Dive Brief:
- Del Taco added four new combo meals, called Mucho Meals, to its menu in a bid to boost its value perception, the chain said Thursday.
- The meals start at $4.49 and include a Mini Cinnamon Churro, small Crinkle Cut Fries and a 16-ounce fountain drink, alongside items like snack tacos and burritos.
- Del Taco’s same-store sales dropped 3.9% last quarter, according to parent company Jack in the Box’s most recent earnings report. That drop preceded the chain’s debut of its $2 value menu.
Dive Insight:
Del Taco is likely looking for ways to bring customers back as rival QSRs double down on value offerings to encourage spending despite lean consumer wallets.
The brand’s Mucho Meals include four options. At $4.49, consumers get two snack tacos in addition to the sides, drink and dessert mentioned above. The $5.49 option includes a Bean & Cheese Burrito and a Grilled Chicken Taco. For $6.49, customers receive The Del Taco — a larger seasoned beef taco — and a Grilled Chicken Taco. For $7.49, the most expensive option, consumers get a Grilled Chicken Taco, a Chicken Cheddar Roller with choice of green sauce, ranch or chipotle, and a Snack Queso Quesadilla.
At an arbitrarily selected Los Angeles Del Taco restaurant, the snack elements alone cost $7.27 pre-tax, though this is an imperfect measure as the Mucho Meals include a single churro, rather than the two churros in $1.79 snack order. To ensure an accurate discount calculation, Restaurant Dive subtracted one half the cost of a churro order, about 90 cents, from its order of the individual items.
Del Taco's Mucho Meals offer major discounts
Del Taco’s combo meal discounts range between 37% and 47%, which may be significant enough to impact consumer perceptions of value. Taco Bell claims its $7 Luxe Boxes, introduced in June, represented a 55% discount. Its value strategy helped push its same-store sales up 5% in the U.S. in the most recent quarter.
