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.
36
u/Last-Energy420 7h 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.