Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

Chapter 276 Comparison with Taco Bell

"It's not as serious as you said. For fast food companies like ours, there are not many things that are worth keeping secret. Apart from the sensitive supply price, which needs to be kept secret, such as food production, store management regulations, etc. , These are matters that cannot be kept secret at all.”

Guinas was so lucky that he didn't choke to death with laughter at Carter's "commercial espionage". After regaining his strength, he quickly explained with a smile.

"We sent Joey to their store to find out, but believe it or not, there must be people from Taco Bell here! Now we have not expanded the number of local employees, so they can't get in internally for the time being, but every day we have served Among the tens of thousands of customers, there must be some of them!"

"Besides, commercial espionage is illegal. It is to obtain the other party's commercial secrets through improper means. Competitors and competitive product research, this is different. After you go out, don't talk nonsense, you are already busy enough , I don't want to cause any more trouble!"

"That's right, Carter, pay attention!"

"Okay, okay, my fault, my fault. Then tell me, what is the origin of this Taco Bell, is it a threat to us?"

Seeing Anna and Jinas on the united front, Carter quickly waved his hand to beg for mercy.

"Taco Bell was originally a Mexican-style restaurant opened by a hot dog stand owner in Tony, California in 62. After eight years of development, Taco Bell, which already has 325 franchise stores, is traded in California Pacific Securities listed”

"A listed company? Hey~ How many stores do they have now? Thousands of them!"

He took a breath in surprise, and Carter felt a bit sore.Before the listing, there were 325 stores. After the listing, it has been another ten years, and there must be at least a thousand stores!

"Wait, that's not right! If someone has already taken the Taco track first, then our sales."

While marveling at the congested commercial roads, Carter suddenly realized a problem.If Taco Bell is so popular, why did the sales of ht stores explode so much? !
Carter, who had tasted the other party’s products, had to admit that even though it didn’t suit his taste, and it wasn’t the Mexican flavor it advertised, the sweet and sour taste of salsa and jalapeño was actually quite in line with American tastes. .

"Don't worry! Listen to me! Two years ago, in 78, they were acquired by PepsiCo and completed privatization and delisting. Now it is just a fast food brand under PepsiCo. Besides it, PepsiCo also has KFC, which is The one you joined before."

"I know this, you go on."

"Well, so at this stage. Taco Bell's development momentum is not that strong. PepsiCo has spent a lot of money over the past few years and has acquired several fast food brands. There is something wrong. So on the whole, after being acquired by Pepsi, Taco Bell not only did not enjoy the benefits, but its development was slowed down! The frequency of TV advertisements has been reduced a lot.”

"Other than that, Taco Bell sounds like an Americanized Mexican-style food. In fact, Mr. Guinness and I said it is a McDonald's second without changing the soup."

Unlike Carter's dignified expression, the expressions of Jinas and Anna are particularly relaxed.From a common sense point of view, even after being acquired by Pepsi in 78, the development momentum slowed down, but it developed more than [-] years earlier than HT!
The size is not in the same order at all, so it doesn't make sense to look like a winner? !

"What kind of statement is this?"

Carter, who didn't understand, asked quickly to speak.

"Hey, you don't know yet? They say it's taco, but the dough is made of wheat flour, not corn flour at all! And, the most outrageous thing about them is that they don't make patties, don't fry patties, don't Instead of a barbecue cake, it’s a fried noodle cake!”

Anna's smile seemed to Carter to be a little sly, and a little bit like a fox laughing after stealing a chicken from a careless farmer.
"Not only did the raw material cost not be reduced, but because the fried wheat bread was declared as taco, and the meat patties were made of cold meat instead of the traditional Mexican grilled meat patties, many Mexican customers were offended! This thing is an insult to Mexican food! Especially in Mexican-populated areas, most Mexicans would rather go to McDonald's than go to Taco Bell!"

"Now that we're here, it's even worse. There are almost no Mexicans who enter Taco Bell! But in Texas and Southern California, a large number of Mexicans working illegally are our precise source of customers!"

"Cultural emotional attraction, coupled with the temptation of cheaper prices, Taco Bell is not our opponent in this group! Moreover, as a low-income group, those Mexicans have a lot of colleagues around them. It often happens that one person comes After consumption, it drives a large group of people to consume.”

"Compared to us Americans, these Mexicans who are struggling to survive in foreign countries are more united! Once they unite, our cost of acquiring customers is lower! In terms of customer acquisition costs, we are not a little bit lower than them! They With TV commercials, we rely on word of mouth!"

"Anna is right, but there are some points that I still have to say. Compared with our HT, Taco Bell is much cheaper in terms of labor costs! Fried noodles can be loaded with a lot of noodles at a time, but we For barbecue pies, there is limited space on the frying plate, and you can only bake up to 12 pieces at a time."

After Anna finished speaking, Ginas took over the topic and explained her disadvantages:
"Theoretically, it can be 20 pieces, but after our test, under the premise of ensuring the quality of the product, a skilled and clever employee can only control 12 pieces of meatloaf at the same time. In addition, in order to ensure the fresh taste of the barbecue, we have no way to advance Bake a lot. This way, we also get meals slower than Taco Bell!"

"Now we find that in many stores, what limits our sales ceiling is not the number of customers at all, but our meal delivery time. In order to improve the efficiency of meal delivery, we have to buy more frying ovens and lean towards the back kitchen More hands."

"Then why not use an incubator? Bake the patties in advance, put them in the incubator, and then replenish them as needed! As long as the consumption is large, if each piece of freshly grilled meat patties does not stay in the incubator for a long time, yes The taste shouldn't be much affected, right?"

Hearing the question from Jinas, Carter subconsciously thought of the yellow warmer of KFC in later generations.

"We are testing this idea. At present, compared with fried food, our barbecue is placed in the incubator for only ten minutes, and the taste will be very different from the freshly baked, sizzling and oily barbecue! And if The incubator can only provide a time margin of ten minutes, so it doesn't make much sense."

"On the basis of the incubator, we are testing whether we can use some constant temperature utensils similar to the frying plate on the grill to put the barbecue, that is, to keep the barbecue in the frying state all the time, but not let it it gets mushy"

(End of this chapter)