Swapping fryers for fitting rooms: Chicago looks to regulate mobile boutiques
CHICAGO - After years of contentious efforts to regulate food trucks, Chicago is tackling a new kind of mobile business: trucks that swap fryers for fitting rooms and hawk merchandise, not meals.
The city in 2016 gave about a half-dozen mobile boutiques - selling apparel, shoes and artwork - permission to hit the streets for a two-year trial period. City officials now want to establish rules governing them on a more permanent basis before their temporary business permits expire June 15.
The challenge? Catering to entrepreneurs seeking a novel way to launch or grow small businesses without making things tougher for their bricks-and-mortar counterparts or inviting unintended
