That's the thing. It's just just people not taking a personal liking to Taco Bell. The stuff is just hands-down too disgusting for most of the world to consume. Many of the overseas locations are in in fact located at military bases, i.e. they're kept in business by the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell#Outside_the_United_StatesIn 2003 Taco Bell entered the Chinese market by opening a restaurant in Shanghai's People's Square named "Taco Bell Grande". Three more TBG restaurants opened before they were closed in 2008.
The Chinese won't eat it, and they'll eat fried bugs on a stick. But, they're trying again in China with another store, probably in a location nowhere near the first failed store
After the Birmingham University branch closed, there were only two Taco Bell branches in the UK, at the Strategic Air Command and United States Air Force bases at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. Access is restricted to relevant service personnel.
so, even in the UK where they'll eat literally anything, the only surviving Taco Bell locations are restricted to air force military personnel, i.e. they're US government contracts.
Taco Bell once operated shops at Tokyo and Nagoya in the 1980s but withdrew several years later Since then, there were shops only at United States Forces Japan bases.
Haha,
again, only survives due to military contracts. They recently launched a new store in Japan, but in a different town, and so much later that nobody remembers what it tastes like.
There are currently two locations in Seoul, in the Itaewon and Hongdae districts, which attract the most foreigners and college students. The two branches opened in the summer of 2010, Itaewon's branch coming first. A Taco Bell had long been a presence at the U.S. Army's Yongsan Garrison, which is off-limits to non-military personnel,
Given the pattern, it's only a matter of time before Taco Bell in Korea is back down to the one at the US army base
Taco Bell in Singapore existed for a number of years, mostly as combination stores with KFC such as the one that operated at the Funan Digital Life Mall, but in 2008, Taco Bell completely pulled out of Singapore.
There's no US army base in Signapore so I guess Taco Bell is out of luck there, can't sustain any stores.
In the late 2000s, Yum! Brands announced that it was reopening Taco Bell locations in the United Kingdom as part of a large planned expansion into Europe. Yum! is taking advantage of the recent recession which led to increasing sales at other fast food outlets;
Oh goody. People are impoverished, maybe they'll like our food now, enough to sustain an open store.
In the early 1990s, PepsiCo opened several Taco Bell locations inside the Moscow metro system, including Metro Park Kulturi and Metro Komsomolskaya. This experiment lasted only a few years
No shit, Russians didn't like it either.
Greece's first Taco Bell opened in Athens upon the grand opening of the newly constructed Athens Metro Mall on November 30, 2010. The restaurant closed in August 2012 and the chain withdrew from the Greek market
The first Polish Taco Bell store was opened in 1993. Following an aggressive campaign of expansion, Taco Bell's efforts soon withered, and the chain withdrew from Poland shortly thereafter.
A Taco Bell opened in the United Arab Emirates in November 2008 in Dubai at the Dubai Mall.[133] A fourth UAE location was also planned for Bawadi Mall in the city of Al Ain. As of February 2012, the locations at Dubai Mall, Deira City Centre, and Mirdif City Centre have all closed and Taco Bell has completely pulled out of the Emirati market.
Taco Bell later opened in 1997 in Australia with a store in the cinema district on George Street, Sydney and a year later in 1998 within a few KFC stores in the state of New South Wales, but by 2005, the Taco Bell brand was pulled out of the country.
They've tried to expand into Mexico twice now and failed both times, but that's expected.
Sure, I've omitted a number of recent attempts to expand into many different markets, and omitted a handful of places where the stores haven't closed down, but this level of worldwide failure is in fact specific to Taco Bell. No other chain has a history like this.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14969938 times)