I am wondering how different Taco Bell is abroad from the US. As they recently opened a branch near me in London and the burritos are pretty bad in my opinion. Is this also the case is the US?
> The food is trash, yes. So famously trash that it’s commonplace to joke about someone having gastrointestinal issues after eating it.
I've never understood who buys this stuff other than stoners as they are one of the few to remain open 24/7 when options are limited. The food, if you can call it that, seems aimed at those who are so intoxicated that the thought of Dorito flavoured whatever seems appealing.
Chipotle, while a healthier step up, is equally as bland as it is expensive and yet during COVID people flocked to these places. We used to get the bowls for working on weekends when I worked in the Auto Industry and it was what most people in the office would request for some odd reason--we often went over budget, too.
The conclusion I came to: White people in the US really love white-washed Mexican food, and business is good if you can make it into that segment with decent financial backing to fight the war of attrition. Having a Megacorp like Pepsi backing Taco Bell is why I think they are still in business, I can't recall eating there other than that one time I took a school trip and didn't pack a lunch in the 8th grade: this one had both menus from Pizza hut and Taco Bell so I ordered a pizza and some of those cinnamon twisty things and felt totally ripped off as the quality was so bad and this was in the late 90s: I have a thing for food trauma and tend to remember it vividly.
Being from SoCal we have Mexican options everywhere that are on par with Mexico itself since we are so close, but I've never been a fan of the food until Kogi entered the game and switched things up with using Korean based ingredients. I like that it forces people to get in line and share a meal with other patrons since it's an incredibly communal experience.
I think you got it right: most white people live in places totally devoid of authentic ethnic food of any kind. The big city (120k people) that borders the town I’m from has one Thai restaurant. The last time I was there, I heard someone say it was the best Chinese food they’d ever had. Added to this, Taco Bell has thoroughly exploited the bliss point for salt/sugar/fat and managed to bring the cost down so much that when you’re an overworked, underpaid lower middle class worker, it’s hard to choose anything else, or at least hard to exclude it from your fast food rotation.
Haven't been to one in nearly three years now, but when they launched in Delhi, they had a really weird ambience. The lighting was dark and dingy, not bright and inviting like most fast food restaurants. And the kicker: they served beer. Alcohol is hard to find in most restaurants here, let alone a fast food one. Just made the entire thing weird as hell - was it a fast food restaurant? A bar that only sold tacos and burritos?
Been ordering via app for Taco Bell for the last year or so. Just drive up to the window. Tell them you've got an order for $YOUR_NAME when they ask what you want. Boom. Already paid. Just wait for it at the window and off you go.
But the real killer app: significant decrease in fuckups. Still happens sometimes, but it's rare now. And I can configure the food as desired (more X, add Y, etc).
> Tell them you've got an order for $YOUR_NAME when they ask what you want. Boom. Already paid. Just wait for it at the window and off you go.
I do fintech, and I'm failing to see what is the advantage of just ordering is here: I'm guessing you don't want to to use cash but can you not just swipe a credit card? It's the only step left out of the equation from how a normal transaction occurs, isn't?
The waiting thing is what really gets me, you're still inconvenienced waiting for your order, and there seems to be no added benefit and only seems like a step above gift cards.
I'm still not even sure what lengths and what costs so many people will go to in order to just not place an order over the phone for pick up.
Monetizing agoraphobia, however, and adding a data extraction feature is like the MVP for most of these self-checkout like businesses. I'm personally conflicted but I have accepted that is how the World is going anyway.
Language barrier (I was at a Greek airport Burger King yesterday I dont want to explain my order).
You can specify a time when you want to pick it up.
No annoying customers taking 5 minutes to make up their mind.
Interesting, I actually built off Mycelium's Swish platform that sought to do this very thing. We built an Online eCommerce platform with B2B, and B2C to generate fees for them with BTC enabled payments. But what you described is exactly the way it was pitched [0], it just never got any traction and was not really use for most people as it had limited usecases.
> It delivers orders from the elevated kitchen area via a vertical lift / “food tube” seen in the video below that brings meals down to ground level
Cool to see some experimentation in the fast food restaurant space. And I'm guessing since the kitchen is elevated and out of view, it's probably largely automated.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 40.2 ms ] threadI've never understood who buys this stuff other than stoners as they are one of the few to remain open 24/7 when options are limited. The food, if you can call it that, seems aimed at those who are so intoxicated that the thought of Dorito flavoured whatever seems appealing.
Chipotle, while a healthier step up, is equally as bland as it is expensive and yet during COVID people flocked to these places. We used to get the bowls for working on weekends when I worked in the Auto Industry and it was what most people in the office would request for some odd reason--we often went over budget, too.
The conclusion I came to: White people in the US really love white-washed Mexican food, and business is good if you can make it into that segment with decent financial backing to fight the war of attrition. Having a Megacorp like Pepsi backing Taco Bell is why I think they are still in business, I can't recall eating there other than that one time I took a school trip and didn't pack a lunch in the 8th grade: this one had both menus from Pizza hut and Taco Bell so I ordered a pizza and some of those cinnamon twisty things and felt totally ripped off as the quality was so bad and this was in the late 90s: I have a thing for food trauma and tend to remember it vividly.
Being from SoCal we have Mexican options everywhere that are on par with Mexico itself since we are so close, but I've never been a fan of the food until Kogi entered the game and switched things up with using Korean based ingredients. I like that it forces people to get in line and share a meal with other patrons since it's an incredibly communal experience.
But the real killer app: significant decrease in fuckups. Still happens sometimes, but it's rare now. And I can configure the food as desired (more X, add Y, etc).
I do fintech, and I'm failing to see what is the advantage of just ordering is here: I'm guessing you don't want to to use cash but can you not just swipe a credit card? It's the only step left out of the equation from how a normal transaction occurs, isn't?
The waiting thing is what really gets me, you're still inconvenienced waiting for your order, and there seems to be no added benefit and only seems like a step above gift cards.
I'm still not even sure what lengths and what costs so many people will go to in order to just not place an order over the phone for pick up.
Monetizing agoraphobia, however, and adding a data extraction feature is like the MVP for most of these self-checkout like businesses. I'm personally conflicted but I have accepted that is how the World is going anyway.
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVIeLfuSUJo
Cool to see some experimentation in the fast food restaurant space. And I'm guessing since the kitchen is elevated and out of view, it's probably largely automated.