The Metro board of directors shot down an idea to sell food in the transit system Thursday, saying such sales would only lead to problems in a system that doesn’t allow eating.
The decision came even as the board delayed voting on whether to add retail kiosks to Metrorail stations that could allow riders to drop off dry cleaning, buy postage stamps and pick up flowers on their commutes. But, it said, food sales should not be on the table when they reconsider the proposal.
The board also wants the agency to focus on small-business owners rather than large companies that could run multiple sites in the transit system, such as DVD vending company Redbox, as the transit agency had proposed.
“Let’s recast this so we put small business front and center,” Metro Chairman Jim Graham said.
The transit system has been considering adding retail to its subway system for years. In 2006, the board approved adding vendors as long as food was not sold. Only three vendors applied and they failed to meet the agency’s requirements.
This year, Metro staffers had asked the board to let the agency request proposals from vendors for permanent or mobile kiosks in at least 12 stations as a way for the financially challenged transit service to raise money. They decided to try including food and drinks, which staffers said were the most lucrative item for vendors.
That could translate to more money as Metro would earn rent from each kiosk, then earn a percentage of all sales. To get around the system’s ban on eating and drinking, transit officials had said the food would need to be “packaged to discourage consumption in the Metrorail system.”
However, Metro board members said they didn’t understand what qualified as a prepackaged food item — or how the transit agency would keep people from eating them on trains. Riders already violate the no-eating rule, and the system does little to crack down on them.
“I’m very concerned that when we open the door, it’s going to swing wider and wider,” Graham said.
Board member Peter Benjamin said he worried that extra money made from food sales would be spent enforcing eating restrictions.
General Manager John Catoe said their decision could mean lower profits if the agency banned food sales and focused on only small businesses. But he said the retail sites were intended to provide a service to riders.
“There’s a balance here,” he said in an interview.
