Taco Bell is giving away free Nacho Fries Thursday through Saturday with its app and a $1 minimum purchase. Taco Bell Rewards members can get the app deal once per day for in-store or drive-thru pickup orders.
Through Sunday, spend $20 or more before taxes, fees and gratuities and get $5 off your order for delivery at participating locations for users who place an order on the Uber Eats or Postmates websites or apps.
The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, a memoir written by Sanders’ daughter Margaret about his life and their complicated relationship is being adapted into a feature film. The movie will take a deep-fried dive into Colonel Sanders’ life, which is sure to be a wild ride for audiences. For a man who made his fortune perfecting fried chicken, the movie is suitably titled A Finger Lickin’ Good Story: The Life of Colonel Sanders. No word on when production begins or scheduled release date.
Taco Bell turns 60 this summer and our team members will have new outfits to mark the occasion. Employees will be given a new T-shirt that’s designed by Los Angeles-based streetwear creator Born X Raised that celebrates Taco Bell’s Southern Californian heritage. The shirt commemorates this milestone and features the our signature colors with a unique take on the Taco Bell logo.
After the country’s invasion of Ukraine, Yum! Brands Inc., parent company of KFC, is pausing investment in Russia, a key market that helped the brand achieve record development in 2021.
Yum!, which has at least 1,000 KFC locations and 50 Pizza Hut locations in Russia that are nearly all independent franchisees, said in a post on its website dated March 7th that it had “suspended all investment and restaurant development in Russia while we continue to assess additional options.”
Last year was a record year of development for KFC, led by new restaurants opening in China, India and Russia, executives said during an earnings call on Feb. 9. In Russia, the company was opening about 100 new restaurants annually and had expected to continue a “a similar expansion strategy going forward.”
Many companies have begun to pull their business out of Russia amid sanctions and outrage over the invasion of Ukraine.
This limited-time offering will soon return for the year. Taco Bell fans on the Taco Bell Rewards program will get special early access. Those who use the app will be able to get Nacho Fries Early Access March 8th and 9th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. local time. Nacho Fries will then officially return for everyone else nationwide on Thursday, March 10th.
Nacho Fries will remain at Taco Bell locations nationwide at least through April with two promotions scheduled. The first promotion—other than early access—will take place between March 24th and March 26th. Then, Taco Bell Rewards users will get a free order of Nacho Fries if they order at least a dollar’s worth of food through the app.
The second promotion will then start Monday, March 27th and remain active through April 13th. That promotion will see free Nacho Fries given to anyone who orders Taco Bell through GrubHub. A minimum of a $15 purchase is required with the second promotion.
Outside of the promotions, Nacho Fries will be available a la carte for $1.49 or as part of a Nacho Fries Box for $5.49. That box also includes a Beefy 5-layer Burrito, Crunchy Taco, and medium drink in addition to the Nacho Fries. Those prices are subject to change based on location.
Kentucky Fried Chicken and TikTok creator Isaiah Garza have teamed up to launch the #KentuckyFriedGivingChallenge, a grant fund that will give away $500,000 in cash grants to nonprofits fighting hunger in communities across the U.S. via TikTok. KFC was inspired by TikTok’s Creator Fund and philanthropic creators like Isaiah, best known for spreading positivity and changing lives through random acts of kindness on TikTok, to create the unique grant program.
Through the #KentuckyFriedGivingChallenge, KFC will award $40,000 to 11 nonprofits. Then, between April 4–18, fans will have the chance to cast their vote for one of the 11 finalist videos where the grand prize-winning nonprofit will be awarded an additional $60,000. Between Feb. 23 to March 4, 2022, creators affiliated with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit must submit a video up to 30-seconds in length on TikTok showcasing how their organization helps its local community; submissions must include the official hashtag and song/audio used in the launch/announcement video and be associated with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to be considered. Detailed instructions are available at kfc.com/KentuckyFriedGiving, and you enter your submission into the #KentuckyFriedGivingChallenge by posting a TikTok video. Deadline to enter is March 4, 2022.
Taco Bell announced that the first month of the taco subscription service was a success! Fans that subscribed to the pass visited the restaurant three times as many times throughout the month as those who didn’t have a subscription. The Taco Lover’s Pass program can be purchased in the app and resulted in 20% new rewards members, bolstering the loyalty program that was first introduced in 2020. It also generated a 16% renewal rate for those opting into a second month.
Taco Bell and Klondike have partnered again to offer the Klondike Choco Taco. The Choco Taco will be testing exclusively at 20 select Taco Bell locations for a limited time while supplies last. The Choco Taco is returning after a seven year absence. The Klondike Choco Taco mirrors the taco with a crunchy, thick-coated chocolate outside, and a creamy, fudge-swirled inside topped with peanuts.
The focus on drive-thru speed at Taco Bell is showing results. Drive-thru speed nationally was two seconds faster year-over-year in Q4, marking the eighth straight quarter of an average time under four minutes—an impressive feat, considering ongoing labor challenges and spikes of Omicron cases.
In August, Taco Bell revealed the Defy concept—a 3,000-square-foot restaurant featuring four drive-thru lanes, including one traditional lane and three for mobile orders or delivery pickups. The new store, scheduled to open in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, this summer, also has digital check-in screens allowing customers to scan a QR code and receive food via a “bell-evator” lift system.
KFC digital sales in the U.S. soared 70 percent year-over-year in 2021, attributed mainly to our delivery service channel and e-commerce platform that launched nationwide early in 2021. In the 4th quarter, KFC rolled out Quick Pick-Up, in which customers skip the drive-thru and grab mobile orders out of cubbies inside the restaurant. COVID clearly accelerated the trend to digital and KFC was well positioned to capture the business.