My Food Truck Idea - 'Packed Lunch'

I've said before that if I ever wanted to open a food truck, it would be 'Packed Lunch' - all premade/cold foods, tossed in a paper sack, just like we got as kids for taking to school. For one price, maybe $5, you pick one of each of the following:

• One premade sandwich. Pick from whatever sandwiches I'm offering today. But always PB&J as an option. They are all on plain white bread. No artisan fancy breads here.
• PB&J - creamy peanut butter and cheap grape jelly.
• Bologna & Cheese - that's plain American cheese slices and cheap meat-like product.
• Today's Sandwich - this is whatever I either found cheap makings for, had leftovers of, or just felt like making. Maybe it's a grilled cheese, maybe it's a tortilla wrap. After Thanksgiving, for example, it's likely to be turkey or ham for the next couple of weeks. Less of these available will be available each day - get 'em early.
• One Fruit Side - an apple, banana, applesauce, or fruit rollup.
• One bag of chips. I'll get the big mixed bag pack of Doritos, Cheetos, Lays, etc. One of each will be in the window, and when we run out, I grab the one in the window, and we're out of that.
• One dessert - a jello cup, pudding cup, or pack of cookies. Sometimes that'll be one cookie in a ziploc because I made cookies; sometimes it'll be Oreos from the store multi-pack. But only one cookie option at any given time.
• One drink box - milk, chocolate milk, apple juice, maybe a small bottled water as an option.

Everything's laid out in order - you hand me $5, I grab a paper bag and grab one thing in each column as you pick 'em. I hand you the bag - no waiting to be called. If something runs out, it's no longer available for the day. 

After you pay, there's a table with mayo & mustard, napkins, and plastic knives for cutting your sandwich or apple if you need to. That should be all you need.

I feel like a lot of the frustration with eating from most food trucks comes down to a few issues...

1 - Too many things on the menu, and it's all 'fancy'. Everyone has to make a decision of what they want, based on a lot of different things at different prices. And the menu frequently doesn't have details, so if you have allergies or are picky, you have to ask questions. Or ask for things to be customized. Here we're talking one price - one option. You get a bagged lunch, and every bagged lunch is the same price. 

2 - Customization - Asking to have things added or taken away just slows down the process, and adds to the likelihood that something is wrong. Here, the sandwiches are premade and the sides are all pre-packed, so there's no special requests; you just pick which things you want. If you don't like grape jelly, don't pick the PB&J. We don't do 'extra jelly' or 'light jelly' - it's just jelly. If you want something on your sandwich, pick from the things on the condiment table. If it's not there, it's not an option.

3 - Temperature. Keeping food hot or cold and ready to serve is a problem. None of this has a required serving temperature. Okay, some of it should be keep cool. But not even refrigerated-cool, just cooler than room temperature to be pleasant. That's easy enough to manage, and then you're not cooking the employees working the truck, as well. And if customers want to buy a bag and carry it off to eat later, that works, too.

4 - Math is a problem, and juggling change while trying to cash out is one more thing. Here, the math is easy. Every bagged lunch is $5 (or $8 or $10 or whatever fits the market). You want two bags? $10. Three is $15. If we're in a place with sales tax, we adjust the price to make it come out to an even dollar amount. We don't accept change at all on cash sales, only bills. And Venmo or Paypal or something, with a QR code displayed for 'one bag', 'two bags', and 'three bags'.

5 - At hot food trucks, everyone waiting for their food to be prepared means that workers are trying to work both ends of things, ordering and receiving. We're gonna drop that. You come to the window, pick a sandwich, a fruit, a chip, a dessert, a drink. You pay, you get a bag, and you're done. And seeing what's available is easy. A picture of each option is in the window. If something runs out, we take down the picture. Customers don't even have to talk if they don't want. Point at a sandwich - in the bag. Point at a fruit option - it goes in the bag. At the end, pay, take your bag, and go. No calling out names and trying to match up the right food to the right customer.

Now, I don't actually want to run a food truck. I love what I do, sitting behind a keyboard. But I do eat at food trucks every now and then, and being a picky eater, I'm always frustrated with the experience. Usually I'm eating at a food truck because I'm just hungry now and it's all that's available. I don't want the 'experience', I'm not looking for 'cuisine'. I just want some food. And I probably had to hike over here to get it and I've gotta hike back to somewhere I can sit and eat. But first I've gotta stand in line, then wait around for the food. I'd love to have a simpler option of walk up, pick out plain food, go eat it. This is the 'experience' I'd rather have.