Taco Bell is a fast-food restaurant chain which is a division of Yum! Brands, Inc., previously part of PepsiCo located in Irvine, California.
| Company type | Division of a Public Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Quick Service Restaurants |
| Founded | Downey, California (March 21, 1962) |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California |
Key people | Glen Bell (founder) |
| Products | Tacos, burritos, and other Mexican-related fast food |
Number of employees | 143,000 |
| Website | www.tacobell.com |
Taco Bell serves food items loosely based on Tex-mex cuisine. Although it had its roots in Tex-Mex, it has now evolved into a cuisine of its own. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
General operations
Taco Bell encourages its diners to "think outside the bun", a reference to its advertising campaign that encourages bypassing the efforts and popularity wars of such hamburger-selling fast food chains as McDonald's and Burger King - through the tortilla instead of the bun. Previously, Taco Bell had a menu item called the "Bell Beefer" (bun, taco spiced beef, lettuce, cheese and tomato) in the mid to late 1980s designed to compete with burger chains. The product did not prove popular and was discontinued.
Smaller Taco Bell Express outlets, offering a reduced version of the menu, appear in malls, airport terminals, department stores, hotels, cafeterias, gas stations, and other locations. Some school lunch programs also offer Taco Bell items under the Taco Bell Express branding.
The Taco Bell name is also used under license by Kraft Foods, which offers a line of taco shells, spices, salsa, and other Mexican foods (including full meal kits) featuring the Taco Bell name in supermarkets nationwide.
According to the Taco Bell website, there are currently over 6,500 Taco Bell franchises operating in the 48 mainland United States. with 280 non- franchises.
Australia had the Taco Bell concept introduced a few years back which had "piggybacked" off existing KFC or Pizza Hut sites and had moderate success but had found that Australians were not used to a "fast food Mexican" concept like Taco Bell. The Taco Bell dog was used in commercials shown in Australia.
Over the last several years, Yum! Brands, Inc. has been co-locating its various restaurant franchises (KFC, Long John Silver's, and Pizza Hut). Combined Taco Bell/KFC locations are common.
History
The founder of Taco Bell, Glen Bell, started with a hot dog stand in San Bernardino, California in 1946. After experimenting with alternative food items, he opened three Taco-Tia stands between 1954 and 1955, which he later sold to his partners. He then opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California on March 21, 1962.
The first Taco Bell franchise was sold in 1964 and the company went public in 1969. In 1978, Bell sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain was spun off along with Pepsi's other fast food restaurant holdings as Tricon Global Restaurants in October 1997. Tricon became Yum! Brands, Inc. in May 2002.
In the early 1990s, Taco Bell changed its menu due to pressure concerning the nutritional value of items labeled "Lite". It was believed the term lite was vague or possibly deceptive. Many of the items were dropped entirely from the menu; one such item was the "Taco Lite", a fried flour tortilla shell with lean beef, fat free sour cream, lettuce, reduced fat cheese and tomatoes. Some items were altered to change the nutritional values, such as the removal of black olives from the list of ingredients, in an effort to reduce sodium.
In early 1995, Taco Bell transformed the familiar rainbow logo, in favor of a simpler pink/purple combo logo in an effort to revitalize their almost 20 year old logo.
On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it to "the Taco Liberty Bell." Thousands of people who did not immediately get the April Fool's Day hoax protested.
In 2003, Costa Rican Taco Bell franchises temporarily marketed their tacos as "Tacos ticos," because for Costa Ricans, the word "taco" refers to what is known in Mexico as a flauta. ("Tico" and "Costarrican" are colloquial terms for natives of Costa Rica.)
In 2004, a local Taco Bell franchisee bought the naming rights to the former Boise State Pavilion in Boise, Idaho and renamed the stadium the Taco Bell Arena. [3]
In the summer of 2004, PepsiCo and Taco Bell introduced Mountain Dew Baja Blast. The tropical-lime flavored drink is exclusive to Taco Bell stores. Along with this, Taco Bell introduced its Mountain Dew Viva Variety! promotional campaign, where a sign shows three cups of Mountain Dew, one normal, one Code Red and one Baja Blast.
Added to the official menu in early 2006, the Crunchwrap Supreme is Taco Bell's latest permanent product. Their most recent "limited time only" item was the Ultimate Chalupa. It is a chalupa with chicken or steak, sour cream, lettuce, guacamole, 3 cheese blend, and fiesta salsa. Newer items in some franchises are the Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme and the Nacho Crunch Grilled Stuft Burrito. The newest promotional item is the 7-Layer Crunchwrap Supreme, a vegetarian crunchwrap much like the 7-Layer Burrito.
In Canada, there are no Taco Bells in the province of Quebec. Priszm Brandz announced in April 2006 that their first Quebec Taco Bell should open in suburban Montreal during the summer with 20 to 30 more to follow across the province.[1]
Slogans
- Taca-taca-taca-taca-taca-taca Taco Bell!
- Ooh! What a difference Taco Bell makes!
- Make a run for the border.
- Nothing ordinary about it.
- Cross the Border.
- Fetch that food!
- You can munch it! So good!
- Taste that food! Dong!
- Change Is Good
- Want some?
- Yo quiero [I want] Taco Bell.
- Think outside the bun.
- Spice up the night. (For the introduction of open Taco Bells at night)
- Good To Go (For the Crunchwrap Supreme)
- The Fourth Meal
- I'm Full! (For the Big Bell Value Menu)
- Is it hot in here?
Mascots
Taco Bell has not had many mascots during its run. In 1995, they introduced two mascots to promote the Taco Bell kids' meal, Nacho and Dog. Nacho is a crazy cat who gets all his knowledge of the world by watching TV and is obsessed with Mexican food. Dog is a dog who is more well-behaved than Nacho and gets all his knowledge of the world by reading books. They were dropped in mid-1997.
In September 1997, the Taco Bell chihuahua was introduced. He spoke the line in commercials for their wildly popular "Yo quiero Taco Bell" campaign. In the Spanish language, yo quiero means I want . The little dog's real name was "Gidget", but that was never publicized in the ad campaign. The character was voiced by comedian Carlos Alazraqui. By 1998, the Taco Bell chihuahua was known as the biggest commercial star on the planet, but his popularity had dropped significantly by 2000. As of the early 2000s, Taco Bell has gone away from the chihuahua and instead has promoted its value menu through "I'm Full!!" commercials and used "Think outside the bun" as its slogan. Gidget did, however, make a cameo in a 2002 Geico commercial where he met Geico's spokes-gecko. That commercial continued to air through 2004.
Lawsuit
A lawsuit, which was filed in 1998 by Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks, charged Taco Bell with failing to pay them for use of the Chihuahua character they created. The men claimed that Taco Bell had breached payment on a contract after they worked with the restaurant chain for a year to develop the talking Chihuahua for use in marketing. The talking Chihuahua became a hit with the first advertisement, in which the character bypasses a female Chihuahua for a Taco Bell taco and declares: "Yo quiero Taco Bell." Taco Bell said it would appeal the verdict. The two men got $30.1 million, plus an addition of $11.4 million in interest. [2]
Acquisitions
- In 1984, Taco Bell acquired Pup 'N' Taco.
- In 1986, Taco Bell acquired the Faux-Mex restaurant chain known as Zantigo, known for their Chilito, a chili-cheese burrito. The chilito was added to the Taco Bell menu, then later quietly dropped after comedian Paul Rodriguez pointed out the negative connotations of the word chilito in Mexican Spanish dialect. [4]
A picture of a former Zantigo ___location acquired by Taco Bell in Columbus, Ohio
Boycott
In 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers organized a boycott of Taco Bell restaurants one year after presenting a petition to Yum! Brands Inc., principally demanding higher rates of pay and better conditions for workers on tomato farms in Florida that Taco Bell buys produce from. In 2005, the company responded by meeting several of their demands and compromising on others (including raising the buying price of a pound of tomatoes by a penny, as opposed to the nickel-per-pound increase the group sought), resulting in the boycott being withdrawn. The efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the response of Yum! Brands Inc. to this have been applauded by former American president Jimmy Carter and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation.
Free-market economists associated with the Acton Institute[3] and the Mises Institute[4][5] have criticized this strategy by arguing that boycotts are generally ineffective at raising standards of living.
Co-branding
Many Taco Bell Express brand outlets can be found in suburban strip malls, often adjacent to other Yum!-brand eateries, most notably Pizza Hut and KFC; when all three occupy the same building, the structure is colloquially referred to as a "KenTaco Hut". Some Taco Bell/Long John Silver's combinations are colloquially referred to as "Taco Silvers".As well as taco bell and KFC combinations being reffered to as "taco chicken".
Big Bell Value Menu
In the late 1980s, Taco Bell was famous for its "59 79 99" pricing plan, in which nearly everything on the menu was either 59, 79, or 99 cents.
Despite Taco Bell's relatively cheap per-item pricing, it never had a true value menu until the mid 2000's. The menu features several items generally priced below $1.49. The introduction of the value menu also brought new items to the restaurant's offerings, notably items made with potatoes and Taco Bell's third dessert, the Caramel Apple Empanada. (Cinnamon Crispas, triangular fried flour tortilla shells were offered until being replaced by Cinnamon Twists) The Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito recently replaced the Bean Burrito Especial, which was removed because of its small profit margin. Also of note is that half of the menu is not truly new, as Beef Combo Burritos, Cheesy Bean and Rice Burritos, Double Decker Tacos, and both Spicy Chicken items had been on the regular menu before, as permanent or limited time only items.
The Big Bell Value Menu includes:
- Grande Soft Taco
- Double Decker Taco
- Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito
- Beef Combo Burrito
- Beef & Potato Burrito
- Spicy Chicken Burrito
- Spicy Chicken Soft Taco
- Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes
- Caramel Apple Empanada
Notable employees
- José Padilla, suspected terrorist
- Boyd Rice, noise music pioneer and Social Darwinist ("...when I was sixteen. Just long enough to cause enough trouble to get kicked out of there." Recounted in RE/Search No. 11: Pranks!.)
- Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist.
- Steve Smith, Wide Receiver for the Carolina Panthers NFL team.
- John C. Dvorak, former TechTV personality and current This Week In Tech pundit, worked there while attending college.
- Tyler Spencer, aka "Dick Valentine" from Electric Six.
Media References
- Film and television
- The 1993 movie Demolition Man contains several references to Taco Bell as being the only restaurant franchise in the future after the "franchise wars." Presumably there are different levels of Taco Bell restaurants, but "all restaurants are Taco Bell." A portion of the film is set against Taco Bell's corporate headquarters in Irvine, California. The fight scene with Sylvester Stallone at a futuristic Taco Bell was actually at the outdoor break area at Raytheon’s secure "E" Building in El Segundo California. It was the only outdoor ___location "futuristic" enough to do the scene at the time. In the German-language dub of the movie, all references to Taco Bell were changed to references to Yum! sister brand Pizza Hut; scenes displaying the Taco Bell logo or signs were either replaced or digitally edited to show a Pizza Hut logo instead.
- In an episode of the MTV series Beavis & Butt-head, a teacher claims that the only Spanish words that have been learned by the title characters (who are enrolled in a high school Spanish class) were what they learned at Taco Bell ("...and Beavis can't even get that right," the teacher concludes). When asked to speak a sentence in Spanish, Beavis replies "Taco Supreme."
- The American animated television, Futurama, mentions a hospital called "Taco Bellevue Hospital" wherein a chihuahua with a third eye is seen telling a woman her cyst is "grande," in the Second Season Episode "Bender Gets Made."
- In, the 2001 movie, Legally Blonde the Taco Bell chihuahua commercial was briefly shown being watched by the main character's own chihuahua.
- In the 2004 motion picture Mean Girls, the character Regina is crying over her break-up with her boyfriend when her friend Karen offers to go to Taco Bell in order to feel better.
- In the 2004 motion picture White Chicks, the character Marcus Copeland, who is dressed like Tiffany Wilson, hands Brittany Wilson's dog over to the footboy saying: [...] teach him how to say "Yo quiero Taco Bell!".
- In The "Family Guy" episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter" Stewie makes a mention of Taco Bell.
- In The Venture Bros. episode "Trial of the Monarch", Dr. Orpheus warns Brock not to be too hasty entering the restroom because he "had Taco Bell for lunch."
- In "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" a scene depicts Ricky Bobby's family dining on many fast food items, including Taco Bell.
- Music
- In 1979, the rock band Supertramp sang "I'm in this dumb hotel near the Taco Bell without a hope in hell..." in their song "Gone Hollywood".
- In 1995, the rock band Primus sang about Taco Bell's Seven Layer Burrito in their Grammy-nominated[6] song "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver". On the same album, the "De Anza Jig" describes a young Les Claypool as "Hanging out at Jack in the Box but eat[sic] at Taco Bell."
- In the 2001 song "Danger! High Voltage!" by Electric Six, they make a reference to there being a "Fire in the Taco Bell!".
- Zox's song "Homebody" makes reference to eating at Taco Bell and getting high.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b0427105A
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2003-06-04-taco-bell-lawsuit_x.htm
- ^ Sirico, Fr. Robert. "Help Poor Workers; Eat Taco Bell Tomatoes." Acton Institute. 1 July 2004. .PDF
- ^ D'Amico, Daniel. "That Taco Bell Boycott." Mises.org. 4 October 2004. [1]
- ^ Carden, Art. "That Taco Bell Brouhaha." Mises.org. 10 January 2005. [2]
- ^ "List of Grammy Nominees". CNN. 1996-01-04. Retrieved 2006-10-10.