A new Technomic report offers some interesting food for thought on the future of food trucks.
Technomic found that 91 percent of survey participants who are familiar with food trucks say that the phenomenon still has plenty of room to grow and is not a passing fad. Only 7 percent of consumers who have purchased food from food trucks in the past said they expected to frequent food trucks less often over the next year.
Technomic Director Kevin Hilgar says the food truck phenomenon is far from its peak since many American consumers live in areas that either don’t have food trucks or have not yet been exposed to food trucks. Most food truck operators are based in urban areas.
However, Technomic’s research also found that 70 percent of non-users are still hesitant to purchase food from mobile vehicles. Technomic surveyed 500 consumers in the first quarter of 2011 for its report.
The report showed that 61 percent of consumers found out about food trucks by “just happening upon them.”
Of the consumers who tracked favorite food truck locations on social media, 84 percent do so at least once a week.
Most consumers also reported they would make combined food and beverage purchases from two or more operators when multiple food trucks offering different types of foods were clustered together.
That last statistic should be encouraging for some of the new food truck lots such as the Lot at 30th St and the LIC Food Truck Lot.
We’ve been saying for a while now that the recent food truck boom is a recalibration of the marketplace rather than a temporary aberration or trend. It shows no signs of abating, nor do we expect it to, as long as it takes nearly $1,000,000 to open a restaurant in NYC.
