stab him in the eye with it.
According to Brisa Valentin, who owns the Fly Pizza food trucks in DC, violence among unlicensed food truck operators is not uncommon in the U.S. capital.
Valentin told The Washingtonian, "I used to tell my husband, 'Those are the food-truck mafia.' They look out for each other. They're a clique. They don't like outsiders, they really don't. They're cutthroat. They're ruthless."
