A parasite outbreak linked by US health authorities to lettuce supplied to Taco Bell has triggered a sharp drop in customer visits, hurting the restaurant chain's performance and weighing on parent Yum! Brands Inc. while also spilling over to other fast-food and salad chains.
Customer visits to Taco Bell restaurants on July 17 were 18.9% below the chain's average Friday foot traffic recorded between January 1 and July 6, according to location analytics firm Placer.ai, which uses mobile device data to track consumer visits. The decline was significantly steeper than the 1.9% fall recorded by the broader fast-food category on the same day.
