So you want to join the food revolution and start a food business but you are not sure if you should go all out and invest in a Food Truck (or a trailer) or take the less expensive option of a Food Stall? We will look at a Food Truck business Vs a Food Stall business and analyse the positives and negatives.
As a general rule, the Food Truck has a higher start-up cost than the market stall but a market stall will have to be set up and taken down at every outing. While the rents for both businesses would be the same if you set up at a regular market pitch, the Food Truck fee to attend a Food Festival would, on average, see a 50% increase on a regular food stall.
Start-up costs for Food Trucks are more than a food stall but your earning capacity is higher. Not only will you be able to stock more raw materials on board but you will not be limited to trading only when a market is taking place.
Food Truck:
Romantic Image
The idea of having a food truck is very on-trend. It is like having your own restaurant business but without the large set-up fees. Imagine the romantic image of being a chef in your very own food truck, travelling the country and feeding applauding fans along the way. If you build up your social media following really well, then this could be how it is for you, but generally, you will be too busy prepping your wares and getting your locations organised to have much time left for promoting your business.
Speed of Set Up
The great thing about a mobile unit is the speed of set-up. Everything you need will be to hand and you won’t need to put up signs, lay out your tablecloth, get your gas bottles secure or get your windbreaks up. You should have it all in a compact space ready to go and start prepping your food.
Branding
Your branding will all be ready and painted on your vehicle and you won’t need to put up your banners and re-write your blackboards because the chalk has rubbed off during transit. Your branding will be consistent and your banners won’t become muddy or wear out from the constant rolling up and rolling out every week. This will apply to your gazebo branding too – gazebos can get very dirty very quickly if you don’t take care of them.
Outline Business Goals
As market traders, we don’t usually do a business plan as there is not much of an initial financial outlay to bother about. Far too formal a document for folk who like to wing it and see how the wind blows. However, as a Food Truck is a big initial expense, having a business plan is a useful move. It will get your thoughts onto paper and will help you see what action you need to take to begin to break even from the cost of your vehicle. If you will be seeking financial backing for your project then a business plan will definitely be asked for. As a minimum (for your own use) take a look at:
- How you will Organise your van, describing how you will carry out each action from order to handing out the goods. Do your own work study: The aim of work study is to determine the best method of performing each operation and to eliminate wastage so that production increases with less fatigue. This might sound a bit nerdy but really useful, particularly when working in such a confined space and a great tool when training staff how to do the role in the most efficient way.
- Definitely do your Market Research before you even consider buying a vehicle and check out the Competition! Make contact with a few local councils and see what their criteria is for setting up a food truck. What licences they require you to have, if any. Councils will differ so check each council before you start. It may be easier to just join an established market as they will take care of any necessary licences for you. However, you will need to speak to the Market Organisers by phone or email and ask if they accept your type of business, if they have space and what the competition is on their market. Sometimes parking next to another food van is a good thing, sometimes there just isn’t enough trade for another food truck. You turning up next to another van will probably mean that their income drops by half which could cause some friction initially. Until the area gets known for having food vans you may struggle with a lack of business but if your social media is persistent, it could be the beginning of a new place for people to go for their food.
- Your financials need to be clear from the start. Absolutely and utterly. No faffing here. All you need is basic maths. Work out how much it costs to make one of your menu items. Multiply that cost by at least x 4. Remember to factor in:
- the cost of your pitch whether that be a market stall (£25) or a food festival pitch (£100+),
- petrol / diesel getting to your venue and also for buying your raw materials,
- how many items you need to sell to break even at any given event, (for a £100 food festival you need to sell a lot more meals to break even),
- how long it will take you to recoup your initial costs.
- Having a clear outline of your business goal, e.g. “Selling the best burgers in the North West and having a social media following that will guarantee queues at every event and help us become the ‘go to’ Food Truck for local festivals.” Having a clear idea of where you want to go will help you get there.
Even today, I remember a burger van in Oxford during the 1980’s – Bretts Burgers who were famous throughout the town as the BEST burgers you could buy. I don’t know if they had business goals in place but everyone in Oxford in the 80’s will remember them, AND they didn’t have the luxury of social media! Soo good.
Rents
Rents at markets are generally the same for Food Trucks or trailers as they are for market stalls BUT at Food Festivals you may well find that you are paying a premium! This will seem unfair and that the show organisers are taking the proverbial but a food truck will always have more of a queue than a food stall at lunchtime so bear that in mind when you think you may just take a food stall for the event to get around the high pitch fee.
Costs
There are extra costs associated with having a separate food truck. As well as taxing and insuring your own private vehicle, you will have to do the same for your truck. Double costs. If you are prepping your foods before your event, you will usually do so in a proper kitchen. Unless you are preparing Vegan foodstuffs or low-risk items, it is unlikely that you will get Environmental Health’s permission to prep at your home premises, so there will be the added cost of renting a kitchen.
Environmental Health
Your truck or trailer will need to have an environmental health inspection. You will not be accepted onto any food festival or market without the required paperwork to prove that this has been done. While all food businesses, market stalls included, will have to have an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) visit, food trucks will need an inspection too.
Storage
Where you will park your vehicle will be a consideration. This will be your businesses most valuable piece of kit and will need to be secure and safely parked. To store your gazebo or market tables, you will need much less space and can easily find room.
In New York, for highly competitive street pitches, food truck operators find their pitch and park up just after midnight and sleep in the drivers cab (they are not allowed to sleep in the food prep unit, obviously) until they open for their very lucrative business at around 11am.
Mechanical Problems
When your food truck breaks down, so does your business. If you have a trailer, at least you can get another vehicle to tow you to your destination and you can continue to trade, the same for a market stall. If you are able to fix your own vehicle, all the better but this is the biggest negative to owning a food truck, particularly as getting it fixed may take a few weeks and that is time that you cannot trade.
Private Events
You are more likely to be invited to private events than you will if you run a market stall. Think weddings, private parties and business parks for staff catering. Having the option of private events alongside your own dedicated regular pitches will open up your income stream. Having a regular week-day, regular pitch on private business grounds may appeal more and could be more lucrative to you than travelling the countryside doing food festivals. If you can get a gig like this, where you will have an idea of how many covers you will need on a regular basis, you will be doing extremely well! And you probably won’t need to buy a street licence to operate from private grounds.
Freedom
Having a truck can also give you more freedom of where to trade from whereas a market stall pitch is limited to the venue, day and timings of the market itself.
Food Stall:
Set Up
Having a food stall and selling hot food will be a huge amount of work compared to a food truck. You will have to transport your whole ‘restaurant’ to every venue and dismantle it at the end of the day. That will include a gas bottle, a heavy cooker, perhaps a fridge and handwashing facilities (which may only be a hot water flask and bowl). You will have your gazebo, side sheets and countertop (or tables). And you will usually need to have a van as all your kit may not fit in a car.
Perceived Value
I had an interesting conversation with the ‘young’ recently. All were students and were not prosperous, but when asked if they would buy food from a food stall or from a food truck, even though the same food was £2 more, they ALL opted to buy food from the Food Truck! I kept throwing in variables like, what if there was a queue at the food truck and not at the stall – what if the food stall looked extremely clean and tidy? Same answer. They opted for the food truck. My conclusion, therefore, is that there seems to be more of a perceived value to buying from the truck – whether it was because they thought of it as cleaner, or of higher quality or that it was more trendy. To be honest, I was shocked by their judgement but found it very interesting.
Costs
The cost of setting up a market stall is minimal. Particularly if you can find a market where your stall is provided for. All you need to bring with you is your stock, signage, a tablecloth and something to sit on. And voilà you have a business ready to go!
Branding
You will have to set up your brand every time you set up your stall. You are starting with an empty stall table with no identity. Once you have established your business identity, with your logo, banners and colour scheme, then re-creating this every week will become second nature and will become consistent for your audience to recognise.
Less Diverse Menu Options
Having a market stall may limit you to the different food items that you can serve. Selling cold items like ice cream or cold drinks will mean you will need a freezer or refrigeration unit on your stall – which in turn may mean you’ll need a noisy generator too… Trading in the UK does mean that needing refrigeration for certain items is not so important but many a business idea has died dead in the water because of the need for extra heavy equipment on a market stall e.g. deep fat fryers (really annoying for neighbouring stallholders) or hot griddle plates and freezers.
Hand Washing Facilities
Generally, on a market, the minimum needed for food sellers is a hot flask, some soap and a bowl to wash your hands in. But for more high-risk food items and at busy events, you will need a portable hand wash unit.
Weather
Bad weather on a market stall is very bad for business. If there are high winds and your gazebo is not adequately weighted down, then it can be downright dangerous with the potential of your gazebo flying off and causing injury or damage. Not only will your stock potentially spoil but you will have no customers. The best thing to do in the event of rain and wind is to stop trading and protect your stock as much as you can. The newcomer may say, “Why don’t you pack up and leave?” or “Surely you knew the weather forecast, why did you turn up at all?” Wellbeing a trader means that you must turn up come wind or high water. Your customers expect you to turn up, even if they don’t! Your pitch fee will still have to be paid whether you turn up or not and as that is the case you may as well take the chance that your customers will turn up once the weather calms down. If you are in a truck or trailer, you can just shut your doors and wait for the bad weather to pass, with no damage to your stock, just your income.
Better Rapport
On a market stall, you are at the same eye level as your customers, usually nearer with less of a barrier between you and that will enable you to build more rapport. Also, at eye level is your food, that the customers can see very clearly before they buy. On a truck, you will need more descriptive menus to entice customers to buy your wares, but on a stall, folk can see what they will be buying more clearly.
Conclusion
A food truck is a much higher initial expense but has the possibility of more significant earnings over time. Many food truck entrepreneurs ultimately go on to open a restaurant. Food stall businesses have extremely low start-up costs and you can chop and change your theme or menu according to what is popular with your customers with only small costs incurred if you decide to change your core offering. More difficult to do this on a truck if you have bought a vehicle designed and wrapped/signage created for ice cream selling and you decide to turn it into a burger van. Both methods of trading are certainly lucrative and successful – but perhaps you could test your idea on a stall with a view to getting a truck or trailer once you have trialled your concept.
Happy trading!