Taco Bell employee posts video of empty restaurant, and the multistate Cyclospora outbreak is at the heart of it

A viral video shared to X by the account @WallStreetApes highlights a stark change in business at a Taco Bell location, showing an empty dining room and a nearly silent kitchen, Daily Dot reported. The footage features an employee walking through the restaurant, pointing out that the order screen is completely empty, with only a few delivery orders active on DoorDash. The user who posted the clip claimed these stores would typically show 10-30+ delivery app orders at any given time.

The post suggests that the drop in foot traffic is tied to the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to lettuce served at certain locations. It is a tough situation for the brand, and the X user noted that the CDC has listed information connecting Taco Bell to the outbreak on their official government webpage. This visibility is clearly having an impact on the day-to-day operations we are seeing in the video.

The health situation is serious, as the CDC reported that as of July 13, more than 1,600 people across Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia had been infected with the Cyclospora parasite. The agency noted 94 hospitalizations in connection with these cases. According to their official outbreak page, epidemiologic and traceback data point to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico as the source. Because of this, the agency is advising against eating shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell locations in those specific states.

It is interesting to see how the supply chain reacts to these findings

Taylor Farms de Mexico voluntarily recalled all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico on July 17, and Taco Bell confirmed it had stopped using lettuce from that supplier on the same day. There is definitely some confusion regarding the testing, though. A report by NPR showed that the FDA later retracted an earlier lab result that had identified Cyclospora in a lettuce sample from the supplier. Taylor Farms stated that the agency has not identified a single confirmed positive product test.

Public reaction on X has been mixed. One commenter pointed toward the supplier, writing, “The US produces enough lettuce to meet demands. A specific cluster (including many Taco Bell customers) has been traced to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico (central Mexico supplier).”

Others took a more cynical approach, with one user joking, “Business model to rapidly increase sales? On paper it looks like this: Explosive diarrhea empties the body quicker, customers get hungry sooner from being empty, customer buys more burritos, the cycle repeats, we sell more stuff faster.”

Some people are looking at the long-term implications for the company. One reply argued that the outbreak might paradoxically help the chain’s reputation going forward, writing, “What people don’t understand is, now Taco Bell is the safest place to eat. They’re under the microscope. My old economics professor talked about this. He said, ‘If you think no other business is not [sic] in the same boat with their products, you’re crazy.'”

It is important to keep in mind that the identity of the employee and the specific restaurant location in the video remain unverified. We cannot say for certain if the lack of customers is caused solely by the outbreak or if other factors are at play.