Working from home might change a lot of things for employees, but it doesn’t eliminate a key requirement: the need for a midday break and options for a quick, tasty, enjoyable, inexpensive meal. When they were working in city centers and office buildings, they often would visit food trucks parked in nearby lots or streets. Sales by these mobile retailers thus had enjoyed a previous decade of substantial growth, averaging about 7 percent each year.

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and persistent work-at-home trends though, more people are getting their jobs done in the room next to their own refrigerators. Even if they can raid their leftovers, many people still like the idea that they can pop out for lunch once in a while. And so, the food trucks have moved too—to parking lots and convenient locations in suburban areas, closer to people’s homes rather than their offices.

The location revision requires some changes to the food truck firms’ strategies too. Rather than parking consistently in the same urban location each day, many of them announce a particular neighborhood as their target location on a specific day each week. Thus people living around a certain neighborhood might know that on Tuesdays, they can find their favorite taco truck, just a short drive away. Others are leveraging their mobility more actively, moving around to catch people in different blocks and streets, somewhat similar to the model adopted by old-fashioned ice cream trucks.

Whatever option they choose though, the food retailers are determined to embrace a relatively basic proposition: The best location is the one where your customers want to find you.

Discussion Question:

1. Are suburban locations likely to continue to be good options, as the pandemic-related restrictions continue to loosen? Why or why not?
2. Should food retailers with conventional, fixed locations consider investing more in mobile food trucks?

Source: George Anderson, “Food Trucks Find Good Parking Spaces in the Suburbs,” Retail Wire, August 27, 2020.