I have not dug into food vendors in NYC but I do want to do that! I have also heard something similar where food vendors seem to be more “centralized” and there are organizations that provide the assets (e.g. the carts) in exchange for a portion of your profits (similar to the taxi model).

I’ve also wanted to compare how different food vendor prices different in different parts of NYC becuase I’ve noticed that a hot dog bought in Central Park will be a vastly different price than one in East Village.