Ban on Hot-Food Sales at Mini-Marts Rejected

Admitting his reasoning might have been flawed, Anaheim City Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr. voted Tuesday against his own proposal to ban the sale of hot foods at gas station mini-marts that sell alcoholic beverages.

“I have been convinced . . . that indeed the problem is not the sale of hot foods,” Overholt said, explaining his switch. The problem, he now says, is the concurrent sale of alcoholic beverages and gasoline.

Overholt suggested the ban on hot food sales during a council meeting May 13 after seeing television commercials by Arco am pm mini-markets promoting their new two-for-99-cents hamburgers. The councilman reasoned then that a motorist buying a hamburger would be induced to eat the food--while still hot--on the way home, gulping it down with a beverage. If the drink were beer or wine, such sales could lead to an alcohol-related accident, he said.

“Perhaps my reasoning was flawed,” Overholt said Tuesday.

Opposition Cited

Arco representatives had called the proposal discriminatory, and, in the words of one Arco executive, “short of being ludicrous.”

Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood was the only one on the council to stick with the ordinance, saying that gas stations “are getting unrecognizable as a place where you can get gas.” Instead of a place where a motorist can have a flat tire changed or a gas tank filled up by an attendant, stations are taking on “more and more” non-automobile uses. As a city geared toward tourists, Anaheim should be concerned that gasoline service stations remain just that, she said.

Kaywood was a staunch supporter last year of a proposed ordinance to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages at gas station mini-marts. On Nov. 18, the council rejected the ban and instead only imposed restrictions on mini-marts that sell beer and wine.

Ironically, Overholt voted to defeat the ban last year.

‘Subliminal Message’

Kaywood echoes the words of those who believe that concurrent sales pose a “subliminal message” that it’s OK to drink and drive. Overholt said Tuesday that he now agrees that message is there.

Reversing his past position, Overholt pledged he will vote against any gas station mini-mart that asks the city for permission to sell beer and wine.

Traditionally, the Anaheim Planning Commission denies such requests. But when the applicant appeals to the City Council, the council traditionally overturns the commission’s decision--with Kaywood always opposing and Councilman Irv Pickler occasionally opposing.

Overholt said he now plans to join Kaywood on her vote upholding the Planning Commission’s position: “I think our Planning Commission has been right and I have been wrong.”

After Tuesday’s meeting, Pickler said that he has no problem with the concurrent sale of alcoholic beverages and gasoline unless there is a conflict involved--such as neighborhood problems with traffic or proximity to a school.

To the service station industry, the notion that concurrent sales lead to drunk-driving accidents is one that is without foundation, and industry representatives have consistently spoken against such ordinances.