Irvine, Calif. – In the days that followed Taco Bell’s E. coli scare last fall, the Mexican-food chain could count on people such as Myles Jeffrey, a 16-year- old teen actor from Seal Beach, Calif.
Loyal customers are the reason Taco Bell sales fell only 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, a period when tainted lettuce served up by the company caused an E. coli outbreak that sickened hundreds of East Coast customers.
“Consumers have short memories and are pretty forgiving,” said Bob Sandelman, a San Clemente, Calif.-based restaurant-industry consultant.
During the outbreak’s peak, sales for the Irvine, Calif.-based fast-food chain plummeted 20 percent nationally and 35 percent to 50 percent in the Northeast, according to David S. Palmer, a UBS Equity Research analyst.
Taco Bell became the butt of jokes on late-night TV. Jay Leno said the company should change its slogan from “Think Outside the Bun” to “Puke Outside the Store.” David Letterman suggested the chain add “Taco Apocalypto” to its menu.
Taco Bell corporate parent Yum Brands Inc. of Lexington, Ky., barely mentioned the outbreak in the earnings report it released Monday.
Yum obliquely blamed the 5 percent dip in sales at Taco Bell restaurants open a year or more on “adverse publicity related to a produce-sourcing issue.”
Jeffrey said he didn’t think much about “produce sourcing” when eating his fill of crunchwraps, gorditas and tacos.
“I eat there because it is cheap for how much food you get,” said Jeffrey, who was the voice of a character named Steve in the 2006 animated film “The Ant Bully.”
