Street food as been a staple diet for many people for a number of years now and even here in the UK if the cafe's and restaurants, fast-food joints and gastro-pubs that are in every town and city centre don't appeal to you then there as always been an abundance of food trucks that are serving everything from hot-dog's, pizza and burgers, to Thai, Indian and even Chinese cuisine that you can eat on the go, and often at cheaper prices than you'd pay anywhere else. Is all that about to change though, and have the food trucks that we all know and love slowly beginning to be a thing of the past? These days (here in the UK anyway), even brands such as Subway, KFC and Pizzahut are opening food trucks but what they are selling is exactly the same as what you would buy from the brick stores and usually at the same prices, so are these corporate giants squeezing the independent vendors out of their own market and if so, is there anyway that they can compete with the big boys? As soon as franchises like McDonald's roll into town, the local independently ran cafe's soon end up closing as they simply can't compete, so is the same going now happen to the street food scene?
Where I live, most places to eat only consist of family-owned restaurants and there are actually tons of food trucks around here. The best part is that the food is home made and just use the truck as the store. It's both healthy and convenient.
Oh, I was saddened with this thread because I used to have my snack with a food truck when I was working in California. I love the sandwich particularly the ham and egg sandwich that goes with a lot of pickle relish and lettuce. Until now I am salivating just with the thought of that sandwich. What's good in a food truck is the cost of food which is much cheaper and comparable with the sandwiches in vendo machines. In the business district of Metro Manila where I used to work, there were food trucks in imitation of the American food trucks but their food is the native snacks like the chicken porridge and fried banana (plantain) and sweet potato. You can guess that I also patronized those food trucks here.
I never heard of a vending machine that sells sandwiches. In my area, the vending machines only include brand junk food and sugared drinks. I've only seen vending machines sell fruit once like bananas
When I was working in JBL Inc, the maker of quality speakers, the office in Northridge, CA has several vending machines - one for drinks like coffee, soda, etc, one for sandwiches that is wrapped in cellophane, another for fruits and if I remember correctly, there's another vending machine for cigarettes. That was circa 1988. Even here in the Philippines, there were vending machines for sandwiches and until now there are still those machines usually located in hospitals.
Sandwich vending machines have been around over here as well now for a number of years also. In a couple of businesses that I used to work in then we would have a food truck come and park on the industrial estate every day and we would go and eat from there before the businesses decided to buy these vending machines themselves. The pre-packed sandwiches from the machine obviously didn't taste as nice as the food from the food truck but they used to just be more convenient so that's another way where the food trucks have lost business.
In my town, they have a pork BBQ vending truck near a grocery store. However, I'm not sure how much business it gets. Anyway, it seems like BBQ is the only niche these businesses belong to here. Anyway, I'm sure these places have good deals, as they are under competition from fast food etc. even though they have unique stuff.
I live in the Seattle area and food trucks are actually becoming more popular around here. There are meeting spots for them and you can go online to find out where they will be stationed. I love food trucks because you can get high quality meals without having to go into a restaurant when you are in a hurry. The only downfall is that food truck meals are usually smaller portions and can still be quite expensive.
Definitely not. Food trucks are extremely current and are spreading themselves in the world as a virus. The popularization of them are happening very fast. I love eating at them because the food is great (for the amount charged) and the places are Always very nice / fun.
I have seen a couple of food trucks in my area but what I have seen the most are food stand or mini restaurants that are actually attached to families homes. I can go around the corner and find a food stand or even go to the neighbors house to buy some homemade food. Many people here have there own business and work while they are at home. It is very convinient as sometimes I don't want to go far to buy food especially late at night.
Locally there have been a lot of food trucks that have opened up their specialties in brick and mortar, so they now are actually restaurants now retired from food trucking. Some did not choose good spots, so they go else where or close. We have every year Eat The Streets event with bathrooms on wheels or when they've special events food trucks also are around at festivities and holidays. Well, just yesterday the portable restroom was stolen-which cost $55,000.00!Log In Log In
The owner of cookie dough food carts at New York became a millionaire. So no it is not a dying industry. It is actually thriving because I am seeing more food carts on my area. Most food cart food are cheaper and much more better than mainstream fast food.
In my area, the food truck will probably a forever feature on the streets.They certainly have more than their fair share of patronage. Many people here prefer the homestyle meal that these mobile restaurants may have to offer as opposed to the food that the fast food giants have on offer.
