Why Is Taco Bell Testing $1 Menu Items?
Taco Bell has always displayed a flair for going big. It has successfully enhanced its burritos and nachos, offering them in XXL sizes. However, lately the fast food chain appears to be going in the reverse direction offering XXS (EXtra EXtra Small) size menu items that cost only about a dollar each.
Taco Bell has Big Box Combo meals that also have 12 packs of tacos. But that is being countered with menu items that appeared be shrunk from their super–sized cousins. As the Consumerist put it, “It looks like the fast food chain is now testing Shrink-Rayed “slider” versions of its Crunchwrap thing.”
Taco Bell has been testing the smaller Crunchwraps, essentially petite in size to replace the larger version’s hard taco shell with bits of Fritos corn chips. In other words, miniature corn chips now serve as the outer crispy shell. The fillings are quite sparing in comparison too. Foodbeast reported that Taco Bell was quietly testing the new smaller menu item for a whole month in Ohio.
These mini–tacos sell for just a dollar each. As simple math will indicate at $1 each, one can get three of these little guys for less than the $3.29 price of a full-size Crunchwrap. At this price they sure do appear to be a value for money proposition.
Apparently Ohio is a hot place for testing such items for Taco Bell. Just last week, news was leaked by The Inquisitr about a different type of taco being tested by the company. The taco chain is testing out their new item, the Rolled Chicken Taco. The new menu item is essentially taquitos, with an “unnecessarily commercial-friendly name,” according to Peter Pham of Foodbeast.
That’s not all: Taco Bell is also testing a new item called the Breakfast Quesarito. This item is essentially a scrambled egg cheesy wrap that can be customized with breakfast sausage, bacon, or steak. Similarly the Rolled Chicken Taco is made up of reduced fat sour cream, chicken, and is customizable with the choices of spicy ranch sauce, salsa, guacamole, and nacho cheese sauce.
These small ticket items are being cleverly priced at just a dollar per piece, as compared to their regular or super–sized cousins that cost well over $3. Perhaps Taco Bell will start going micro with XXS burritos that are the size of pigs in a blanket, or XXS nachos, which would be a single nacho with a couple shreds of cheese and a smudge of guacamole, suggests the Consumerist.
Essentially it appears in order to go big and beat the current leaders like McDonald’s and Burger King at their own game, Taco Bell is ‘thinking small’.
[Images via Bing]
