Hey friend,
Since you liked my LinkedIn article so much, I ran it back with a story about another major corporation. This time, I tackled Taco Bell and what they’re doing to get the food industry’s attention. Have a great weekend and happy reading!
Taco Bell is the 8th wonder of the culinary world.
I used to frequent the chain in college before subsequently getting food poisoning my junior year. After that, I cheered for them from afar.
When it comes to marketing, no one does it better. From the "Yo quiero Taco Bell" chihuahua to coming up with monstrosities of questionable beef, cheese, and tortilla combos like the bacon cheddar gordita crunch, Taco Bell has found a way to get people and their cars in drive-thrus.
Now, they've done something unexpected, even for them. Taco Bell is piloting a $5–10 subscription service called the "Taco Lover's Pass," and it could change the way we buy takeout and even our groceries.
As much as a Taco Bell subscription service sounds like a capitalist scheme, it could start something highly beneficial to society.
Not another subscription
I'm moving to Denver next month, and after calculating my expenses, I've rethought my monthly subscriptions.
I piggyback off a few entertainment subscriptions, but I have to pay for the Adobe Cloud out of necessity. Tech companies know they can make more money long-term through the subscription model, and it's easy to forget about them.
Americans average $47 a month for streaming services in 2021 — a 24% increase since the pandemic began. Even before the world health crisis, different industries besides film and television services found ways to join the party.
Substack, the groundbreaking email provider, made a platform for users to subscribe to their favorite newsletters. Amazon took their streaming success and added subscriptions to Prime.
Now, your favorite protein powder can be shipped to you every month for a slightly cheaper cost. You can set it and forget about it because subscriptions make life easier for you. Taco Bell wants to do the same.
Food subscriptions aren't new
Companies like Blue Apron and HelloFresh took frozen meals to another level.
Instead of going to the store yourself, you can have pre-made meals delivered to your doorstep. It's good in theory, but not execution.
It depends on an individual's dietary needs. I do something active most days, so I need more food than a more sedentary person. Simply put, it would cost too much per month for frozen meals when I could cook even more food for less. Others who are less cash strapped or don't need as many calories per day could value in a service.
But these food delivery services are just that. They don't have brick-and-mortar locations—they arent brands like Taco Bell.
The closest thing I can think of is Chipotle's golden card. Athletes and celebrities have these so that they can go to any Chipotle for free, for life. That's not precisely obtainable for the likes of us normal humans.
Taco Bell may seem like they're just trying to make money here. I mean, you and I both know that if you're going to Taco Bell for just a taco, you're not going to put in all that effort to get one item. They know you're going to spend more money.
Unlimited potential beyond your wildest dreams
For now, Taco Bell's subscription plan lets you get one taco every day for thirty days.
It's not the most convenient plan, but for $5 a month, it only takes three trips to more than break even.
Everything changes when other brands jump on the bandwagon.
The eyes of every fast-food chain are watching to see how Taco Bell's experiment plays out. Every restaurant in the dying casual sit-down restaurant is licking their lips, thinking of ways to get people in their old rubbery booths. I'm looking at you TGI Fridays and Chili's.
Think about it. Your favorite fast-casual chain comes up with a subscription plan. Let's take Chipotle, for example. You can find reasonably healthy options there if you're health conscious like me.
Imagine this, a $29.99 per month subscription plan, with discounts on sides like guac and chips. One could theoretically eat at Chipotle for dinner every day, lead a healthy lifestyle, and save loads of cash doing it. And Chipotle would benefit from the constant foot traffic.
Let's go even further
Once people are convived to frequent restaurants more often, grocery stores will take notice.
More spending at Chipotle means fewer customers purchasing rice, beans, and chicken sales from the local market. I doubt big grocery would stand for it. The likes of Whole Foods, which a subscription-based Amazon already owns, could institute their own monthly payment service.
I'm not saying that you can get unlimited groceries for $200 per month, but maybe they offer different plans depending on your home size or diet restrictions.
The vegetarian plan comes with an assortment of fruits, vegetables, and natural protein sources. In contrast, the meat livers plan for a family of four throws in an extra barbeque dinner for free.
Not only would this save families money, but it would provide predictive data for the population's food needs. Additionally, if grocery stores went into the meal kit game, they could cut down supply chain costs and emissions.
A study found that pound-for-pound meal delivery kits have less of a carbon footprint than the same meals bought from grocery stores.
“Meal kits and their grocery store equivalents, and finds that, on average, store meals produce 33% more greenhouse gas emissions than their equivalents from Blue Apron.” — Jonathan Lambert
If the different industries within the more significant food industry knew just how much food they needed to produce, this could lead to a hell of a lot less wasted food.
Let us "wrap" things up
All of this is speculation, of course.
Food waste is a significant issue, not only because we're accumulating garbage at sub-Wall-E levels, but we need to find ways to shrink our carbon footprint as soon as possible. Food waste makes up 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year.
Taco Bell may be creating another subscription plan based on their capitalist desires, but little do they know they may have just lit the catalyst that saves the planet.
So Chipotle, if you're reading, let me be the first to say I'd pay $30/month for a daily burrito.
If you like what you just read, share it with your friends! It would mean a lot :)