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It’s not a great time for fast-food companies, unless you’re Taco Bell

Taco Bell is keeping Yum! Brands afloat and (so far) it’s winning the fast-food value war.

11/5/24 11:09AM

America’s inflation comfort food is, apparently, Taco Bell.

The chain restaurant is known for its Mexican-inspired cheap eats and items that sound like they were made in a test lab for stoners, like its giant Cheez-It tostada. It’s also the only restaurant in the Yum! Brands portfolio that is actually growing.

Taco Bell’s siblings, KFC and Pizza Hut, each saw same-stores sales decline of 4%, according to a Yum! Brands quarterly filing released Tuesday. Taco Bell’s same-store sales, meanwhile, were up 4%.

Taco Bell represents 75% of Yum! Brands profits, CEO David Gibbs told investors on Tuesday. The company as a whole missed Wall Street estimates, but investors still sent its stock rising about 2%.

Taco Bell’s success comes at a tough time for fast-food brands. Many of them raised prices over the past couple years until they hit a ceiling where customers no longer recognized them as the cheap meal they once knew. If they’re going to pay $15 for a meal, they’re going to go to the more premium chains like WingStop or Chipotle.

This summer, restaurants started rolling out value meals aimed at fixing their relationship with customers. McDonald’s introduced its $5 meal deal and its CEO, Joe Erlinger, declared to Bloomberg News in June that he is “committed to winning the value war.”

But so far, Taco Bell is wining that war. It’s the only one of its top fast-food competitors that reported same-store sales growth: Wendy’s and Burger King were virtually flat, and McDonald’s was down 1.5% as of the end of September.

Gibbs said Taco Bell’s advantage is that it “can provide a product that is a value product, that’s an innovative product, and that can help our franchisees’ margins.” In other words, you might go to Taco Bell to try the new Cheez-It tostada or because you only have $5.

“We’re very confident in Taco Bell’s ability to win in this environment relative to our peers," Gibbs said.

Tom Jones

hut’s off

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Yum! Brands might have found a potential buyer for Pizza Hut

Yum! is in exclusive talks with private equity firm LongRange Capital about a sale, per reports.

Hyunsoo Rim

hot dogs & half tanks

6/1/26

Costco’s gas stations are breaking records as drivers seek cheaper fuel

Higher prices have pushed many members to the retailer’s pumps for the first time.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.