Food Truck and Gossips

These food trucks often started off as street vendors; then they got motorized and got bigger and turned into a truck with many variety of produce and meat. A loud speaker is added to the back of the truck to announce the arrival of the mobile market. Each truck has a unique sound and ways they made the announcement; this is so that customers could readily distinguish their favorite seller from the others and start gathering around it. The seller could earn up to 80,000 baht/month or more -- a respectable salary, on par with mid-level managers in private corporations.

Villagers and construction workers waited for the food truck in the morning and evening hours. The waiting time, actually created an impromptu community where free exchange of ideas – and gossips – thrived.

With the arrival of mini marts in the communities, however, people now have the convenience of dropping in and buy things at any time they choose, 7 days a week. It remain to be seen whether the accidental exchange of information would turn out to be less frequent or not.