QSR April 2023

fresh ideas | VALUE MENUS REIMAGINED | The Great Value Proposition

Offering consumers more for less is an easy way to bring them through your doors

Mendocino Farms has introduced group deals to entice at-home diners.

BY AMANDA BALTAZAR

H igher prices or shakiness of the economy notwithstanding, people still have to eat. But quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants have had to rethink the definition of “value" against the ever-evolving backdrop. “Both guests and restaurateurs alike are price sensitive at this moment, so everyone is looking to create and communicate value, and bundled or value meals make that possible,” says Sean Willard, a menu engineering specialist in San Diego, California. Del Taco is one brand that welcomed 2023 by offering more value. Every day in January, the brand presented a “20 under $2” menu, featuring items like Chicken Tacos Del Carbon and 3

Layer Queso Nachos. And in case that wasn’t enough, the 600 unit chain also offered a free item from that menu to any of its Del Yeah! Rewards members with a $3 purchase through its app, which helps encourage consumers to sign up. “We know when inflation is coming and we saw this and said here’s a really great opportunity for us,” chief marketing officer Tim Hackbardt says. While historic value menus focused on the $1 mark, Del Taco decided to make its slightly more expensive “to offer products with a little more flavor or were a little more interesting,” Hackbardt says. “We know consumers tend to think value menus are less exciting menu items.”

MENDOCINO FARMS

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | APRIL 2023

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