The Taco Truck: How Mexican Street Food is Transforming the American City by Robert Lemon

This paper aims to identify service quality dimensions of street food that have an impact on utilitarian and hedonic values and to determine the effect of utilitarian and hedonic values on repurchase intention. It also examines the moderating effect of risk perception toward street food safety on the relationship between service quality and perceived value. An Internet survey was performed in Korea with 285 respondents. The results confirmed that the five dimensions of street food’s service quality—food quality, employee service, physical environment, price, and rapidity of service—had positive impacts on utilitarian and hedonic values. All perceived value (utilitarian, hedonic) has an impact on repurchase intention. Finally, the food quality of street food showed a stronger influence on utilitarian value among the low-risk perception group than the high-risk perception group depending on the consumers’ level of awareness of food safety. This provides new insights for marketing strategies to attract domestic/foreign consumers to street food vendors and for creating a new food culture by emphasizing important domains of service quality, the relation of quality to consumer values, and risk perception toward food safety in street food.

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Street Food Stand Availability, Density, and Distribution Across Income Levels in Mexico City

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18083953 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 3953

Author(s):

Jose B. Rosales Chavez ◽

Meg Bruening ◽

Punam Ohri-Vachaspati ◽

Rebecca E. Lee ◽

Megan Jehn

Keyword(s):

Mexico City ◽

Food Environment ◽

Local School ◽

Middle Income ◽

Street Food ◽

Income Levels ◽

Rigorous Approach ◽

Ground Truthing ◽

Document Relationships ◽

Street Segments

Street food stands (SFS) are an understudied element of the food environment. Previous SFS studies have not used a rigorous approach to document the availability, density, and distribution of SFS across neighborhood income levels and points of access in Mexico City. A random sample (n = 761) of street segments representing 20 low-, middle-, and high-income neighborhoods were assessed using geographic information system (GIS) and ground-truthing methods. All three income levels contained SFS. However, SFS availability and density were higher in middle-income neighborhoods. The distribution of SFS showed that SFS were most often found near homes, transportation centers, and worksites. SFS availability near schools may have been limited by local school policies. Additional studies are needed to further document relationships between SFS availability, density, and distribution, and current structures and processes.

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