While fried chicken in the shape of a taco will occasionally pop up in dishes like KFC Singapore's Mac 'N Cheese Kentaco, it was Yum! Brands (YUM)-owned Taco Bell that truly set off the trend.
First introduced in 2017, the Naked Chicken Chalupa stands became an immediate favorite among those who'd rather skip the bread and go straight for the meat — and lots of it.
Fans will constantly beg for Taco Bell to bring it back and, occasionally, the Tex-Mex chain obliges them for a brief limited run before pulling it off the menu.
Fried Chicken Tacos At Walmart?
While it's not actually a Taco Bell product, Walmart (WMT) still caught on to the fried chicken taco hype.
As part of the partnership with the frozen food purveyor Real Good Foods, Walmart has stocked its Crispy Chicken Shell Tacos to 3,500 stores across the country.
Similarly to the Naked Chicken Chalupa, the dish is a taco-piece piece of fried chicken fillet and filled with three varieties of fillng: seasoned beef and cheddar cheese, pulled chicken with cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, and shredded chicken with a cheese blend and an avocado tomatillo salsa.
The product is stored frozen and needs to be reheated in an oven to eat.
Tapping into a few other trends currently sweeping consumers, Walmart also advertises them as low-carb and gluten-free.
In other words, slightly healthier than the Taco Bell version.
Real Good Foods
"These tacos are the result of our collaboration with Walmart where we challenged ourselves to create an item that is craveable and new to the world," Bryan Freeman, executive chairman of The Real Good Food Company, said in a statement.
"A grain-free, low-carb chicken shell taco was not an easy product design, and I am proud of our talented, dedicated team that worked hard to make this possible."
Exclusivity Is The Way For Big Brands To Go
The Crispy Chicken Shell Tacos are also a product developed exclusively for Walmart.
Buyers won't be able to find them in another store or order them on the Real Good Food Company's site.
This type of sight is becoming increasingly more common as retailers partner with food companies for exclusive flavors and products.
Some examples include the mac-and-cheese ice cream that Walmart developed with ice-cream company Van Leeuwen or the taco-flavored jelly beans that Walgreens (WBA) carried over Easter in partnership with candy company Brach's.
The you-won't-find-it-anywhere-else products are, above all, a way to draw in a consumer who is intrigued by an ice cream with a strange flavor or a nonstandard taco.
"These kinds of promotions pull in shoppers who might not visit these retailers regularly," Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst at DealNews.com told told TheStreet back in March.
"And while they're looking for pizza ice cream, they may see other products that turn them into long-term shoppers."
But exclusivity can also come in the form of a regular food product, for example, nut mix or a specific type of frozen dinner.
That then becomes beloved and keeps bringing back a certain kind of shopper in again and again.
And in 2022, this strategy of building loyalty can prove to be even more effective than lower pricing.
"By having a limited run of these items and only certain stores carrying them, companies can practically guarantee business from interested consumers," Ramhold said.
