A la cart struggling
[attach]513[/attach]The three-year pilot ethnic food cart program has been underway for about a month and a half now, but Toronto vendors are still facing bumps that need to be smoothed out.
“It’s been disappointing,” said Bridgette Pinder, the owner of a Caribbean food cart at corner of Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. “I expected a lot more from a la cart. I personally thought a month later I’d be doing a lot better.”
For Pinder, the biggest issue is location, she said.
Her busiest time is during lunch on Fridays. But, Pinder said, for every 10 hotdogs that are sold near her, she sells just one item.
She leaves home at 9:30 a.m. and heads to her location, where she stays open until about 3:30 p.m. After that, she said, the sidewalks are empty.
“I tried to work here on Saturday,” Pinder said, “but I can’t anymore. It’s not worth my time to even come out here.”
And, she added, people are just so used to eating hotdogs.
Pinder contacted Councillor John Filion, who spearheaded the project, but he has no solution, she said. He told her she can’t be moved because more studies of the area would have to be done, she said.
There are also issues with the cart itself.
Pinder said it’s hard to work when it’s windy or raining because the carts aren’t enclosured.
She’s also steps from the road, she pointed out.
With how business is going, Pinder said she’s not sure if she’s going to last.
She’s about $50,000 in debt after borrowing money for the cart, the location fee and buying the trailer to pull the cart from Mississauga.
Pinder was a counsellor to people with addictions before she took up the cart, but that’s not something she wants to go back to, she said.
“I really was excited about the idea of Toronto having ethnically diverse foods on the street and it represents Caribbeans as well,” Pinder said. “But this, I don’t see any tourists out here.
“There’s no exposure to nothing. Just a commuter getting a bit of jerk chicken. Whoop-de-do.”
Meanwhile, Young Jin Kim’s Korean food cart at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. is doing better.
Kim said business isn’t bad and it’s gotten better as time has passed. They’re able to open six days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Her son Simon, who helps her out everyday, said there are things that could be improved.
For starters, he said, the cart isn’t fit to serve customers.
“The fridge needs to be kept at a certain temperature and we’re always opening and closing and working on it,” he said. “It’s just a pain sometimes.”
And the cart itself is a little unstable, he said.
“When the wind blows, the cart shakes so much and I feel like it’s going to collapse,” Simon said, adding a joint has already popped off.
He said the city could help them more with the physical moving of the cart. He and his mom travel downtown at 8 a.m. from their home in North York to pick up the cart before finally arriving at their location.
But customers who’ve tried the ethnic food carts seem to enjoy the food.
Noah Schipper, who works around St. Clair Ave., visits Pinder’s cart two or three times a month. He said he was attracted to the cart by its smell.
“We need more options of different foods,” Schipper said.
Patrice Williams, the owner of a martial arts school in the St. Clair area, comes by at least twice a week. He discovered the cart just by passing by.
“I think it’s very good,” he said. “It adds spice to Toronto.
“I’m glad to see it and I hope to see it stay. I look forward to more tastier and interesting foods.”