1.3 Increasing the Odds of Success
Mobile markets can be a powerful tool for enacting positive change and revitalizing communities, but launching and running a sustainable mobile market can be difficult. The reality is that most mobile market owners/operators must face the fact that their mobile market ventures won’t generate enough income to cover their operating budgets.
There are many examples of social enterprises that aim to tackle food insecurity. The New York City Green Cart initiative, for example, provides mobile food vending permits for carts selling fresh fruits and vegetables in select New York City neighborhoods with the least availability of these products. This initiative has proven to be an inspiration for many, but unfortunately, the uptake has been low. Why? Framed as a business opportunity, Green Cart entrepreneurs quickly find out that the world of fresh food retail is a tough business that requires additional forms of funding in order to stay afloat.
In fact, the challenges presented by trying to source, store, market, and move perishable products with low margins are the reason most corner stores don’t sell fruits and vegetables. So, how do you create a successful mobile market venture? Here are some of the key lessons learned we’ve learned along the way that can help set your mobile market up for success:
- Get close and learn about your community: We’ll cover this in more detail in Module 3 and 4, but learning about your community and understanding the history, the culture, the characteristics, and the many forces (social, environmental, political, economic…) that impact the lives of its community members is crucial to the success of your market.
- Think about funding: Your initiative will have a much better chance of success if you determine upfront how you will achieve ongoing funding. You will want to think about partnerships and building relationships with like-minded organizations and businesses.
- Marketing is key: You will have food waste if you don’t move your products and marketing will be key to help you do that. You should plan to market for every stop you have, keeping your celebratory message about fresh food and good health clear and consistent.
- Strategically map out your stops: Being mobile means you can set up several sites a week. This enables you to cover a much larger area and serve more people.
- Create relationships that support you: You will need to plan out your parking and develop relationships with partners who understand and support your mission.
- Get rooted in: You can’t always plan for Mother Nature. Being outside means the weather can work against you and make it difficult for you to operate. That-being-said, you should plan to set-up in your location come rain or shine as trust will be lost if you aren’t where you said you’d be.
In the next module, we’ll introduce you to The Farmer’s Truck Robin Hood Model, a strategic framework for helping mobile markets achieve sustainability.