Taco Bell Promotion Had Customers Lined Up

Dennis Orlos, who owns seven Central Florida Taco Bell franchises, and four of his fellow franchisees had a great idea: sell 20-cent tacos for a Customer Appreciation Day.

"It's been a good year for us," said Orlos, of Lake Placid. "The fact that it was on Inauguration Day, that was just an extra."

So they bought a little television advertising in the South Florida market, and hoped to put their best foot forward.

"People couldn't make it into our parking lots," Orlos said on Wednesday. "The time to wait was longer than we had hoped."

He didn't want to use the word "worse" to describe a positive situation, but it got worse than that.

"At 4 in the afternoon, we had to call out for more, and we had over 9,900 pounds of product delivered, or we couldn't have finished the night," Orlos said. "We couldn't have opened this morning."

The truck arrived at the Sebring store at 8 p.m. Employees immediately unloaded it, and a new line of customers formed.

So, how many tacos did they sell? At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Orlos still wasn't sure. Computer touch screens were so overloaded, cashiers had to manually count.

Dale Williams, an assistant manger, estimated as many as 16,000 soft and crunchy shells were consumed at the Lake Jackson store alone, even though the limit was 10 per person. Orlos owns stores in Avon Park, Wauchula, Arcadia, Okeechobee and Belle Glade.

Every store was swamped. A friend of his in Arcadia thought the traffic was bad enough, he voluntarily got a flashlight and started directing traffic, Orlos said. Employees, who were scheduled to work eight-hour shifts, stayed for as many as 12 hours, without being asked.

Orlos and his daughters worked in the Sebring store, along with 16 members of the crew. The Sebring store couldn't close because the line was still out to the parking lot.

Somehow, Orlos doesn't know how, people began appearing at Taco Bells in Texas, Indiana and Massachusetts, demanding 20-cent tacos. Employees there had no idea what the customers were talking about.

"I got a few calls from Taco Bell Corp., and some of my franchise buddies from Indiana and Boston," Orlos laughed.

The franchises lost money because they sold the tacos too cheaply, but even so, Orlos said they're planning to try it again.

"We had a lot of fun," he said.