A Taco Truck & a Tale of Two Eras

First, a confession - my wife and I are avid viewers of The Food Network. And, drool when we see shows featuring entrepreneurs serving some of the most decadent dishes that I have ever seen out of food trucks. Embarrassingly, we refer to it as food porn.

Courtesy of npdgroupblog.com

Figuring that these trucks are a big city phenom, I was certainly surprised to see that a food truck serving Mexican fare had arrived in Milton. How interesting. A Delavan Mexican restaurateur sees a niche market in Milton, invests in a truck, equipment, food, and hires people to operate it. Then, he parks in different areas of Milton looking for a market for their food.

I don’t have an MBA but that sounds like a sound business model. How private enterprise has flourished in this country for decades.

Now comes the Tale of Two Eras (with apologies to Charles Dickens). In an earlier time, the Taco Truck would have found its niche market and flourished - maybe even graduated from the truck to brick and mortar.

Restaurants and bars, when faced with the food truck, recognized the competition and the game was on! They would offer daily specials, promoting them with sandwich boards and other advertising. My guess is they might even start selling tacos. I suspect they sharpened their pencils and those daily specials were aggressively priced. More people were drawn to the market and thus increasing sales opportunities for all the businesses in the area.

The downside - the competition is too much and the food truck business fails, costing the entrepreneur his investment. End of story.

In the modern era, a food truck arrives in a community and receives a chilly reception from its surrounding restaurant and bar neighbors. Not so much different, I don’t suppose, from what would happen in any era. Not many of us welcome competition with open arms. But, just like in that earlier era I described, “the game is on” - but the approach taken is dramatically different.

Today, this new competition is met by existing businesses by going to the local government and charging unfair competition. The governmental body, when presented the issue, feels a need to respond - after all, these owners are tax payers, constituents, and likely neighbors. So the governmental body is motivated to take some kind of action in an effort to ameliorate the issue - they ask the truck to move to the other side of town.

Epilogue: The food truck agrees to relocate and, lo and behold, we discover the owner is fine with the move as they are building their customer base at their new location. Is this a good example of government involvement or not? Perhaps, but all those customers who come for tacos on Tuesday may not come back for a bar burger on Wednesday.we discover the owner is fine with the move as they are building their customer base at their new location. Is this a good example of government involvement or not? Perhaps, but all those customers who come for Tacos on Tuesday may not come back for a bar burger on Wednesday.