‘Product, pricing and personality’ all count
Social media, politics also shape Memphis food truck industry
The cold didn’t stop customers from stepping up to the window of Grillmaster Chew’s food truck for barbecue at the Memphis Food Truck Park on Winchester last week.
A few paces away, Jimmy Rodgers said he regularly sells out at his Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand and has seen the local food truck industry grow since he first started in about 2012 with a cart in Whitehaven.
By last year, more than 100 food trucks received active Health Department permits and inspections to join the parade.
“Three p’s in this industry, I think: product, pricing and personality,” said Rodgers, 65, a retired Christian Brothers University women’s fastpitch softball coach.
“If you’re missing one of those p’s, you’re in big trouble,” Rodgers said. “It’s so competitive.”
Academics have pointed to social media, politics and the Great Recession as major ingredients in the steep rise of food trucks in cities.
“My Facebook, my Twitter and Instagram are off the chain,” said Antonio Chew, a former South Memphis tire shop owner who started barbecuing for fun, closed up shop and launched his Grillmaster Chew food truck about three years ago.
“I post every day where I’m going to be and my followers come,” said Chew, 46, who is considering expanding to a brick-and-mortar business. “You’ve got to get out on social media and build your customers.”
Food trucks are so prolific that even established venues are drawing them in to help draw shoppers. Recently, Oak Court Mall in East Memphis became the latest site to add food trucks. Its Food Truck Fest will run through March 31 three days a week. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, 5 p.m. to 8 on Fridays and 1 p.m. to 4 on Sundays.
Apps that track food truck locations on smart phones have emerged as a service for the industry. A local app, “Find My Food Truck,” was launched last fall by 901 Yum, Inc., for Apple and Android devices.
Free for users, food trucks pay a monthly fee for the service, which notifies app users about where trucks will be, alerts them to nearby trucks and offers menu descriptions and ways to e-mail and review them, said Sarah Stramel.
Stramel, 43, started her Memphis public relations firm, Stramel PR and Social Media, in 2012 and made the app with a local developer, Oliver Attias, she said.
“It’s exploding; when we went to open our bank account at First Tennessee, the lady told me, ‘I’ve done so many loans for food trucks just this week,’” Stramel said. “I think this app will be good for people that are new.”
While researches cite the politics of changing local ordinances and regulations as a big issue as food trucks gained popularity, today the Memphis food truck industry doesn’t view City Hall or the Health Department as the politics they face.
“We have regulations, but as a matter of fact I would say Memphis is one of the friendliest cities for food trucks,” said Keith Paul, president of the Memphis Food Truckers Alliance.
Politics within the industry are the issue.
“Whether it’s a homeowner association or whether it’s a food truck association, I’ve seen that too many times when the first ones usually want to control the whole thing,” said Rodgers, who hasn’t joined any food truckers association.
“They want to control where certain trucks go and most trucks I know don’t like that,” he said. “That’s why we’ve got wheels.”
Kevin Payne, owner of the 901 Food Truck Park that recently opened at Golf & Games Family Park on summer, said the politics of food trucking will be part of a book he’s writing, with a working title like: “The 18-hour Day, Life of a Food Trucker.”
“It’s very political, who gets what jobs, who does what where,” Payne said. “It’s very interesting, all the different politics of it.”
Paul, 54, a retired Memphis Police Department scrap metal theft investigator who offers Caribbean cuisine with his Cariflavor food truck, said it’s untrue that the alliance has anything to do with politics.
The alliance, with about 33 members, sets high standards and arranges selling events for members, he said. The main meal for the industry are invitations by employers to serve lunch to workers who have short lunch breaks, he said.
“The alliance doesn’t have a monopoly on anything in Memphis,” Paul said. “Actually we are just a group of truckers that are aligned just to be more visible.”
Derrick Clark, a former president of the Memphis food trucker association, cited food truck offerings Downtown on Court Square as an event that the alliance seeks to reserve for its members.
“They tell trucks where they can go and where they can’t go,” Clark said.
Clark, owner of A Square Meal on Wheels food truck and a A Square Meal Café at Lenox Center Court, said a second association to be called 901 Food Truckers is starting. It won’t have food truck owners on its board, he said
The Great Recession that pushed people to become entrepreneurs and a push by cities to lure young professionals helped fuel the growth of food trucks,” researchers found.
“That’s why you have so many people right now getting their trucks together for the summertime and they want to do the same thing that we do,” Chew said.
“But the object of the game is building your reputation and customers up, and you’ve got to love what you’re doing,” he said.