Taco Bell customer who found a 2012 receipt recalls the good times when two beefy burritos cost $2.59

Inflation and sky-high cost of living have forced Americans to give up on the simple joys of life, like fast food. Several chains including Taco Bell have increased prices in the past decade to combat rising costs of both raw material and labor. TikTok creator LovelyOcean (@yo_lovelyocean), who found a 12-year-old receipt from the fast food restaurant, made a video highlighting the price difference between now and back then. Viewers were shocked for obvious reasons. 

Here's how time and prices fly

In the viral video, the creator shows a Taco Bell receipt from 2012. She goes on to read the receipt saying that back then an order of two beefy five-layer burritos cost only $2.59. "Can you even get anything for $2.59 from Taco Bell anymore? Like one item" she says in the video.

As of September 2024, just one beefy five-layer burrito from Taco Bell costs $3.99, according to the company's website. The creator signs off with, "Where do we go wrong?"

In a follow-up video, the creator explains how she found the receipt. She says that while moving to a new house, she came across an old keepsake box that had the 12-year-old receipt in it. Since she didn't know her video would go viral, she simply shredded the bill into pieces and threw it away after making the video.

The creator's video took viewers back to the good times as many recalled their experiences. "Taco Bell used to have this huge chicken burrito back in the day. It was probably like $4-5. Now they don’t even have it on the menu and if they did it’d probably be like $10-12," shared @alexandrianicolexox. 

Meanwhile, several others agreed that fast food prices have gone just too far. "Me and my family’s usual order ended up being $40 at Taco Bell and I realized maybe it’s time to give it up," wrote user @simranm17. "I was gonna go to McDonald’s today but I calculated my order and 4 items came to $14. What happened?? That should be $8 max," suggested @ryan.crandal.

In a similar viral post from earlier this year, a photo of a receipt from 2008 left many Australians yearning for the good times. The 16-year-old receipt was uploaded to Reddit by a user who found it in their grandmother’s car. “Oh how prices have changed,” the man captioned the photo.

On the back of the receipt were some coupon deals, that shocked everyone.  One of the offers was from Pizza Hut. In the deal, the pizza chain offered three large pizzas for just AUD 15 (~$10) if picked up from the store. Today, in the US a single large pizza costs anywhere between $8 and $12. 

Further down in the receipt was the most shocking offer of all time, from McDonald's. The amazing deal offered two Big Macs for just AUD 5 (~$3.36). Fast forward to 2024, a single Big Mac in America the same costs over $5, depending on the state. Users couldn't believe their eyes as they wished for these offers to come back. 

For more such videos and content on music, follow  LovelyOcean (@yo_lovelyocean) on TikTok.