What's going on with street market food stalls?

[apintortwo]

You used to be able to get a decent dish for £7ish pounds (admittedly pre-pandemic)

Now most weekend street markets are mostly tiny vegan dishes for £10. You can have a proper sit down dish at an informal restaurant for £10-£13 (chicken or even medium range steak)

Some of these markets are not even located in posh or touristy areas

I know everyone is trying hard to make a living, but still...

Why do I feel like this is a thinly-disguised rant against eating vegan food? (Other street food options are available)

I don't eat this kind of food (and certainly not vegan)

It would be interesting to see how much profit is made from that. Probably not enough to cover all the costs a restaurant faces and it's unlikely to work if everyone who ate there only spent £8 on a meal and drink.

The other thing to remember is that a lot of chain restaurants are propped up by a lot of debt, which is currently cheap but likely to get a lot more expensive going forward.

I foresee some high profile closing/scaling back in this sector, especially as other costs have also increased at the same time as people's budgets are being squeezed and eating out regularly will be one of the first things to go, especially when it looks like poor value for money even if it is affordable - I've seen a few threads where people have complained about it costing nearly £100 to take a family to somewhere like Pizza Express.

EVERYTHING went up and yes, some things doubled in price in whole sale while ago.

My costs have gone up and my food is defo expensive now. Nothing I can do about that, I either charge more or I go bust. How is it that hard to understand???

Bloody hell. That must be a great cut of meat 😂

all food is a rip off like this. I wouldnt bother buying it.

Steak at my local (not particularly good) pub is £23.

Wholesale butter has gone up by 30% in the last month alone. Coupled with other wholesale costs, it costs more to produce the food. Simple as that.

As for the cost of disposable containers, you'd be amazed how much they cost too.

Pitch prices have gone up. Staff shortages also impact prices.

At the commonwealth games, I paid £7.50 for an amazing Greek meal. The kids wanted a chicken burger and chips with a drink. £17.50. not a typo, £17.50.

The queue for the chicken burger was three times the length of the Greek place. Go figure.

@Plumtreebob they are making far more profit through things like drinks though, restaurants make a significant amount of profit on drinks and very little on food. Food trucks don’t have a captive audience who are ordering a few rounds of drinks.

They are usually running off of petrol generators, having driven around to all sorts of places already.

Lots of cafes and small restaurants qualify for small business rate relief. If they don’t, they current have a 50% business rate relief anyway helping to shield the impact of cost increases.

You really can’t compare the two business set ups. I don’t know anybody that is getting rich running a food truck.

Are you saying that it costs more to move a van, than to pay business rates?

You're comparing apples and oranges. Big chain restaurants open long hours, seven days a week. They can buy in bulk because there are more of them. They have huge kitchens and can seat 60-100 people at a time. Yes - they have expenses like council tax and business rates but they're also able to earn vast amounts compared to a solo operation like a food truck.

Food trucks can only cook in small amounts and can only serve on or two people at a time. They still have to pay gas and electricity as well as fuel and pitch hire, plus ingredients which they can't buy in bulk as they don't have the storage of a big building. They also can't open long hours without paying extra in pitch hire, whereas business pay a flat rate regardless of whether they open two days or seven.

Most bricks and mortar operations will also be able to sell alcohol and more complex dishes which means they can keep basic food costs down even more.

@fyi - I understand what you are saying but I dispute that no one is getting rich from it. If they weren’t no one would do it. The Pizza Pilgrims spring to mind as a well known one, and locally a business with a coffee truck then became 2, now has 3 semi-permanent locations and a shop.

I am not saying they shouldn’t make a profit but I do think they are often trading off being “trendy” rather than food quality and a near 50% hike as the OP describes I do not think is ok when they weren’t exactly cheap to begin with. Yes they have overheads but regardless of business rate relief they still have much much lower overheads than a restaurant, that’s why people start them.

I really noticed it with desserts recently when we went away, what used to be £6 is now £9.50.

Now most weekend street markets are mostly tiny vegan dishes for £10. You can have a proper sit down dish at an informal restaurant for £10-£13 (chicken or even medium range steak)

Where I live, DH and I recently had a two pub meals for £9 - sausage and mash. OK we had drinks too so that pushed it up. But we also got to sit down and eat it somewhere nice.

I understand what you are saying but I dispute that no one is getting rich from it. If they weren’t no one would do it

There's a difference between getting rich and making a living. It will be an unusual food truck business that makes enough to get rich! They (hopefully) make enough to pay themselves a wage. Although I've know of at least one (personal friend) who is thinking of chucking it in - the profit/wage he takes works out at less than minimum wage.

I do think they are often trading off being “trendy” rather than food quality and a near 50% hike as the OP describes I do not think is ok when they weren’t exactly cheap to begin with Surely they charge what the market will bear. Lots of people pay extra for 'trendy' items. At the end of the day, they are a business. And as explained up thread, a near 50% hike may well be justified, as ingredients and fuel may have risen by at least this amount, if not more.

It's rump not sirloin but It's still 12oz and good quality. Part of a very, very large pubco that has different branding across the estate. So where I am we're focused on food deals and very reasonably priced drinks (£2.25 a pint) whereas some of the other brands focus on upmarket cocktails and tapas.

I can assure you there is nothing wrong with the food quality.

My area has loads of food stalls and trucks and they are cheap. Food trucks in more touristy areas charge more - Borough Market charges silly prices.

But food costs have risen dramatically.

Local street trader does steak and chips for £8. I've not tried it but everyone raves about it.

www.instagram.com/steakingreenwich/

I've just looked at the lunchtime menu at my local pub. Most lunch meals are around £8. I'd expect street food to be less than that.

Not street food but my local Chinese takeaway does a big portion of sweet and sour chicken balls and Yung Chow fried rice for £11.80. DH doesn’t like it and it does me for 4 meals!

(no I’m not teeny tiny and shouldn’t really be eating Chinese but at that price ….)

Borough Market charges silly prices

The prices at Borough Market absolutely rocketed when it got as popular as it did. I remember going several years ago when it was certainly very popular but not at the constantly rammed capacity it seems to be now, and thought the prices were good value. I still go as I enjoy the experience, but the added pleasure of getting a good value meal isn’t there any more. I also got barked at by security when I was last there for daring to look at what was on offer instead of joining the queue - the price of popularity!

Not quite true, just back from london this weekend. Can get a small curry pot for £5 at Borough market, and I got a dosa (savoury pancake thing) on Saturday for £7.50 which was really filling, then yesterday at herne hill market could get really nice Ethiopian food for well under a tenner (several dishes with rice). I did notice some bakery stalls were charging £4.50 for small traybake squares though - that's a piss take!

I don't eat this kind of food (and certainly not vegan)

then you’re not their target audience and it shouldn’t matter to you how much they’re charging.

A pack of six tins of Heinz baked beans were priced at £3.00 at the end of 2021 in our local Sainsbury’s, and the same size pack last week was £5.00, a pack of instant noodles was 15p around the same time, and these now cost 55p each.

It’s insane! 13% my a@@e, they are just pushing up prices to whatever they want. I suppose wholesalers are doing the same, hence the price hikes on street and restaurant food...

@Notjustanymum - I agree, the rising costs are also being fuelled by opportunists looking to make as much profit as possible and using inflation as a cover. I am not directing that just at food trucks, it’s everywhere. I just left a company that raised its fees across the board by 10% “because inflation” despite their biggest cost by far being staff and not one of us had had a pay rise for years and weren’t getting one anytime soon (reason I left).