After he was laid off last fall from his job driving a delivery truck, Ricardo Lara couldn't find another full-time position that would pay the bills. So he went into business for himself driving an ice cream truck.
At first, he was making as much money peddling Heath bars, Bomb Pops and ice cream sandwiches as he did at his old job. But that didn't last.
As the economy melted down, so did sales, despite his seven-day workweek plying the streets of South Los Angeles.
"I have a good route, but people always complain, 'Why so expensive? I can't buy right now because I've been laid off from work for three months,' " Lara said through an interpreter. "Before the recession, it was a good way of making a good living."
As job cuts or reduced hours have sliced into incomes, more people have turned to mobile ice cream sales, lured by the low start-up costs and minimal skill requirements. At the same time, ice cream truck sales have declined 25% or more in some areas, industry executives and truck drivers say, a change for an industry that has considered itself recession-proof and ice cream an affordable luxury.
Across town, the upscale King Kone Ice Cream Co. truck launched last year by Teddy Lawrence and his wife, Naimeh, also has felt the recession's chill.
Sales were encouraging when they first rolled out in their shiny, butter-yellow van in January 2008. Lawrence was successful enough to quit his day job as a teacher.
They had designed their ice cream parlor on wheels to appeal to an adult crowd, especially at special events, with sundaes and soft-serve cones dipped in premium chocolate.
But the couple soon found they had to hit the streets to keep cash flowing, focusing on business and museum crowds along Wilshire Boulevard and posting the truck's changing location via Twitter.
Sales began to warm up this spring, but the Lawrences can't yet rely on parties to keep afloat, so they continue their business route.
"Having to drive around in neighborhoods with the music on -- that's what we are trying to avoid," said Naimeh Lawrence, who envisions owning a fleet of specialty food trucks some day. "It's a lot more work and a lot less of a payoff."
Many neighborhoods these days are hearing more tinkling music from ice cream trucks because "during tough times, people become creative," said Nick Nikbakht, owner of Golden State Ice Cream Co., a distributor in San Jose.
