Street food traders to take space at Glasgow's Buchanan Galleries
Similar to Trinity Kitchen, the street food operation at Trinity Leeds, Glasgow's Taste Buchanan will feature a changing roster of independent street food traders within the shopping centre's food court.
Taste Buchanan will open next month with eight traders signed up for launch, including Asian fusion specialists Chompsky, Neapolitan wood-fired pizza concept Glo Pizza and ice-cream business Equi's. The first eight will operate for two-to-three months before being replaced by a new line-up.
The arrival of the traders, picked by street food trader networking business StreetDots, will be accompanied by a revamp of the food court's interior which will be kitted out with up-cycled furniture, disused crates and bright graphics.
Land Securities senior portfolio manager Emma Lawson said including a new street-food offering within its Glasgow centre tapped into the growing trend for 'shopper-tainment' with leisure and entertainment facilities being used to lure consumers away from shopping online and into shops.
“In the industry wide battle with online competitors, shopping centres need to offer a unique point of difference for a generation of increasingly sophisticated shoppers," she said.
“Initiatives such as Taste Buchanan create a buzz that drives footfall by acknowledging the trends that excite our customers; in this case the demand for innovative locally sourced street-food.”
StreetDots co-founder Darren Callcott added: “StreetDots is redefining fixed retail space such as the food court. The social media generation is programmed to seek the next new thing and our constantly refreshing roster of traders at Taste Buchanan will deliver that."
StreetDots was founded in 2013 by retail designer Callcott and catering operator Atholl Milton after Milton was frustrated by the outmoded process of finding a pitch for his truck serving South African dish ‘bunny chow’.
The pair came up with the idea of creating a network of smart trading pitches or 'dots' that could be managed on a website for street food traders to access and easily find places to sell their offerings.
