Taco Bell Burritos Shrunk!

Image via Wikipedia

Now that the Tiger Woods scandal is pretty much old news, let's talk about another cheater: Taco Bell! Yep, I bring you another installment of "The Incredible Shrinking Bread Loaf," only this time, we're talking burritos.

Drove through Taco Bell today to feed me and my teen. Lunch in a pinch. Ordered my usual bean burrito, and while it tasted the same -- hot, gooey and delicious -- it looked different, somehow. Upon further examination, I realized that the burrito I have loved for three decades is now SMALLER!

It has shrunk in both length and girth, and I am one unhappy senorita. The beauty of Mexican food is that it is so cheap to make. We're talking tortillas, refried beans and cheese configured a zillion different ways. It's a cheap, winning formula -- for everyone! But I guess someone at corporate headquarters (in Irvine, California, if I'm not mistaken) saw an opportunity to make even more millions by cheating consumers -- their bread and butter all these many years.

I don't mind if something gets smaller, as long as the price shrinks right along with it. That seems fair. But that's not the case, here. The price is still the same, but now we get less burrito.
I'll admit that if it weren't for Taco Bell, a lot of people would go hungry. But while it's still an affordable food choice, it's likely that we won't be as sated with the downsized portion as we were in the good ol' days, which means we may have to buy two burritos, instead of one.

Oh . . . I get it now.

Taco Bella

Image via Wikipedia I promised that this blog wouldn't be one big rant against society and what's happening to our kids. In keeping with that promise . . . yesterday was a beautiful day. A bella day (I don't really know Italian, but I think that's the right word for "beautiful.") Yes, times are tough. Layoffs are all around us. The stock market is on a frightening downturn. Retirement accounts have been ransacked by trusted financial institutions. The price of laundry detergent is through the roof, which is why my daughters are looking a bit grubby these days. BUT, there was a silver lining yesterday. A ray of hope for four afternoon hours.

Not sure you even knew this, but between 2-6 p.m. yesterday, Taco Bell gave away FREE beef tacos to anybody and everybody who came to one of their zillion locations all over the U.S.! I guess the taco giant was delivering on its promise to give away free tacos if either a Philly or a Blue Ray stole a base in the World Series. (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fan_forum/tacobell/)

So thanks to some big-league stealing, we little-leaguers got to do a little stealing of our own, too. And I hope you cashed in on it! You were limited to one taco per person. But there was no limit to how many Taco Bells you could . . . what was the word I used earlier? . . . ransack. So I hit three of them with my teenager in less than an hour. Call it greed, call it gluttony. I know I was guilty of two of the 7 Deadliest sins. But damnit! It felt good to be getting something for nothing for once!

Yesterday, the world wasn't looking so badly, after all. For one small window in time, We, The People, got free tacos and for once, felt like big enchiladas.