People love talking about fast food on social media. Getting hyped for limited-time releases is one thing, but the discourse about fast food chains isn’t always positive. Restaurant Business reports that the one chain that Reddit couldn’t stop talking about in 2023 was Taco Bell—and much of the conversation was centered around one thing: its prices.
Taco Bell’s prices were a hot topic on Reddit last year
Citing a report from social media analytics firm GlobalData, Restaurant Business writes that Taco Bell accounted for 32% of all quick-service restaurants mentioned on Reddit in 2023. A cursory search for the term “expensive” in the Taco Bell subreddit nets about a dozen threads from 2024 alone, which means people remain fixated on its menu prices.
Threads from last year range from complaints about the cost of the Mexican Pizza ($6 at my local Taco Bell) to the the Nachos Bell Grande ($7.79 by me), and there are even plenty of posts complaining about the bevy of other posts complaining about prices.
But along with price concerns, Reddit users also discussed the quality of Taco Bell’s ingredients, which appeared questionable to some. To be fair, I think all fast food chains get this complaint, but since Taco Bell makes such liberal use of ground beef, it might (and perhaps fairly) get the brunt of it.
Taco Bell’s Cravings Value Menu is gaining fans
Despite or perhaps because of the complaints about its menu pricing, Taco Bell sprange into action at the beginning of this year, deploying its new Cravings Value Menu (featuring only items $3 and under), which has some Reddit users more than satisfied.
One post, titled “The new cravings menu has changed my life,” illustrates how excited some users have been over the new menu items and their reasonable price tag. I’ve tried a few of them by now, and I do have to say, for the money you spend, you certainly get a fair amount of food.
In fact, The Washington Post did a taste test of every one of the new value items and discovered that in total, it’s over four pounds of food if you order one of everything. Plus, if you play around with Taco Bell’s app, sometimes you can game the system to get some decent prices.
The talk around fast food prices is certain to stick around, since they only keep creeping upward. Whether or not the Cravings Value Menu will quell concerns around Taco Bell is yet to be seen, because its main specialties, like Crunchwrap Supremes, continue to be the most expensive items on the menu. But if there’s anything I know, it’s that people love complaining about fast food in general, and that kind of banter will never go away.
