Here, at the East Side Culture Crawl, was a pod of food trucks:
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Nice synergy: small, entrepreneurial businesses serving an event of small, entrepreneurial businesses.
Where did all that come from – and what’s next? According to the New York Times: more trucking.
More Start-Up Retailers Opt for the Freedom and Lower Costs of Selling From a Truck
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Over the last 10 years mobile businesses have been on the rise across the country as the economy faltered and aspiring entrepreneurs sought ways to operate businesses for less money.
Much of the rise can be traced to Roy Choi, a chef in Los Angeles who started selling Korean barbecue tacos from a truck in 2008. The popularity of Mr. Choi’s tacos is largely credited with being the tipping point for urban food trucks and for spreading the movement around the country.
Matt Geller, a board member of the National Food Truck Association, said that the way food trucks created a natural gathering place for people when clustered together helped demonstrate that mobile was a viable option for selling all kinds of merchandise: flowers, music, art and especially clothing.
Le Fashion Truck, the brainchild of Jeanine Romo and Stacey Steffe, hit the streets of Los Angeles in 2011 and is often credited with being the first successful mobile boutique there, selling local clothes and handmade jewelry. Its start-up costs, according to the owners, were less than $20,000. …
“The future of mobile retail is going to be very diverse,” said Sarah Ellison Lewis, founder and chief creative officer of Bootleg Airstream, a mobile shoe store based in Austin, Tex., that carries shoes from around the world. “It’s an amazing way to reach people in a memorable form, and it’s a sustainable business model.”
I suppose it’s just a matter of time before the artists and designers will be the ones in the trucks outside 1000 Parker, and inside will be all the restaurants.
why do we need them ? isn’t there enough choice at lunch in downtown Vancouver ?
Isn’t there a contradiction in complaining about cars and the pollution they cause, and then celebrating mobile restaurants created out of aging trucks that spew a lot of hydrocarbons every time they turn a wheel? It’s not as if the areas these trucks usually hang out in are underserved by bricks and mortar restaurants.
Bob – you have a great point. Its actually worse when you realize that most mobile generators do not have the same pollution controls as most new vehicles. I love the food trucks and the variety of choices they bring to outdoor events. There is a contradiction if we think the way food trucks currently operate is green. It is time to start working with the trucks to plug in. No matter how good your truck food might be its not so delicious while you inhale generator exhaust.
They could force food trucks to use EV technology or run on a cleaner fuel, though I suspect that would wreck the business model.
The other issue I have with them is the unlevel playing field. Bricks and mortar restaurants pay a lot in taxes to the city, which then turns around and lets food trucks poach their business away.