The sale of ice creams, hot dogs, coffee, beer, candy among several other commodities has for a very long time been the exclusive affair of eateries and restaurants. With the advancement in mobile technology and the development of the electronic medium of commercial activities and transaction (e-commerce), delivery of these aforementioned items took a new dimension which, unlike the ancient physical purchase from their respective stores, can now be ordered online with delivery made to the customer’s provided addresses. While this seem to have solved the age-long challenge of having to trek a distance in other to make purchase for your desired products in stores, the electronic commerce medium however created within itself its own kind of challenges which centres around the possibility of the delivery getting late and the delivered products getting sour or damaged. This among several other of such related challenges thus called for the introduction of food and other related products’ carts.
What are Food Carts?
In its most ordinary description, a food cart is a tricycle-modelled carriage device used for food vending activities. It comes with a complete kitchen accessory, a wheel for mobility, a cover that provide shades, and a few attached lightings that enhance night visions. An ideal food cart works as a form of mobile kitchen and make food vending activities possible from one location to another. Like every other type of carts, food carts are small in size, built to thread different locations, makes cooking possible while on wheel, and make delivery for fresh food to the customer’s desired location very possible. Food carts; irrespective of their sizes and specification, come in two major styles. One comes with a seat that allow the vendor to transact his/her business and attend to customers while sitting, while the other is without a seat and makes the vendor go about his/her businesses standing.
Since its first innovation, the development of food carts has evolved over time. What used to be a carriage with handles being pushed by human or as an attachment to vehicles to be conveyed to its desired location, had today assume a new and self-driven modular design with lovely material designs such as stainless steels, fibre reinforced plastics as well as some touches of aluminium materials among several others. In addition to these, some food carts also operate as a mobile outlet for a known restaurant location, while some others act as independent vendors with no known physical office location.
Why Food Carts are Recommended for A Business Start Up
For an individual looking forward to commence a food vending business and with a comparatively lesser capital for start-up, a food cart is the recommended medium to consider. Below are reasons why a food cart is considered as the most recommended recommended vending platform for a business start-up: -
1. Cheaper to Acquire: - at the start up stage of every business, the acquisition of materials necessary for the proper business functioning is usually one of the foremost decisions that any entrepreneur make. For an individual looking forward to venturing into a food vending business, there are several other considerations that must be in place among which are the availability of the market for the commodity being sold, the closeness of the store to the source of raw materials employed in the production process, as well as the cost of acquiring a physical store in the most preferred areas. Unlike an ideal food store which comes with bills such as electricity expenses and expense for water provision among several other considerations, a food cart has a built-in device that offer every service at no extra cost to the owner. All these considerations among several others makes the acquisition of food cart a more advisable option to that of a physical store location. Food cart offers a one-stop solution to all kinds of food vending related activities from the purchase of raw materials, to cooking, and as well as street vending.
2. Makes Street-to-Street Vending Possible: - with the mobility enhanced by food carts, it becomes very possible for vendors of food commodities to move from one street to another and offer their commodities for sale right at their respective consumer’s location. It provides a shop-on-the-wheel capability to the vendor, make the product accessible to the nook and crannies of the society, and make it possible for the buyers to make purchase from within the comfort of their own homes.
3. Open Vendor to an Already Made Vending Market: - a food vending bike is well equipped to make cooking activities possible even while in transit. This makes it easier to offer freshly cooked meals to its retinue of consumers right at the comfort of their respective locations. A food cart owner can easily move its product to a well congested area like amusement parks, beaches, pools and every other location that attracts a large number of people, and from which access to customers for immediate food purchase can be guaranteed.
4. Make Instant Order Delivery Possible: - That vending bikes can convey their products directly from the source straight to the consumers makes most products purchased from vending bikes fresh, new and fit for immediate consumption. While the delivery for an online order can take on average 15 to 35 minutes or even more, a food vending bike operator is always within the locality. In a situation where they are not that close, they save the time spent on order preparation and delivery to their customers as a result of the ability of vending bikes to engage in the preparation of the ordered item while on transit. This makes it relatively faster, easier, efficient and as well reliable to meet up with instant order request and deliveries.
5. Food Carts is Reliable and Easy to Maintain: - unlike the use of bus for food vending activities, food bikes are less vulnerable to faults. They are easy to clean, and the built-in equipment are far less complicated to handle. This among other factors makes a food cart relatively easier to handle, operate, and as well maintain.
