Eastern Idaho truck vendors hope trend will grow

A new business model is gaining popularity across the U.S.

“Stores on wheels” started with food and have expanded to a variety of other options, but has the trend caught on in eastern Idaho?

Bob Lasher loves serving up hot dogs out of his Topp Dawg food truck.

“I absolutely love meeting the people,” said Lasher.

He started the wagon, stationed outside the Holmes Avenue Home Depot store in Idaho Falls, more than four years ago. Lasher also owns the local Gandolfo’s Deli, which launched a mobile unit last year.

“See, we can take food to the customer,” said Lasher.

The business model is quickly growing on both East and West coasts. That’s what inspired Lasher.

The Sanchez family, on the other hand, started their Mexican food truck seven years ago out of necessity.

“Well, at first, money was tight and stuff, so we wanted to see if it would work, the food business,” said Marcelino Sanchez, who works on the truck with his parents. “(It) started going good for us, so we decided to keep it.”

Stores on wheels are less expensive than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, but Sanchez said El Paisa still requires property taxes and health inspections. And, it’s a lot of work.

“It’s pretty difficult,” said Sanchez. “We have to wake up pretty early (and) get all the food ready.”

Vendors in some bigger cities, like Los Angeles and Portland, are replacing the food in trucks with clothes, accessories or flowers, hitting the road to take retail to the shopper.

Lyn Pletscher, who owns Lyn’s Ladies and Babies Shoppe in Idaho Falls, said she can see how a crowd gathered around a big truck might attract business in a bigger city. But in eastern Idaho, she said, it might work for food, flowers and flags, but not her products.

“No, I don’t think I would do it,” she said. “Hand-bags you aren’t going to flag down.”

While we only know of a handful of stores on wheels in the area, Lasher would like to see that grow.

“We’re hoping it will explode,” he said. “(We’ll) do our best to help it happen.”

A popular way of finding these trucks is via social media, like Facebook or Twitter. The Gandolfo’s truck is on Twitter at @Gandolfosif.