From Trucks to Carts

Food trucks can draw a lot of attention very quickly, through flashy designs, unique food and general word of mouth. However recent police crackdowns have limited their whereabouts and forced many vendors to reconsider their overall strategy. Police are able to relocate food trucks based on a multi-decade court regulation that declared no vendor can sell merchandise from a vehicle parked in a metered space. For food trucks, this means that at a whim they can be ticketed and forced to move from a location they might have frequented for several years. While trucks are subject to these regulations, food carts manage to sidestep this archaic law because they can sell food from right on a sidewalk. What does this mean for the average New Yorker? Your favorite breakfast carts, halal meat carts and other smaller vendors will be on the same streets you’ve always remembered them. For food truck owners this means they have an important decision ahead; evaluating the worth of scrapping the truck for a cart. Several trucks, including the well-known Wafels & Dinges have already adopted this strategy. I’ve decided to list some pros and cons of the food cart, granted that the ultimate decision will be based on the culture and working structure of each individual vendor. Let’s just hope more carts and trucks don’t start clashing for space like in Cleveland.

Pros	Cons
No more tickets	Much smaller than a food truck
Cheaper than a food truck (15-20k)	Hard to move from place to place
Forget Twitter- One location	Additional expense of a cart and a truck
No forced relocations	Less menu options
Less obstructive in crowded city streets	Additional vehicle necessary to tow cart
Steady customer base from perm. position