The main difference between the new and old restaurant design is the size. Taco Bell cuts seating in the dining room and adds a second ride dedicated to delivery orders made in its app. Inside, customers will also see more digital kiosks, in addition to human staff who will still receive orders.
There were also pick-ups going on for contactless pickups and ‘call shops’ – masked employees stationed outside and taking their customers’ orders on digital tablets. Up to 1,000 call shops will be rented by the summer, Taco Bell said.
The first restaurant improvement with ‘Go Mobile’ features opened in Oklahoma last year. Taco Bell said he is adding more of them because they excite ‘franchisees’.
Taco Bell plans to increase the number of locations worldwide by about 35% to 10,000 restaurants within this decade.
“Our restaurant portfolio continues to evolve rapidly, finding an important balance between technological advancement and socially oriented,” Mike Grams, Taco Bell’s president and global chief operating officer, said in a press release. “Even in the midst of the challenging pandemic, we continue to grow, largely due to the strength of our franchise partnerships, as well as the flexible formats we offer.”
Other new designs announced Thursday include, for the first time, by Cantina in Danville, California. The restaurant is designed to be a destination for Taco Bell fans, as it has a fire pit and an outdoor game area and a full bar for guests.
About 30 of these sites are currently open, but the addition of a drive-thru to its latest location shows the ‘prioritization of drive-thru service during the pandemic,’ he said.