You know those peanuts you buy from Mexican (or other Hispanic) guys who stand in intersections in L.A.?
Why do they taste better than the ones you get in the store, and why don’t they have these guys with their peanuts in Seattle?
The toxic Mexican flavor additive that’s illegal? 
It’s like swiping french fries from somebody else’s plate; they always taste better.
And, seriously, they’re probably fresher because the ones in the store have been sitting in warehouses and trucks while working their way through the distribution chain. Fewer (and shorter) steps in the distribution chain for a guy selling bags of peanuts out of his trunk by the side of the road.
And they aren’t in Seattle because Mexicans aren’t stupid. Standing around in the sunshine hawking peanuts to people driving with the windows open and/or the top down is a lot better than crouching in the rain, trying to get someone who is slurping their morning coffee to roll down the window to even see what you are selling, much less buy it.
Down south there used to people who sold boiled peanuts on the street, but I’m guessing these are roasted?
Yes; roasted, in the shell, and sold in plastic bags.
Try this sometime: buy your usual bag of grocery peanuts, and re-roast them a little in a hot oven. 350 degrees, maybe half an hour on a baker’s sheet, stir occasionally. You’ll get a good hit of that fresh-roasted flavor since most makers tend to under-roast them anyway.
I do this for sunflower seed kernels. Can’t get anything much above raw here, even though they say roasted, so I re-roast them to the crispy golden brown I like, seal tightly in zip loc bags, and have a week of tasty nibbles.
Do they jump around by themselves?
Those may not be peanuts! :eek:
Intersection peanuts.
I could have sworn that was a line from I Am The Walrus. 
Spoiler Alert:
Lucy will never allow the trajectory of Charlie Brown’s kick to intersect with the football.