One evening at Taco Bell, the shift manager went out on an errand and left Rusty and me alone. We were quite good at entertaining ourselves while executing our duties. This night, we’d gotten bored with our standby excessive formality shtick (“My name is Bo, and I’ll be your host this evening…”), and were craving another little something we could inflict on the unsuspecting public.
Naturally, we were encouraged to upsell, the whole “you want fries with that?” bit and what-not, though of course it was nachos or Cinnamon Crispas at Taco Bell. Well, Rusty and I thought it would be a marvelous idea to start upselling taco salads. So someone at the drive-thru would place an order, and I’d say “would you like a taco salad with that?” Makes it sound like a throw-in side item, rather than a 1000-calorie disaster, doesn’t it?
We were surprised at how many people said yes. We were even more surprised at how many people stayed with it, carrying the transaction through to completion. In most cases folks’ totals doubled, or even a little more, and yet they never made a peep about it as they hoisted the gigantic bag in through the car window.
When our boss got back, we’d used all but one of the crispy taco salad tortilla bowls, and had started the fryer to make some more–an unusual occurrence in the evening. She asked why, so we told her the story, certain she’d be impressed with our initiative and innovation. Au contraire, she made us stop, and told us twice that it would have been pretty bad if Brad (the district manager) had come through the drive-thru that night (as he was wont to do) and we’d pulled that.
Oh, well. Our trick pushed the average cost-per-transaction for that hour of the evening up to just over $5, which was a pretty large ticket for fast food in 1987. Hey, obviously we were just company men.
You might also like:
- Taco Bell, The Yogurt Shoppe, and Madison Books & Computers
In the late winter/early spring of 1987, I was a landscaper for a few weeks. I got laid off because … - Running for the border in 1987
Exactly 20 years ago, I was knocking down $3.35 an hour at Taco Bell on Madison Boulevard (still jus… - Holiday evening with Oxford friends
Back from an Oxford-Anniston trip pretty early today. Couldn’t ever generate a breakfast/brunch plan… - Review: Taco Bell Crunchy & Soft Taco Dinner Kit
Sometimes I take a good deal of time with something nice for dinner. And sometimes I make tacos. We … - How many of your previous “situations” survive?
Think back over the living you’ve done. Most of us spend most of our time in a relatively small numb…
Ok so that’s pretty funny. I don’t really understand why your boss got aggravated though – You were selling more – and the consumers were probably trying something different.
At least your were having sour creme fights with those sour creme caulking guns or unused raw pizza dough fights in the parking lot after closing…
A couple of friends of mine worked at Taco Hell and Little Ceasar’s during high school…