PopUp Republic

Fashion Trucks

You hear about it, you read about it, you see it everywhere. This is the Era of Mobile. Smartphones are everywhere, seemingly glued as an appendage to people’s ears. Stand in a crowd and, almost invariably, you will see someone with head bowed, seemingly deep in prayer, when actually he or she is merely reading the latest text that was telecommunicated to the little electronic box he is holding in his hands.

But this “Era of Mobile” has started to take on a secondary meaning as well. Mobile is beginning to refer to the method by which retailers meet face-to-face with prospective customers. There is online, represented by the mass of retailers who sell their products on the web. There is offline, personified by brick-and-mortar stores and malls. And now there is mobile, which is being led by food trucks.

The food truck sector is still in its early stages. The industry is just starting. Entrepreneurs are beginning to recognize the potential and low cost of entry. The public is just now recognizing that some of the most delicious food in the neighborhood at lunchtime is literally just around the corner. Regulators are salivating not only at the prospect at eating at one of these roving restaurants, but also at the new area in which they can construct a web of rules and licenses—and taxes—that will dramatically impact the speed in which this retail segment will take hold. It will happen, as public appetite for the convenience and culinary talents of the food truck ...