As a college student with little money to spend and few outings, my travels tend to serve either the purpose of attaining certain materials or feeding myself without paying a lot of money. The latter of the two purposes brings me to fast food restaurants. One specific fast food restaurant, Taco Bell, was first opened in Downey, CA in 1962 by Glenn Bell, eight years after he started Bell’s Drive-In and Taco Tia in San Bernadino (tacobell.com/company/). Taco Bell has been my fast food destination of choice for quite some time as they have provided services that satisfy the needs and expectations I have when coming to a fast food restaurant better than any other fast food restaurant.
The first thing I look for when visiting a fast food place is the menu so that I can decide what I want to order. I make this decision based on the prices and quantities of food offered and what looks to be good tasting food. On a typical visit to Taco Bell I would order either a combo or a couple items from the value menu. The prices of Taco Bell’s combos and other menu items certainly compete with those of other competing fast food restaurants, but the most impressive feature of the menu is the value menu, titled “Why Pay More!” seen more visibly in the picture on the right. This menu features various food items for $0.89 or $0.99 and four different $2 meal deals. These meal deals include a Chicken Burrito, Double Decker Taco, Gordita Supreme or a Beefy 5-layer Burrito as well as a medium fountain drink and Doritos chips. These meal deals are certainly enough food for one meal and only cost the customer $2. Additionally Taco Bell continuously features new and changing menu items such as the $5 Buck Boxes. The menu provides the customers with many options for a very generous quantity of food for definitely reasonable prices.
After ordering the food, the next thing I take note of in a fast food restaurant is the time it takes for the food to be ready. At Taco Bell, I rarely have a complaint about the time it takes for my food to be ready for me. When I’ve finished ordering, the cashier hands me my cup for the fountain drink I ordered so I have that to fill the wait for my food. A unique part of Taco Bell’s fountain drink selection, which includes all the expected options for a fast food place, is the Mountain Dew Baja Blast soda that is only offered at Taco Bell and happens to be one of my favorite sodas. So I am able to enjoy the taste of my soda that I know I can only have at Taco Bell while I wait just a couple minutes for my food to be ready. For any fast food restaurant, food preparation time is usually not a complaint, but Taco Bell makes the wait a little sweeter with the fountain drink selection and growing sauce selection to fill the time with deciding what sauce to use with the food.
Upon receiving my food in a fast food restaurant, I find my seat to eat and take note of the quality and taste of the food I decided to get. At Taco Bell I have already picked out which sauce I would like to accompany this food. Taco Bell offers the mild, hot, and fire border as well as fire roasted salsa and salsa verde all of which come in colored packets with witty comments and are a great tasting addition to a taco or burrito. My most recent order at Taco Bell was the combo 7, a quesadilla with a soft taco and a drink. The quesadilla was very flavorful and fulfilling with the right amount of sauce combining with the chicken and cheese interior for a great taste. Additionally my food actually resembled the menu picture in that it still looked appetizing and had the content expected.The quality and taste of the food offered at taco bell consists of a Mexican/American style of consistently flavorful and satisfying food. Taco Bell’s menu items tend not to stray far from the Mexican/American food style. As a result it’s the only menu where every item is something I like the taste of. As long as this style of food is something the customer enjoys, they will be safe within the options of the menu.
Another factor to consider about the food at the fast food restaurant is its nutritional information. For more information about Taco Bell’s nutritional facts, I visited their website where they list facts for all the menu items even including sides, condiments, sauces, and beverages. The nutrition fact includes serving size, calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, sugars, and protein. They also feature a nutrition calculator that adds up the nutritional facts for your tray like the tray of a typical order, specifically combo #7, seen in the picture below. If an average calorie intake ranges from 2,000 to 2,200 calories per day, then this meal at 740 calories does not stretch these numbers. However there is a whole other part of the Taco Bell menu that was made to meet the needs of those paying special attention to the nutritious quality of their food and want less fat content in their food. The Drive-Thru Diet portion of the menu which contains seven various Fresco burritos and tacos as pictured below. These seven healthier options on the Taco Bell menu are equally as good tasting as the other items on the menu.
After finishing my satisfying meal at Taco Bell, I sit back and take in the environment of Taco Bell. There is the familiar color scheme with largely purple, blue, and gray walls and atmosphere of Taco Bell with large windows, common in fast food places, a readily available soda fountain I can use if I need a refill of my drink, a small line of customers, and the funny sauce packet comments to read before I throw away my trash. This familiar environment creates a consistently comfortable and enjoyable experience so that the customer will want to come back. Many fast food restaurants try to create this environment and I think that Taco Bell does it best primarily with their great menu and food, but the environment and service definitely adds to the positive experience. With these services, Taco Bell does very well to address the needs of a fast food customer.
Works Cited
"TACO BELL MILLEDGEVILLE GEORGIA NEW STORE NOW OPEN FAST FOOD Mexican Restaurants, Taco Bell, Milledgeville Georgia, Baldwin County GA."MILLEDGEVILLE GA.GCSU GMC College Restaurant Attorney Bank Hospital Church Baldwin Fire Dept.Store. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://milledgevillegeorgia.blogspot.com/2010/02/fast-food-restaurants-milledgeville.html>.
Taco Bell® | Think Outside The Bun. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://www.tacobell.com/>.
"TU Morality, Law & Advertising | Blog | Ethical Evaluations." Index of /. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://staging.templetv.net/keith/blog/2011/09/01/ethical-evaluations/>.
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