Case Study A1 Food truck assignment toursim

The Evolution and Impact of Street Food and Food Trucks in the Culinary Landscape

The concept of street food has a long-standing history. During the Renaissance period in Türkiye, many vendors sold “fragrant bites of hot meat” including spit-roasted chicken and lamb (Snodgrass, 2004). In 1502, Türkiye became the first country to legislate and standardise the sale of street food (Kraig & Taylor, 2013). Tourism destinations like Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia have actively promoted a “street food culture” to complement tourism by facilitating growth of street food markets. This is exemplified by development of street food markets like Eat Street Northshore in Brisbane. Mobile food trucks have become social hubs and attractions for both locals and tourists, offering a wide variety of cuisine.

Figure 1: Food Trucks

Food trucks in the U.S. have a long history dating back to the 1600s (Chang, 2019). Modern food truck movement gained momentum through high visibility in popular culture, supported by TV shows like The Great food Truck Race, Eat Street. Entrepreneurial chefs started catering to a “hipster food crowd” in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Austin (Chang, 2019). The evolution of ‘gourmet food trucks’ offering higher quality food than traditional street food vendors (Alfiero et al., 2017) have further elevated the food truck demand.

Social media platforms (e.g., X, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest), have been instrumental in building the dedicated following for food truck, particularly among millennials (Sung et al., 2022). Additional factors contributing to the rapid growth of food trucks industry include the increasing popularity of outdoor events and open-air summer markets (Crespi-Vallbona & Noguer-Juncà, 2024), the positive image of food trucks and employee friendliness (Kraus et al., 2022), low cost of entry (IBISWorld, 2024), and changing customer tastes, led by the millennial interest in varied and exotic food and beverage experiences (Loh & Hassan, 2022).

The relatively low cost of entry has made food trucks an attractive option for entrepreneurs without the required capital to begin or maintain brick-and-mortar restaurants. According to a study by Food Truck Operator (2019), depending on the location, the average cost of starting a food truck business in the U.S. is around US$ 75,000 and US$ 250,000 for a truck with a power generator and a working kitchen; whereas the average revenue from the food truck is approximately US$ 290,000 annually. This is ten times lower than the cost of opening and operating a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

The plethora of cuisines represented by food trucks ranges almost as far as the imagination will allow, with everything from Korean tacos to Vietnamese sandwiches to Southern chicken and waffles. Research by Crespi-Vallbona and Noguer-Juncà (2024) on food truck operations in Catalonia, Spain, highlights the popularity of local Mediterranean dishes alongside candies, snacks, sandwiches, cocktails, and international cuisine such as Italian, Japanese, Thai, Lebanese. In the U.S., hot sandwiches dominate the food truck scene, with 71% of trucks offering some version of a hot sandwich (Miller & Washington, 2014).

The food truck business industry has become one of the best-performing segments of foodservice industry (Yoon & Chung, 2018). In 2024, the U.S. food truck industry was valued at US$2.2 billion, with an expected growth rate of 1.6% over five years, reaching US$2.4 billion by 2028 (IBISWorld, 2024).

According to Van Embden et al. (2022), a positive image of food trucks reduces customers’ perceived risks and enhances the perceived value of dining at food trucks. However, Yoon and Chung (2018) found that perceived hygiene and environmental risks pertaining to food truck dining can impact millennial behavioural intentions towards food trucks.

As consumers increasingly adopt sustainable practices and healthier life choices, food truck businesses must align their business strategies with these expectations. Efficient marketing and operational strategies are essential for retaining existing customers and enticing new consumers. The food truck industry exemplifies the critical role of operations management in the tourism and hospitality sectors, ensuring the delivery of quality food in a timely and cost- efficient manner while meeting broader operations management objectives.

Background on Roxy’s

Roxy’s Grilled Cheese was an idea conceptualised by James DiSabatino following his college graduation and a trip across Europe with his brother’s band. With a passion for food – grilled cheese in particular – James entered the food scene with a desire to offer grilled cheese in an innovative manner. He had heard of food trucks beginning to pop up in cities like Los Angeles and New York but were virtually non-existent in Boston. James recognised the potential of a food truck not only as an unconventional service style, but also an opportunity to create a new niche market in the Boston area. James looked to create a high-quality product with unique branding, establishing Roxy’s Grilled Cheese as an alternative and progressive concept in the food industry.

Figure 2: Roxy’s Grilled Cheese Logo

With the acquisition and refurbishment of an old hot dog truck, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese began serving up sandwiches in March 2011. Mere weeks later, James and his team were offered a slot to participate in the second season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race television show. The truck’s presence in Boston was temporarily put on hiatus and they relocated to Los Angeles for filming. As the Roxy’s truck was moved, a clever social media campaign falsely declared the truck missing and asked followers and fans to help find it. This generated huge awareness for Roxy’s, even beyond the Boston area. This, coupled with rumours of their participation on the show, garnered Roxy’s a highly anticipated return to Boston after the completion of filming. The actual airing of the program further solidified Roxy’s presence and the business took off. The staff increased exponentially, and long lines of hungry customers became the norm.

While today many will still wait patiently to get a taste of Roxy’s food, the operation has been streamlined – and it has expanded. Roxy’s now has approximately 30 employees and earns over $1.5 million annually in sales revenue. It is home to two food trucks, a catering business and a brick-and-mortar location in Allston, Massachusetts, with more locations and opportunities on the horizon.

The core of Roxy’s product is its “next level” or gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. They strive to use the highest quality ingredients locally sourced fresh breads, meats, cheeses, and house made condiments – paired in unique flavour combinations to offer a grilled cheese sandwich customers may not have encountered before. Their words say it best: “We don’t make your grandma’s grilled cheese. We can if you’d like us to, but if you leave it up to us, we’re going to put our own twist on things.” Take for example the popular “Green Muenster” featuring Muenster cheese, guacamole, and bacon; or the store’s ode to its neighbourhood, “The Allston,” which consists of goat cheese, fig jam, caramelized onions, and arugula. These two signature sandwiches comprise 80% of their menu mix. Also available on the food trucks are Roxy’s signature truffle fries, homemade soup, and homemade drinks. The brick-and-mortar store additionally offers a larger selection of grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, poutine, and beer.

Boston’s Food Truck Landscape

At the time of Roxy’s establishment in March 2011, food trucks had little to no presence in Boston. The City of Boston officially states July of 2011 as when Boston’s trucks first “hit the streets” – pinpointing the launch of the city’s licensing program (City of Boston, 2015). There are various ways food trucks can legally operate in Boston but the most common is the through this program (as opposed to operating on private property). The program is a lottery system in which licensed trucks enter a pool competing for spots around the Boston. By 2023, there were 95 food trucks occupying both public and private sites across Boston (City of Boston, 2023). Back when the program began, there were only about 15 trucks.

Growth has been fuelled by easy entry, visibility and growing demand. Licenses for food trucks are much less difficult to acquire than nabbing one of the coveted time slots offered in the city’s lottery program. While the number of trucks competing has grown significantly, the limited number of spots available to vendors hasn’t, making it much more difficult for the trucks to earn prime time spots. However, with the growth of food trucks in Boston, in line with trends nationwide, the consumer demand has increased as well. The view of food trucks as not only a legitimate food source – rather than a “roach coach” riddled with microbial woes – but a fun, hip, alternative one, has impacted the demand immensely. Exposure at events around the city, such as Boston’s popular SoWa (South of Washington) Open Markets, the first Boston Food Truck Festival, a NYC vs. Boston Food Truck Throwdown, and of course national presence on aforementioned TV shows, has encouraged consumers try these mobile eateries. Once hooked, many trucks manage to create intensely loyal fan bases.

Figure 3: Boston hosts an annual food truck festival

The Boston food truck scene, as noted earlier, has been growing steadily, with 95 trucks currently in the market. From tacos, Asian street food, cookies, burgers, healthy eats, waffles, fries and, of course, grilled cheese, these trucks span a wide range of cuisines. Roxy’s Grilled Cheese is the only truck in the Boston area which focuses solely on gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Given the competitive nature of the Boston food truck climate, Roxy’s current monopoly on grilled cheese creates a key point of difference from other trucks.

Roxy’s Grilled Cheese: Process and Operations

Roxy’s has very high standards when it comes to evaluating potential staff members, the most important criteria being high emotional intelligence. The idea is to recruit people who can think quickly under pressure, are adaptable, highly empathetic and have a strong focus on the customer experience. Roxy’s seeks to infuse the food truck experience with a dose of genuine hospitality. Team members work to create an above average experience for customers, which is more indicative of a full-service restaurant than a fast-food truck. Employees are cross trained so that staff members can complete a variety of tasks at any given time. This is vital to the operation as staff needs vary greatly – while the most employees needed at any given time is 6, the truck can operate effectively in slower times with 3 staff members working multiple stations. Due to Roxy’s hiring and training practices, the staff is adequately prepared with both the technical and emotional skills required for the job.

Grilled cheese sandwiches can be crafted through a few different methods. Some operations use timed sandwich presses or elaborate machinery, but Roxy’s uses just a grill for its sandwiches. Sandwich ingredients are preassembled ahead of time with most work done at the commissary – a workspace or depot where you prep food and store food overnight (Weber, 2012) – the night before or morning of service. Fresh, perishable ingredients are added to order just before placement on the grill. Roxy’s had been making their sandwiches completely to order however this resulted in incredibly long wait times for customers. Roxy’s doesn’t often honour substitution requests, which would slow the process further.

Roxy’s process can be lengthy. Roxy’s grilled cheese sandwiches, in general, take time to cook. The grill’s capacity allows to place up to 12 sandwiches. In a competitive set where customers expect a speedy turnaround, throughput time is extremely important and poses a constant challenge to Roxy’s.

Figure 4: Making Roxy’s Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Process and Operational Analysis

James recently conducted a service delivery study and performed a bottleneck analysis. Process-focused organisations often experience that for various reasons some parts of the system have less capacity than others. Bottlenecks are constraints that limit the output of production.

Their flow of processes (Table 1) needs to be extremely efficient to keep up with demand and keep customers satisfied. The layout of the truck, the preparation done in advance and the staff training all contribute to the efficiency of truck operations; “the strict constraints on size mean that each decision made about the design or operation matters more” (Weber, 2012, p. xiv).

Table 1: Roxy’s Service Delivery Process

Current Situation

As their popularity has grown and the number of customers has increased, the food truck is no longer able to efficiently service customers with its current layout (Figure 5). Roxy’s first truck is a retrofitted hot dog truck. It features a single window, is about 27 feet long and 7 feet wide. The actual preparation area is about 24 feet by 7 feet. The prep area components include:

• Prep table
• Deep Fryer
• Range
• Small Sandwich Grill
• Work top cooler
• Reach-in refrigerator (2)
• Beverage station
• Freezer
• Steam table
• Basin sinks (2)
• Hand sink

Figure 5: Existing Food Truck Layouts 1 & 2

Layout Food Truck 1 (top); Layout Food Truck 2 (below)

James has decided to set aside funds for improving Roxy’s process, operation, and design.

References:

Alfiero, S., Giudice, A. L., & Bonadonna, A. (2017). Street Food and Innovation: The Food Truck Phenomenon. British Food Journal, 119(1), 2462-2476.

Chang, S. (2019). A Look At The American Food Truck Phenomenon. Retrieved 18 June 2024, from https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/food-trucks-all-american-street-foodLinks to an external site.

City of Boston. (2015). Food Justice. Retrieved 18 June 2024, from http://www.cityofboston.gov/foodtrucks/Links to an external site.

City of Boston. (2023). Food Trucks. Retrieved 18 June 2024, from https://www.boston.gov/departments/small-business-development/food-trucksLinks to an external site.

Crespi-Vallbona, M., & Noguer-Juncà, E. (2024). The Role of Summer Markets in Promoting Authenticity and Social Sustainability of the Regions: The Case of La Santa Market (Catalonia, Spain). International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 36. 

Food Truck Operator. (2019). How Much Does it Cost to Start a Food Truck? Retrieved 18 June 2024, from https://www.foodtruckoperator.com/news/how-much-does-it-cost-to-start-a-food-truck/Links to an external site.

IBISWorld. (2024). Food Trucks in the US - Market Size, Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecasts (2024-2029). Retrieved 18 June 2024 from https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/food-trucks-industry/Links to an external site.

Kraig, B., & Taylor, C. (2013). Street Food around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. ABC-CLIO. 

Kraus, S., Sen, S., Savitskie, K., Kumar, S. K., & Brooks, J. (2022). Attracting the Millennial Customer: The Case of Food Trucks. British Food Journal, 124(13), 165-182. 

Loh, Z., & Hassan, S. H. (2022). Consumers’ Attitudes, Perceived Risks and Perceived Benefits Towards Repurchase Intention of Food Truck Products. British Food Journal, 124(4), 1314-1332. 

Miller, R. K., & Washington, K. (2014). Food Trucks. In The Restaurant and Foodservice Market Research Handbook (pp. 211-214). 

Snodgrass, M. E. (2004). Ency Kitchen History. Taylor & Francis. 

Sung, B., Stankovic, M., Lee, S., & Anderson, K. (2022). Passive Wi-Fi visitor Analytics and Food Truck Engagement: A Feasibility Study. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 13(2), 281-294. 

Van Embden, K., Jo, W., Holmes, M., & Xue, P. (2022). Consumer Evaluation of Food Truck Offerings Through Image, Perceived Risk, and Experiential Value. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 1-28. 

Weber, D. (2012). The Food Truck Handbook: Start, Grow, and Succeed in the Mobile Food Business. Wiley. 

Yoon, B., & Chung, Y. (2018). Consumer Attitude And Visit Intention Toward Food-Trucks: Targeting Millennials. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 21(2), 187-199.