OK, this is very early stage, and nothing is guaranteed. But I thought I’d share some of our thoughts, with the warning that they are in process.
Our plan has been to figure out Clover in the Boston market, then, as we continue to grow organically in Boston to expand to other regions. I’ve had a lot of ideas over the past couple of years about what that expansion will look like. Now it’s time to make them concrete.
I’m doing what I’ve always done, eating food and talking to customers. But I’ve been doing this in DC, Philly, New York, Chicago, and today, LA. I’ll share more about what we’re learning on some of those other trips.
LA wasn’t our top choice, it’s so far away. But one of our well loved managers is moving home for personal reasons. And home is LA. And we’d love to keep her in the Clover family. So I started wondering what it would take to do something small in LA that she could run, maybe 1 truck and 1 restaurant.
I brought my 4 year old son Blue with me on this trip. He’s responsible for the photo above.
That’s me talking to Hugo at the world’s largest food truck commissary. This place was crazy. We’re talking almost 250 food trucks in one spot. Yeah.
Everything is different here. I asked about permitting, and repairs, and the business schedules. I asked what trucks he liked best, water, grey water, how well coolers work in the hot weather. We talked about ansul systems and daily checklists, and events. It was awesome. I learned a ton. Short answer: it’s WAY easier to open a truck in LA, and WAY cheaper.
Now I’m starting to think what that CloverLAX truck would look like.
