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Food trucks find new success in neighborhoods, apartment complexes after cancellations from COVID-19

For weeks, food trucks have been struggling to make ends meet because of the coronavirus. Now, some are finding relative success parking near where people live.

AUSTIN, Texas — After bars were ordered closed and festivals were canceled because of COVID-19, food truck owners were left wondering how they would attract customers.

Instead of hoping customers would still come to their parking lots and other spaces, some food truck owners and location bookers decided to bring the food trucks where the people were – their homes.

"If everybody is locked down in the house, let's go to them," Bob Somsith, owner of SXSE Food Co food truck, said. "It's the only way we can stay alive and the only way to continue working."

Typically, SXSE (pronounced, "sexy") parks near a brewery and lets customers who get a beer grab some food from the Laotian cuisine truck. On Saturday, Somsith parked his truck near the entrance to The Santal luxury apartments after booking the spot for a few hours with the complex's management.

"The day-to-day stuff like what we're doing here keeps us alive, but by no means are we going to make a killing out of it," Somsith said.

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According to Somsith, he's losing about $75,000 in annual income because of the coronavirus. Selling food in different neighborhoods four out of seven days a week won't make up for the loss, but will keep his truck running. March, April and May are the big three money-making months for food trucks, according to Somsith, and without festivals and other events to bring in thousands of customers in a short burst, many will struggle.

With the Texas economy starting to reopen, Somsith does not know if he will continue to rotate his way through neighborhoods and apartment complexes. That all depends on how bars and breweries will reopen. If the first phase of reopening for that industry will rely on a phased opening at 25% capacity to start, he's not so sure SXSE will go back to a brewery parking lot in the beginning.

"Everything is a question mark right now, to the point that I'm only booking two, three weeks in advance," Somsith said. "I don't want to overbook myself and then cancel on everybody just so I can go back to doing my normal stuff."

Even with the big loss in sales this year, Somsith calls this strategy a blessing in disguise: parking in new locations has spread the word about his truck, introducing his food to new customers.

"We're doing pretty much what we call a Tour de Austin here," Somsith said. "We're going everywhere from Kyle to Buda to Leander – I mean up and down everywhere, and those people would've never known who we are."

In an effort to keep both customers and staff safe, people must order the food online, social distance when they pick up and pay. To further keep staff safe, pSomsith is only working with a handful of chefs right now.

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