Saskatchewan food trucks feeling the pressure of high costs

Valeria Romo says tackling high prices for food and gas is a common obstacle of owning a food truck.

“In a new food truck season, it’s a new challenge,” said Romo. “Since COVID, before COVID, after COVID, everything is going up (in price). We are trying to keep our prices the same so we can keep customers’ loyalty.”

But now, she said she is starting to feel the pressure of trying to balance the budget at the end of the day.

“We are trying to keep our budget, but it is just getting so high,” said Romo.

Romo co-owns El Tropezon, a Mexican food truck that has been in operation in Regina since 2017. She thought her truck would get more business after the pandemic, but now that the costs of gas and supplies have gone up in an inflationary period, she’s concerned about paying bills.

“It’s been really, really challenging because we need to pull the trailer and it’s getting crazy the amount of gas we are spending,” she said.

Now that many people are having weddings and special events again, Romo said the price of gas has added an additional cost.

“It’s just getting tough,” she said.

The price to fill up the food truck has increased by $40, according to Romo.

“Before COVID, I used to fill up the truck starting at $120, and the last time I went was $160,” she said.

In order to make ends meet, Romo said she increased the price of her food. She and her employees have been confronted by customers who are complaining about the costs.

“It’s so expensive because we are trying to support local, and then we can support the community (in return) because they are being that great support to us,” Romo said.

Romo says her price before the pandemic was $13.50 for her taco meal, then during the pandemic it went up to $14.50. Now, to keep up with inflation, she said the price has gone up to $16.

“Everything has increased from the shipments to supplies being double the amount,” said Romo.

Despite getting some flak from customers, the truck still has loyal members of the community who come and support its owners.

“Some of them are really good,” said Romo. “They understand why the prices are getting so high. They have been so loyal to us. We have customers from five years ago. So they understand why we are going up in prices.”

Romo says while business has been slow downtown, she is still hopeful that things will pick up.

“We’ve seen a lot less people here at the farmers market,” she said. “I don’t know if it is people at the office are still working from home, but we have definitely seen a lot less people working here.”

Romo runs the food truck with her family and said it’s important to raise her employees’ wages through tough times.

“Every summer, there is something different going on,” said Romo. “You need to spend money to better the equipment, to keep staff together and to increase employees’ salaries.

“It doesn’t make sense to increase the prices if you don’t increase the salaries.”