Mobile businesses – from food trucks to fashion boutiques – appear to be the new trend. According to Street Fight: Food Trucks vs. Restaurants, due to the increasing number of food truck businesses, major cities like Chicago, Boston and Seattle are enacting laws that “restrict where food trucks can serve customers in proximity to their rivals and for how long.”
“Brick and mortar” restaurants, as they call them, have obvious limitations. They cannot reach as many customers as food trucks, and the cost of operating a restaurant is likely double the cost of owning and operating a food truck.
Another growing aspect of the mobile business is the mobile boutique. I first learned of these “fashion buses” on the Tyra Banks Show. On the outside they look like celebrity tour buses, but on the inside can mimic the most elegant fashion houses. Usually, they come equipped with dressing rooms and the season’s latest. However, they are being met with the same challenges – parking and new laws tailored to discourage mobile commerce.
Mobile businesses are on the rise, but don’t give up your lease just yet. Cities have a vested interest in spurring the economy through leasing and selling property to local businesses, and it seems they plan to make it as difficult as possible for mobile businesses to rain on their economic parade.