picture courtesy of TacoBell.com
How low will you go? How little will you pay for a value meal?
For the longest time, the burger places were stuck at $3. But even that seems long ago as even the burger places saw that as being too low for what they were offering.
But Taco Bell decided to go into the value meal business and start at the ridiculously low price point of $2.
If you have one of those hard-to-find bills with Thomas Jefferson on it — plus tax — you can walk away with a burrito, gordito, or a taco with a bag of chips and a soft drink for this $2 cost.
For this low, low price, you can get fat and calories from an "entree," processed corn chips, and liquid calories with high-fructose corn syrup or an artificial sweetener. Joy.
Of course, for that $2, you get heavily subsidized food, and not so great quality of that food. Without the subsidies, the meal would likely be $4 or $4.50. Would the average Taco Bell customer pay that much for that "meal'?
Some would love to see — in big enough letters — fast food companies post nutritional information on its offerings. A better perspective would be displaying the true cost of the food they are being served.
The tricky part of that equation is factoring in the cost of the drink. Soft drinks cost pennies per serving, yet are priced $1-$1.50 in fast food restaurants. The subsidies of high-fructose corn syrup lower the cost significantly, but even with sugar — at current artificially high sugar prices — the cost is still not that high.
Then there is the Doritos connection. The Taco Bell value meal specifically include Doritos chips. Doritos is owned by Frito-Lay, a division of Pepsi. Taco Bell is owned by Yum Brands, which used to be a Pepsi company. Though the two companies aren't officially connected, Yum Brands have a lifetime deal to use Pepsi products.
Since Taco Bell doesn't normally serve Doritos, Pepsi/Frito-Lay is likely subsidizing some portion of the $2 meals to promote its chips.
The average consumer — likely poor — that frequents Taco Bell likely isn't paying attention or even interested in the true cost, as long as the $2 in the pocket gets that person "food" they can eat on the run, or sit down briefly and wolf it down. But we should be a little more skeptical.
The cost depends on where you live, but I can buy a huge amount of romaine lettuce for less than $2, which would make several salads. But it isn't as cool as a Taco Bell $2 value meal.
The "value" in a value meal is relative. You can pay less now, and pay more later. The classic expression is that "you get what you pay for." With the Taco Bell $2 value meal, you don't — on so many different levels.
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