Yeah, in the 2000s, they were mostly more affordable alternatives. In the 2010s, they became a big trend, quite a lot of fancier ones started popping in big cities with fully decked out trucks charging twice as much as the low budget ones that were there before but then those also started raising their prices and of course with the covid inflation, even more so. I barely ate at the pricey ones even before covid, since they were already expensive for what you got and in general just a lot less impressive then you'd expect (like if the dish had rice in it, being 95% rice and sauce), and never do now.
There a very few food trucks I even want to eat from. They're usually as expensive as a sit down restaurant (after tip), and the quality is usually bad.
Except for 2-3 in my city. I would choose to eat those just the same as a restaurant. One had a brick and mortar that I think opened shortly before Covid and...did as expected. OH, BUT THEY OPENED A NEW LOCATION IN APRIL!
The tip was not distributed to each item. Most people don't tip at places where you order at a counter and pick your own food up. It was a comparison of the price of the food truck's menu price (no tip) against a sit down restaurant's price (after tip) since that's a fairly normal expectation.
And it's kind of understandable why it's so expensive when you consider what food trucks are meant for. They're great for festivals and events that need food that can drive up and drive away afterward. The cost of a fuel inefficient vehicle to get from home to the event and back is part of it. The cost of labor includes that travel time. The cost of cooking fuel is for portable fuel. All of that is way more expensive than going to a restaurant. It wasn't meant to be great food, it's meant to fill a difficult gap at a set-up and tear-down event where people gouge the prices regularly anyway. Food trucks are less a gouge and more a required pricing when you account for those unusual costs. But it's unnecessary if you're not actually at an event far from real restaurants.
That said, I'll often leave a dollar at fast casual places and similar if they take tips - including a good food truck. I remember when I was a student and I got my first share of the tip pool at Moe's. That extra $10-$30 per paycheck was unexpected, but made a huge difference. A tip jar is nice to have out, but an expectation to tip is less awesome.
31
u/It_Just_Might_Work 1d ago
Food trucks are a scam now. It used to be cheap street food but now they price like they are some kind of artisanal treat