I have seen plenty of mobile lunch trucks. These often drive around industrial streets, visiting the parking lots of companies too small to justify their own cafeteria and too spread out in the suburbs to walk anywhere for a bite to eat. These trucks would have wrapped sandwiches, some Popeye’s chicken combos they resell, coffee and cigarettes. They would usually honk several times on approach and would sit in the parking lot for 20 minutes before moving on. I wouldn’t say they made anyone rich doing it but it was consistent. So that leads to the question, what neighbourhoods would this truck visit? Office parks? College campuses?
That brings me to the consistency part of it—If there was a mobile coffee truck, it would have to be consistently available. Since coffee is not the same as lunch with regards to an obvious time to sell it (okay aside from your morning commute but then you’re also driving?), your customers need to know that it’s available when they want it or they just won’t bother. There’s also profit margins—How much do you have to price a truck coffee to make it worth it? And how much do you need to sell?
That also makes me think of demographics—I’ve worked with two types of people, those who want their coffee as cheap as possible but lots of it, and those who wanted the good stuff (Literally quantity vs quality). Can you satisfy both or do you pick one?
For what it’s worth:
I have seen plenty of mobile lunch trucks. These often drive around industrial streets, visiting the parking lots of companies too small to justify their own cafeteria and too spread out in the suburbs to walk anywhere for a bite to eat. These trucks would have wrapped sandwiches, some Popeye’s chicken combos they resell, coffee and cigarettes. They would usually honk several times on approach and would sit in the parking lot for 20 minutes before moving on. I wouldn’t say they made anyone rich doing it but it was consistent. So that leads to the question, what neighbourhoods would this truck visit? Office parks? College campuses?
That brings me to the consistency part of it—If there was a mobile coffee truck, it would have to be consistently available. Since coffee is not the same as lunch with regards to an obvious time to sell it (okay aside from your morning commute but then you’re also driving?), your customers need to know that it’s available when they want it or they just won’t bother. There’s also profit margins—How much do you have to price a truck coffee to make it worth it? And how much do you need to sell?
That also makes me think of demographics—I’ve worked with two types of people, those who want their coffee as cheap as possible but lots of it, and those who wanted the good stuff (Literally quantity vs quality). Can you satisfy both or do you pick one?