Taco Bell Issues

Alpha8472
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Taco Bell Issues

Post by Alpha8472 »

I visited a Taco Bell that has had a broken drive thru speaker for months. A person has to stand outside at the drive thru from 5 AM to 2 AM. They take orders on a handheld tablet. Then another Taco Bell employee has to stand there so that the first employee is not robbed of her Ipad.

I have no idea why they have not been able to fix the speaker. I saw another Taco Bell with a broken speaker, but they just put up a sign saying to drive up to the window to order. That was out for over a month too.

It has to be miserable when the temperature is over 90 degrees.

My Taco Bell order was handed to me in a non-Taco Bell brown paper bag. Maybe they are being cheap at this store. Or perhaps they are having supply issues. No Taco Bell bags are available.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on June 23rd, 2021, 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by storewanderer »

Is the IPAD more efficient though? In N Out has the IPAD thing and so does Chickfila and the general opinion seems to be that it is more efficient and reduces ordering errors.

What I notice is broken all over the place are those "order confirmation screens."

I've seen El Pollo Loco using quite a few non-standard paper/supply items lately. I haven't thought too much of it, in all other ways, this location has been surprisingly stable- many of the same employees as a year and a half ago, always staffed adequately, and maintained operating hours (well they close at 9:30 now instead of 10).
Alpha8472
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by Alpha8472 »

The iPad ordering seemed to be fast and efficient. It was much easier to speak to a person instead of a hard to hear speaker. The employee also had a large flipbook of menu items with photos. This made ordering so much easier than trying to look at a huge menu board.

The other Taco Bell with a broken speaker that did not have iPad ordering was very slow. The wait time at the window was much longer. You ordered at the window and waited until the order was done. Perhaps that other store should do the iPad ordering too or at least use a radio to radio the order to the person inside.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by BillyGr »

Seems there have been some issues with paper bags as more states have stopped allowing plastic ones for stores, thus upping the demand for paper bags.

Likely it could impact other uses of them as well (even if a different size, as there is probably a limit to overall production no matter what size - even seems to have been hard to find the big ones for yard waste at times this year).
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by ClownLoach »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 23rd, 2021, 12:48 am The iPad ordering seemed to be fast and efficient. It was much easier to speak to a person instead of a hard to hear speaker. The employee also had a large flipbook of menu items with photos. This made ordering so much easier than trying to look at a huge menu board.

The other Taco Bell with a broken speaker that did not have iPad ordering was very slow. The wait time at the window was much longer. You ordered at the window and waited until the order was done. Perhaps that other store should do the iPad ordering too or at least use a radio to radio the order to the person inside.
For many years in Huntington Beach, CA there was a Taco Bell on Pacific Coast Highway, oceanfront property, that had a PHONE in the drive through lane. A big old fashioned phone receiver with a heavy metallic cord exactly like a pay phone. You would pull up and pick up the phone to order. They had to put it in for two reasons, one was all the noise of the waves crashing across the street so nobody could hear a ordinary two way speaker - two when they had the speaker anyway it had to be turned up super loud so the neighbors complained that it violated noise ordinances. I think they tore it down about ten years ago and built some expensive homes there.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by Brian Lutz »

I ordered lunch today at the Taco Bell in Woodinville (which generally seems to be well run when I've been there) and my order was in a plain paper bag, with one of the items in an unmarked wrapper. The other items were in Taco Bell packaging as I'd expect, but my guess is that there are some shortages right now.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by storewanderer »

El Pollo Loco- was using generic plastic bags, generic plastic cutlery, generic side item cups, and generic napkins yesterday. None of the "official" stuff.

I've seen them using a random non official supply item here and there from time to time but never this many items.

Something has definitely disrupted the supply chain for supplies.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by Alpha8472 »

It is affecting many restaurant chains. The shortage of wood pulp, rising paper product costs, truck driver shortage, minimum wage factory worker shortage, and the shipping container shortage is combining to create a crisis. The branded bags and branded containers cost much more now. To save costs they will have to resort to cheap unbranded bags and containers. Taco Bell used to use small thin plastic bags. They were light and took up little space. They did not weigh much and cost little to transport. Once plastic bags were banned, the more expensive paper bags have increased costs. The paper bags are heavier and take up more space. This leads to increased transportation costs and storage limitations. There is a wood shortage due to the wood demand for housing construction. The prices have gone up to extreme levels. I rarely ever see paper bags at most supermarket chains.

One day the company may just slap a sticker on the paper bag that says Taco Bell. They already have stickers that say sealed for your safety for online pick up or delivery. Customers do not really care. It might look unprofessional, but as long as there is no paper bag fee or container fee, customers will not complain.
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 14th, 2021, 12:53 pm
One day the company may just slap a sticker on the paper bag that says Taco Bell. They already have stickers that say sealed for your safety for online pick up or delivery. Customers do not really care. It might look unprofessional, but as long as there is no paper bag fee or container fee, customers will not complain.
There are some independent coffee shops I've been to who have a rubber stamp (ink pad) and stamp their name or logo onto a plain white paper cup.

Plastic bags are used by quite a few fast food places. McDonalds in Wal Mart will use them, El Pollo Loco, KFC, Long John Silvers, Popeyes, Boston Market, Raising Canes for all orders... - for large orders- Carls Jr., Habit, and Jack in the Box have some on hand.

The problem with the plastic bags is the contents shift around and it causes things like fries to spill out of the package while you are carrying the bag. I think this is why many of the chains that use plastic bags by default, typically serve items that are fully wrapped or in a sealed box/plate. Even Long John Silvers serves fries in a tiny closed box (looks like a single hot dog box).
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Re: Taco Bell Issues

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 14th, 2021, 12:53 pm Taco Bell used to use small thin plastic bags. They were light and took up little space. They did not weigh much and cost little to transport. Once plastic bags were banned, the more expensive paper bags have increased costs. The paper bags are heavier and take up more space. I rarely ever see paper bags at most supermarket chains.
Just depends on how the rules were set up, I guess. Here in NY, while stores are no longer able to use plastic bags, food service places can still use them (so a Taco Bell here would have no issue with their plastic bags).

Also every store I've seen usually has the paper bags available. The way the rules were set up, each county has to choose if they want to collect a 5 cent fee, and only a handful did, mostly in/around NYC. That, however, doesn't stop the stores themselves from charging their own fee, much like places such as Aldi have always done for bags, and many (but not all) chains have done that to help offset higher costs for the bags.
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