Can Taco Bell restore their reputation post cyclosporiasis outbreak?
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TIE kauniimpaan kotiin. Vie idän kautta. Kauppakeskus Lanternasta. Löydät kiinnostavimmat huonekaluliikkeet, sisustuksen erikoiskauppoja sekä täyden valikoiman rautakaupan saman katon alta. Ja jopa 500 ilmaista parkkipaikkaa.
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Lanternaan. Lanterna.fi
Time now for our daily tech and business report. In the wake of a large multi-state cyclosporiasis outbreak originally thought to be linked to shredded lettuce, Taco Bell was working on restoring their reputation with a lettuce-free deal. We're joined live on the KCBS Ring Central Newsline by Bloomberg reporter Daniela Satori. Okay, Daniela, I may or may not live near one of those Taco Bell cantinas, and I have to tell you, it has been a little bit emptier than usual. What is Taco Bello doing to get customers back in the store?
So after recalling the lettuce and after issuing apologies, right now the company has pivoted to basically doing deals. And so the latest move is they launched a $1 Enchirito, which has no lettuce by default, and it's basically a stuffed tortilla that's smothered in cheese. And they're also offering a $1 regular nacho fries. But we'll see if that will succeed in bringing people back.
Yeah. Talk to me about their sales. I imagine they've been affected quite a bit.
Yeah. So we have reported on some third-party data showing that their traffic has basically plummeted since they were tied to the outbreak.
What triggered Taco Bell’s lettuce‑free campaign after the cyclosporiasis outbreak?
Just as a reminder, it was lettuce that came from a third-party supplier that has also recalled products. Other restaurants have also suffered traffic declines, including Sweetgreen, which has said it's not tied to the outbreak. But basically, people are kind of running away from anything that has lettuce in it.
And what else is the chain doing in terms of damage control?
Well, so a lot of it has been, you know, sort of less on the consumer side in terms of, you know, making sure that they recall the products. And I guess like issuing statements, you know, reassuring people that the lettuce is no longer there. But this is, you know, today when they actually posted those like ads and, you know, social media posts was sort of the first more of like directly appealing to consumers action in terms of products. I mean, the company's CEO had also gone on LinkedIn and basically appealed directly to consumers telling them that, you know, they'll continue to update them and they basically have to win them back.
Yeah. You know, I remember when Chipotle had an issue years ago. Right. And, you know, people say, oh, I'm never going there again. But then eventually they do go back. Right. Is that what we'll see here, do you think?
I think that's probable. I mean, we have to also see, for example, there was another case even more recently with McDonald's having an E. coli outbreak also tied to Taylor Farms, to the supplier. And it did take, you know, maybe nine to 10 months. But eventually people did go back to McDonald's and traffic rebounded. It always takes time for brands to sort of, you know, regain customers' trust and for people to feel that they're safe eating at those places. But so far, the evidence from Chipotle and from McDonald's suggests that they eventually do.
And how about this deal that they're offering, this lettuce-free deal? Is this a typical response out of the ordinary response for an ingredient recall from a restaurant chain?
I'm just going to compare to what McDonald's did a couple of years ago. My recollection of it is that McDonald's took a little bit more time to really start offering those kinds of deals to bring people back. I think the messaging for a very long time was just about food safety and what they were doing to contain the issue. In this sense, it seems like it's a little bit faster now. in terms of offering deals and trying to get people back in the door than what McDonald's did. And it is going to be interesting to see whether people actually take up Taco Bell on this and then how it lands, right? Whether it lands as this is what a brand should be doing or whether it lands as maybe they should have waited longer.
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