Taco Bell Prices Up 81% in a Decade and the Internet Is Doing the Math

A viral meme comparing 2006 Taco Bell prices to today’s menu has the internet fired up. A crunchy taco that cost 69 cents back then now runs $1.99, and commenters aren’t holding back about shrinkflation either.“This doesn’t even take into account the shrinkflation factor,”one person wrote, while another added that items are“smaller, have less filling, or just flat out taste worse than they used to.”

The numbers back up the frustration. A FinanceBuzz analysis found Taco Bell raised prices 81% over a decade, well above the 32.5% overall inflation rate. Brands point to rising food, paper, and labor costs, with McDonald’s USA’s president saying those expenses climbed around 40% in five years. But economists Orley Ashenfelter and Štěpán Jurajda found that a 10% minimum wage increase only raises Big Mac prices about 1.4%, so wage hikes alone don’t explain the gap.

Restaurant prices rose 3.8% in March while groceries went up just 1.9%, which means eating out is now the pricey option. Fast food built its whole identity on being cheap and fast. If it’s no longer cheap, what’s left? So we want to know: what’s the one menu item you finally gave up on because it got too expensive?