Good Memory or Really Boring Life?
I found this in a Google groups search:
Bit of Taco Bell price trivia: My first job as a teenager was at a Taco Bell at Balboa and Lassen Streets, in Northridge, California (a Company owned store, not a franchise).
From what I remember of the prices then (1977) and today's prices I saw at the same Taco Bell this month:
Product 1977 Price Aug. 2000 Price Percent Increase
Regular Taco $0.39 $0.69 77%
Regular Tostada 0.39 0.99 154%
Bean Burrito 0.39 0.69 77%
Pintos & Cheese 0.39 0.79 103%
Burrito Supreme 0.89 1.69 90%
*Enchirito 0.79 0.99 25%
Small Drink 0.25 0.89 256%
Medium Drink 0.30 0.99 230%
Large Drink 0.35 1.29 268%
*Note: The Enchirito was on sale, which explains the only 25% increase.
Average Percent Increase Of These Nine Items: 142% I'm unsure how close this 142% Taco Bell inflation is to consumer prices in general since 1977, but I would like to make one more comparison: I seem to recall that new Taco Bell trainee store managers started at about $12,000 a year ($1,000 a month) when I worked there. I noticed a sign in the Taco Bell advertising for new restaurant managers. It stated the pay was $20,000 for entry level, up to $35,000+ per year for proven leaders. From these salaries, I see Taco Bell manager pay has not kept up with my 142% Taco Bell Inflation Index. Starting manager pay should be $29,040 per year, for the manager to afford the same amount of Taco Bell food and drink as starting managers did in 1977. And this isn't the worst news. Things like housing costs have gone up much more than that in the Northridge area (the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles). One would be lucky to find a decent one bedroom apartment here for $900 a month. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't choose the Taco Bell career path. I certainly couldn't have purchased my Northridge house, or bought my fairly nice car, etc., on a Taco Bell management salary.
Discussion time:
Okay: is this person serious? Cheap Hamburger is the screenname for this person so we'll use that when discussing his/her mind so as to avoid the annoyance of his/hers and he/shes peppered throughout the rest of this post. Unfortunately, CH's profile is no longer available. That might have been useful.
So a list is in order:
1. Why pick the name "cheap hamburger"? why not "cheap taco"? or, i guess, as CH would argue, "not so cheap taco"?
2. Did CH graduate TB only to find happiness and money in the cheap hamburger business?
3. CH's choice of screenname negates the possibility of our gaining respect for CH.
4. HOW IN THE HELL DID CH REMEMBER THE COST OF THE ENCHIRITO?
5. Insert all the products CH listed for ENCHIRITO in item #4.
6. Does CH have a wicked good memory?
7. Has CH had nothing with which to fill his/her (had to) hamburger brain in the 23 years proceeding 1977?
8. WHERE did CH see the 2000 prices? They are super cheap. Man, CH is probably flipping out at the prices at TB now.
9. What was the price of the crunchwrap in 1977?
10. Why is the medium drink 10 cents more than the small drink while the large drink is 30 cents more than the medium drink?
11. Why do we care about soft drink prices?
12. Why are they called soft drinks?
13. Why is the world round?
14. etc. etc. etc.
15. CH is cheap. That is why he remembers the 1977 prices. That, Sir Shakespeare, is what is in a name. Your brilliance is not always relevant: A cheap taco would smell better than a cheap hamburger.
Bit of Taco Bell price trivia: My first job as a teenager was at a Taco Bell at Balboa and Lassen Streets, in Northridge, California (a Company owned store, not a franchise).
From what I remember of the prices then (1977) and today's prices I saw at the same Taco Bell this month:
Product 1977 Price Aug. 2000 Price Percent Increase
Regular Taco $0.39 $0.69 77%
Regular Tostada 0.39 0.99 154%
Bean Burrito 0.39 0.69 77%
Pintos & Cheese 0.39 0.79 103%
Burrito Supreme 0.89 1.69 90%
*Enchirito 0.79 0.99 25%
Small Drink 0.25 0.89 256%
Medium Drink 0.30 0.99 230%
Large Drink 0.35 1.29 268%
*Note: The Enchirito was on sale, which explains the only 25% increase.
Average Percent Increase Of These Nine Items: 142% I'm unsure how close this 142% Taco Bell inflation is to consumer prices in general since 1977, but I would like to make one more comparison: I seem to recall that new Taco Bell trainee store managers started at about $12,000 a year ($1,000 a month) when I worked there. I noticed a sign in the Taco Bell advertising for new restaurant managers. It stated the pay was $20,000 for entry level, up to $35,000+ per year for proven leaders. From these salaries, I see Taco Bell manager pay has not kept up with my 142% Taco Bell Inflation Index. Starting manager pay should be $29,040 per year, for the manager to afford the same amount of Taco Bell food and drink as starting managers did in 1977. And this isn't the worst news. Things like housing costs have gone up much more than that in the Northridge area (the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles). One would be lucky to find a decent one bedroom apartment here for $900 a month. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't choose the Taco Bell career path. I certainly couldn't have purchased my Northridge house, or bought my fairly nice car, etc., on a Taco Bell management salary.
Discussion time:
Okay: is this person serious? Cheap Hamburger is the screenname for this person so we'll use that when discussing his/her mind so as to avoid the annoyance of his/hers and he/shes peppered throughout the rest of this post. Unfortunately, CH's profile is no longer available. That might have been useful.
So a list is in order:
1. Why pick the name "cheap hamburger"? why not "cheap taco"? or, i guess, as CH would argue, "not so cheap taco"?
2. Did CH graduate TB only to find happiness and money in the cheap hamburger business?
3. CH's choice of screenname negates the possibility of our gaining respect for CH.
4. HOW IN THE HELL DID CH REMEMBER THE COST OF THE ENCHIRITO?
5. Insert all the products CH listed for ENCHIRITO in item #4.
6. Does CH have a wicked good memory?
7. Has CH had nothing with which to fill his/her (had to) hamburger brain in the 23 years proceeding 1977?
8. WHERE did CH see the 2000 prices? They are super cheap. Man, CH is probably flipping out at the prices at TB now.
9. What was the price of the crunchwrap in 1977?
10. Why is the medium drink 10 cents more than the small drink while the large drink is 30 cents more than the medium drink?
11. Why do we care about soft drink prices?
12. Why are they called soft drinks?
13. Why is the world round?
14. etc. etc. etc.
15. CH is cheap. That is why he remembers the 1977 prices. That, Sir Shakespeare, is what is in a name. Your brilliance is not always relevant: A cheap taco would smell better than a cheap hamburger.
posted by Elizabeth at 11:07 AM
6 Comments:
maybe CH was doing some graduate school thesis on inflation...no?
perhaps, but i don't want to give CH the benefit of the doubt.
besides, would a snooty graduate student (yes, writing a graduate school thesis clearly marks one as snooty) pick a name like cheap hamburger instead of something pretenious and only deciphable by his fellow students?
good point, perhaps CH is an economist then.
hahahaha.
i say bring back the enchirito. i'd like to sample it.
soft drink: not hard, as in non alcoholic. my guess.
world is not round, it is flat. like a crunchwrap. i mean as far as we are concerned, it's pretty flat wouldn't you say? i mean, look at ohio and tell me the earth is a sphere.
flat like a crunchwrap. i like it.
i don't believe in science either. or "maps".
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