Taco Bell is also planning to open restaurants inside shipping containers

This morning Taco Bell unveiled a new biscuit taco, part of its plan to take on breakfast.

The item looks…like this.

But the California-based chain has lots of other plans.

In an interview with National Restaurant News’ Lisa Jennings, CEO Brian Niccol said the chain also plans to change its restaurants’ layouts

Like, putting them in shipping containers.

Like this one, a prototype the company installed in Austin for SXSW:

“We’re going to explore dropping this type of asset in different locations, which will ultimately give us the ability to show up in unexpected places for our consumers,” the company said in a release.

It’s a trend that has been around for awhile in hipster-friendly towns like Denver and Portland.

“Here is what is happening: The U.S. is importing so many things, and exporting very little,” Kirk Lance, owner and founder of Aprisa, a Mexican restaurant, told the Oregonian in 2010. “We have these shipping containers being left in droves, and we are just stacking them up. They are becoming industrial waste.”

Starbucks has at least two, one in Chicago and one near Seattle.

Other new Taco Bells will have open kitchens, and ones in cities will have “smaller footprints.

Niccol also told it is going to start delivery “by late this year.”

“Even though it’s the No. 1 request from consumers, we have to make sure we can give them an experience that’s consistent with Taco Bell, and that’s what we’re working through,” he said. “We have to figure it out, and I can tell you right now we don’t have it figured out.”

Read the full interview here »

Finally, here’s the company’s intense, Hunger Games-style video for its breakfast campaign. A 60-second version, as well as a 15-second testimonial spot, will start airing this Thursday.

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.

 
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