MCM Poll Results: 72 Percent of Mobile Food Vendors Only Accept Cash

Earlier this month Mobile Cuisine Magazine put together a Food Truck/Cart Poll aimed at our readers who are owner/operators. The object of the poll was to find out if mobile food vendors accepted cash or credit from their customers.

Mobile Food Vendors: Do you accept credit cards from your customers?

No, cash is King for my business.
No, but we plan to in the near future.
Yes, accepting credit cards allows us serve customers without cash on hand.

Here are the results:

We have tabulated the results of this survey and have found that 72 percent of those responding only accepted cash for their transactions, however that number may change in the near future. 14 percent of those who responded to only accepting cash, have stated that they may be switching over to accepting credit cards if they find a source of low transaction fees which won’t cut into their bottom line. The biggest concern expressed to us in regard to those who only accept cash, is the cost involved in the equipment used to process a credit card transaction in addition to the fees charged per sale.

Of the 28 percent that answered yes, most commented that their primary motivation was to provide a means for those people who do not carry cash on hand to be able to purchase food from their trucks. Some of the responders mentioned that allowing people to use credit cards did get some of their customers to make larger purchases than those who use cash.

In our research we found that the lowest transaction fees come from a new product from Square which charges its users 2.75% + $0.15 for card-present transactions and 3.5% + $0.15 for card-not-present transactions, but provides free scanning equipment for scanning credit cards for their members. Although this product provides the lowest rates, for vendors who have transactions which average less than 5 dollars, even this small fee can cut into their already low profit margins.

We would like to thank all of those who responded to this poll, and hope you continue to assist us in gathering information for the mobile food industry.

By Richard Myrick|2017-03-31T08:44:14-04:00Jan 25, 2011|Features|

About the Author: Richard Myrick

Richard Myrick is an architect by degree (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan) who began his career in real estate development and architectural planning. In September of 2010 he created Mobile Cuisine Magazine to fill an information void he found when he began researching how to start a mobile hotdog cart in Chicago. Richard found that there was no central repository of mobile street food information anywhere on the internet, and with that, the idea for MCM was born. Richard also wrote the "Running a Food Truck for Dummies" available in bookstores everywhere and Amazon. You can reach out to Richard by email at: [email protected].