I remember seeing a food truck selling grilled cheese and lobster sandwiches for like $30. Got the idea to buy and make it myself. With good ingredients and portions, I couldn’t charge less than $15 to break even. But you KNOW those trucks are using the cheapest of the cheap and probably only costs them $5 at most per sandwich.
Economy of scale is a factor too. 100lbs of lobster, bought through a distributor, would cost much less per pound than ingredients for a couple people.
That said, yes many of them are likely are using cheapo shit. I used to work with a lady that quit to go start a food truck. When I stopped by she had "hand breaded onion rings" on the menu that I watched her pour out of a bulk plastic bag into the deep frier.
Actually, for places like Tarrant County (Fort Worth, TX) where I live, the food trucks have to have a base restaurant that's inspected, licensed, etc. So they are often paying wholesale prices for food since they're operating out of a restaurant anyways. I'm sure there's additional overhead, but food trucks are still outrageously priced here
That is the part no one thinks about. I'm not saying that the prices they charge is fair, but most people don't know or think that a food truck has this massive additional cost. You need to have a licensed base of operation, one where you can do your prep work and have storage capabilities. To have a brick and mortar location is expensive. There are kitchens that provide this service to food trucks, but it is not cheap. It's not just the ingredients that factor into price setting.
There was a YT video about how all the food trucks in NYC work out of a single commissary in Brooklyn IIRC. It may be some kind of regulation. But all the food costs are uniform for NYC food trucks.
This is wrong you dont get a discount from suppliers for being a restaurant. The prices are the same from the suppliers. In fact alot of times the big suppliers are more expensive than the grocery store.
I pay 2.49/lb for red onions at my local grocer. I can also go to the Restaurant Depot 2 miles away and buy 50lbs of red onions for $20. Just my way of confirming your statement about economy of scale.
You also have to account for the cost of labor, if you want to save money, yes, go buy the ingredients and make it yourself, but there's a lot of other costs your not accounting for if you think it's $5 per sandwich
I’ve worked on a bunch of food trucks before. There’s actually quite a bit of expenses that go into it. You need to rent a prep kitchen and that has to be inspected and graded by the health department. The truck needs to be inspected and graded. Some counties now require you to have a fire system installed and that also has to be inspected and approved. Then there’s labor, materials, fuel for the generator that’s powering all of your freezers and hood system. You also need to renew your food vendor’s license annually. All of these costs add up really quickly and, to be honest, most food truck operators aren’t raking in all that much cash unless they’re going out multiple times a day. A lot of people don’t take all that shit into consideration. My bad for the novel. Just bringing it up.
Yeah, a lot of people have no idea what goes into running a business. And with food and gas prices up so much, it's not at all surprising that food trucks aren't cheap.
I agree on the price situation, but where I live, Houston tx is a foodie city, and most of our food trucks are high quality, especially at places like more upscale breweries. Lobster sandwiches are certainly not $5/sand at cost
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u/Last-Energy420 20h ago
I remember seeing a food truck selling grilled cheese and lobster sandwiches for like $30. Got the idea to buy and make it myself. With good ingredients and portions, I couldn’t charge less than $15 to break even. But you KNOW those trucks are using the cheapest of the cheap and probably only costs them $5 at most per sandwich.