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My Economy

His Houston food truck business has become “very hit or miss”

Alli Fam Aug 11, 2020
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Jose Sanchez's new food truck business had just picked up when COVID-19 started closing office buildings, a major source of customers. Courtesy of Jose Sanchez.
My Economy

His Houston food truck business has become “very hit or miss”

Alli Fam Aug 11, 2020
Heard on:
Jose Sanchez's new food truck business had just picked up when COVID-19 started closing office buildings, a major source of customers. Courtesy of Jose Sanchez.
HTML EMBED:
COPY

My Economy” tells the story of the new economic normal through the eyes of people trying to make it, because we know the only numbers that really matter are the ones in your economy.

When office buildings across the country closed their doors in March, many food truck owners were left scrambling, having lost a significant portion of their lunch hour customers. Jose Sanchez was one of them. Sanchez began his food truck business, Ay! Empanadas, last October in Houston, and in January, business was finally beginning to pick up as he had started selling his food at apartment complexes and outside office buildings.

Now, because of the pandemic, “it’s very hit or miss,” he said. Since many more people are at home, he said local home ownership associations are requesting food trucks in neighborhoods. But reliable revenue is tricky. Sometimes, he’ll go to a location and make around “$500 in four hours,” he said, and just a week or two later, he’ll return to the same location, only to make about $70. But Sanchez is trying to make things work. His son is almost a year old, and right now, Ay! Empanadas is Sanchez’s only source of income.

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