Anaheim Backs Ban on Mini-Mart Food to Go

Concerned that the sale of hot food to go will lead drivers to eat on their way home and wash down the meal with a cold beer, the Anaheim City Council gave tentative approval Tuesday to a new law banning prepared foods at service stations that sell alcoholic beverages.

Next Tuesday, the council will take a final vote on the proposal, which Councilman Lew Overholt said could decrease the number of drunk-driving incidents.

Under the proposal, sales at the mini-marts of any food that is “in unsealed packages, prepared food or any food heated on the premises is prohibited.” The law--which could affect about 10 local stores--would apply to cold food as well if it’s in unsealed packages, City Atty. Jack White said.

“Technically, it would apply to a bag of popcorn. Because it’s unsealed food, prepared and heated on the premises,” White said.

The sale of alcohol at gas station convenience marts has received much attention as Anaheim residents and city officials have debated whether the concurrent sale of gasoline and alcoholic beverages leads drivers to drink and drive.

Alcohol Sales Continue

Last year, Anaheim officials decided to continue allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages with certain restrictions applied. Video games and outside alcohol-related advertisements, for example, are now banned.

But Overholt resurrected the issue during a council meeting last week. Pointing to the new hamburger sales at AM-PM Mini Marts run by Arco Petroleum Products Co., Overholt said that a motorist buying a hamburger or hot dog would not wait for the food to get cold, therefore, eating while driving. If the drink accompanying the meal were a cold beer or some other alcoholic beverage, the driver would also down that drink while behind the wheel, Overholt reasoned.

In giving tentative approval to the ordinance, the council--as a matter of procedure--did not take a formal vote Tuesday. That would occur next Tuesday, when the ordinance is up for final adoption.

Franchise Manager Donald A. Davis said that the AM-PM Mini Marts added the hot hamburgers to go only recently but that hot dogs and other prepared sandwiches have been sold for more than a year. As for the suggested correlation of drunk driving to hot or prepared foods, Davis said he hoped the council has “some extensive research” to show that such sales lead to drunk driving. Davis said an informal survey that Arco has conducted since last week shows that most people buy large cups of soda pop to go with their hot sandwiches.

White said that city law now neither specifically permits nor prohibits the sale of prepared food at such establishments.