Two customers — employees of a nearby Best Buy outlet — order lunch from East Dawning's Ming Jun
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Yum's next "glocalization" trick: exporting Taco Bell, its top brand in the U.S., to Mexico. In late October, a Taco Bell headed for the border and to a Mexican suburb, its grand opening attended by government officials and hordes of press. Diners flocked to the restaurant, located in a busy shopping plaza in Monterrey, though many seemed bemused by the offerings. Claudia and Ignacio Sosa dropped in with their toddler Fatima after a trip to the supermarket. "This is not tacos or burritos or quesadillas, even though they're called that," says Claudia. "We have never had a taco with rice and fried potatoes. But Fatima loves the fries."
Yum executives are confident that Mexicans are ready for Mexicanish food. Up to 10 more Taco Bells are in the works there through 2008, with plans to reach 300 eventually. To be accurate, Yum first tested the market in 1992 but withdrew two years later. This time Taco Bell doesn't pretend to be Mexican. "We're Mexican-inspired," says YRI's Allan, "and Mexicans should feel proud of that." Its advertising slogan is "Es otra cosa," or "It's something else"--a pointed acknowledgment that what Yanks call a taco doesn't resemble the real thing at all (the closest thing, a tostada, is a flat, hard cornmeal disk). Fries and ice cream are lumped onto the menu, the better to differentiate it from the offerings at the ubiquitous taquerias. But the items are proving so popular, they may remain on the menus in the next markets, which Yum says include Dubai, the Philippines, Spain and Japan.
Taco Bell is still working out kinks in its supply chain overseas. While chicken and pizza dough are procured relatively easily around the world, the company can't find a taco shell in Mexico that meets its specs. "We have high quality standards for elements like our tacos and ground beef and cheese, and trying to match those in each of these countries is not easy," says Allan. So for now, Taco Bell Mexico imports taco shells from the U.S., a fact that might irk consumers in the birthplace of the taco. But Allan stresses that the tactic is a stopgap; importing basic supplies is expensive and time-consuming. "In the long run, it's not sustainable," he says.
What does appear sustainable is the world's appetite for Yum's fast food. Not everybody thinks that's a good thing. After all, this is the company whose top-selling new product is the KFC Famous Bowl: breaded, fried chicken strips, corn, cheese, gravy and mashed potatoes--a 710-calorie dish that the comedian Patton Oswalt calls a "failure pile in a sadness bowl." Fast foods--even those that mimic local cuisines--represent a dramatic change in diet for many cultures. "When you offer high-calorie food to a thin population, they go from small to large very quickly and begin to develop signs of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure at much lower weights," says Marion Nestle, a New York University professor and the author of Food Politics. "You can expect to see these problems in India and China in very short order."
For its part, Yum argues that it's not exporting fatty foods so much as offering tasty options to the global public. "The answer to the nutrition issue is balance and exercise," says Novak, pointing to a basketball tournament sponsored by KFC in China and a menu there that includes healthier alternatives like roasted chicken. In fact, the roasted menu items are such a hit in China that Yum executives are testing them out in the U.S. It's an interesting twist: Yum is looking to the soaring international business to expand its appeal at home. What about bringing its Chinese-food chain to the U.S.? "Now that," says Novak, "would be a Class A opportunity." To put it another way, that's thinking outside the sticky bun.