Restaurants open and close, and that’s a fact of life in this tough business.

Even without a pandemic, it’s not easy to survive in an industry with long hours, short profit margins, and crushing overhead costs.

For people wanting to be in the food business, especially during this time of COVID-19, food trucks may be a good option.

A listing for a $159,000 mobile food trailer operating in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver provides some reasons why this may be the way to go for some entrepreneurs.

“Forget expensive rent...,” says the listing found on the Restaurant Business Broker site.

It’s also “just a one-person operation”, so don’t worry about making the payroll.

The overhead is low, and it’s “easy to operate, even for beginners”.

Most important, it’s “proven pandemic proof business”.

Plus, it generates a “six figure income” in an “insanely high traffic location” that is close to shopping, offices, and transit.

The listing did not provide details about the name of the business.

As of 12 noon Sunday (December 13), a quick check with a street food app showed that 19 food trucks in places across Greater Vancouver were open for business.

Four more were expected to start later in the day.

In April this year, Corvette Romero, co-owner of food truck Shameless Buns, told the Straight by phone that food trucks are not going away because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Romero, food trucks are a good option for people looking for takeout or delivery.

Menu items are priced reasonably, and because of their outdoor location, food trucks offer an easier way for customers to keep their distane from others.

On November 24, 2020, Statistics Canada released numbers about how food services and drinking places were doing.

According to the numbers, unadjusted sales for these establishments in September were down 20.2 percent compared to the same month in 2019.

Sales fell in each of the following groups: full-service restaurants (-25 percent), special food services (-55.9 percent), limited-service restaurants (-6.9 percent ), and drinking places (-36.5 percent).

Also, year-over-year sales decreased in each province. Ontario (-24 percent), Quebec (-19.9 percent ) and British Columbia (-18.9 percent) reported the largest declines in dollar and percentage terms.