A cross-posting from my Hungry Geographies blog - Food for Thought.
An interesting BBC story looks at the impact of viral food destinations on the areas where they are located - and how they attract travellers.
These businesses rely heavily on social media rather than building up a regular customer base over many years. Some of them ride their fame for a while and then disappear back to relative obscurity.
Does anyone remember the Binley Mega-Chippy for example - if not, I created a lengthy resource on it back in June 2022. It's actually quite a good resource, and with some updates and tweaks. Now, the viral song which caused people to flock there for fish and chips - when there were plenty more fish and chip shops in the area - has even disappeared from YouTube.
This shows the short-term nature of some of these food trends.
Check the Binley Mega-Chippy resource out here.
These viral stalls are publicised by the businesses themselves, but also by food 'influencers' and others who make short videos reviewing particular foods in some cases.
In the UK, we have 'Spud Man' as one example of a person who is making good use of their fame, and helping to support charities as well as selling a lot of jacket potatoes. His book and clothing and other activities show how he is developing some income potential from his fame, although it didn't help with his recent disputes with Tamworth Council over the location of his food stall.
His name is Ben Newman and this article outlines how his story developed, and how he started.
He has over 600 000 followers on Instagram alone, and makes money from the videos that he creates as well as other merchandising and collaborative projects.
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