Mobile Sales Vehicles

For many centuries goods or services have been taken to the customer on handcarts, horse-drawn, or motor vehicles. In this publication we give an historical context to mobile sales, from hawkers and pedlars to modern ‘mobiles’. The advent of the motor vehicle meant that more entrepreneurs could take their offerings to more customers, rather than waiting for buyers to come to them. Ice cream vans were probably the most frequently seen and most popular mobile sales vehicles. The mobile canteen has also always been a welcome sight, from wartime bomb sites to modern movie locations. Traders could have a ready-equipped mobile sales vehicle or shop. Scattered rural communities or newly-built housing estates without nearby shops were well-served by mobile grocers, butchers and the like. At large outdoor events you might see fast food vans, mobile bars, and in the days before credit cards, there were mobile banks as well. In these pages you will also see mobile libraries, churches and cinemas.