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Rural Alaskans' hopes for fast-food tacos dashed by Taco Bell hoax

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XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/taco-bell-bust-rural-alaskans-hopes-fast-food-tacos-dashed

In Bethel, Alaska a Taco Bell might be considered a comforting reminder of the outside world. With a fluctuating population of 6,080, half of which are commuting back and forth between the remote community and more urban locations, a fast food chain is something to get excited about.

However, the fliers posted around town announcing the chain and calling for interested parties to apply for work, were all a part of a cruel joke. KYUK in Bethel reports it took more than a week for Bethel residents to uncover the disheartening truth.

While there are no suspects in custody and no sign of anyone coming forward, one thing is certain: There will be no Taco Bell. Nor will there be any real jobs available at the fictitious franchise.

Residents will still have to fly to their nearest location (in Anchorage) for gorditas and Doritos locos tacos.

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Ferrio

Banned
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.
 

Chris R

Member
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys .

Fucking insane people up here man.

People used to do the same thing for Dairy Queen from Anchorage when the only open branch was in Kenai :p They would take their coolers and load up on Peanut Butter Parfaits.

Ice cream I could understand, but Arbys? Meh.
 

DanteFox

Member
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

wow that's sad.
 
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

Haha wtf thats nuts. A gleam in their eye for arbys?
 

Cheech

Member
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

Jesus. Fairbanks is not a tiny podunk town. There's nothing better to eat there than Arby's?!
 

Cheech

Member
yeah it is. You only have heard about Fairbanks because it's the largest central Alaskan city. However, fairbanks only has a population of around 30,000

Where I'm from, that's not tiny. You guys have a Cookie Jar, we have those in Northern MI as well, and they are delicious. Hell of a lot better than Arby's!!
 

Jimothy

Member
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

Why would you live in Alaska?
 

AntoneM

Member
yeah it is. You only have heard about Fairbanks because it's the largest central Alaskan city. However, fairbanks only has a population of around 30,000

Yeah, but the MSA is almost 100k. So, really the market for products and services is 100k. Not sure why there is no Arbys.
 
Where I'm from, that's not tiny. You guys have a Cookie Jar, we have those in Northern MI as well, and they are delicious. Hell of a lot better than Arby's!!

Oh my bad, I'm from a little podunk town and it has a population of 27,000. Not even good enough for top 100 most populated cities in Texas. We don't have an Arby's either
 

Keikaku

Member
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

So, what you're saying is that I'd be rich if I started an Arby's or a Carl's Jr franchise up there?

. . .

Brb, getting $500K.
 

TheMan

Member
yeah it is. You only have heard about Fairbanks because it's the largest central Alaskan city. However, fairbanks only has a population of around 30,000

i grew up in a town of less than 30k and we still had pretty much every singe fast food joint that had a national presence. although i guess being a podunk town in the midwest is different than being a podunk town in the frozen, desolate wilderness.
 

Ferrio

Banned
So, what you're saying is that I'd be rich if I started an Arby's or a Carl's Jr franchise up there?

. . .

Brb, getting $500K.

Nope, we used to have an Arby's long ago. I think for a lot of people it's the novelty factor. Soon as you place one in town, people will realize it's nasty shit.


Where I'm from, that's not tiny. You guys have a Cookie Jar, we have those in Northern MI as well, and they are delicious. Hell of a lot better than Arby's!!


Our cookie jar isn't a franchise, it's a local joint. It's hard to get a lot of franchise up here, since shipping of food is really expensive.


Why would you live in Alaska?

Originally came up here for a girl.. that failed within 3 months. That was 14 years ago. Just kinda... stayed.
 
yeah it is. You only have heard about Fairbanks because it's the largest central Alaskan city. However, fairbanks only has a population of around 30,000
The city of Fairbanks has 35K people however that stat is basically irrelevant since most of the people around here live outside the city limits. Well over 100K people live the area.
So, what you're saying is that I'd be rich if I started an Arby's or a Carl's Jr franchise up there?

. . .

Brb, getting $500K.

There are two Carls Jr up here.

Why would you live in Alaska?

$$$$, more jobs than people to fill them up here and jobs pay a lot more for similar work you'd do down south.
 
Here's the list of all fast food restaurants in Fairbanks:


Taco Del Mar : never heard of it
Quiznos Sub
Subway (x4)
Carl's Jr
McDonald's (x2)
Wendy's
Taco Bell (x2)
KFC
Pizza Hut (x3)
A & W All American Food





Not a bad list, but no Arby's
 

Ferrio

Banned
The city of Fairbanks has 35K people however that stat is basically irrelevant since most of the people around here live outside the city limits. Well over 100K people live the area.


There are two Carls Jr up here.

Wait crap, you're from fairbanks? I'm going to be surprised as hell to find another fairbanks poster on this board after 10 years.


Here's the list of all fast food restaurants in Fairbanks:


Taco Del Mar : never heard of it
Quiznos Sub
Subway (x4)
Carl's Jr
McDonald's (x2)
Wendy's
Taco Bell (x2)
KFC
Pizza Hut (x3)
A & W All American Food


Not a bad list, but no Arby's

Taco Del Mar is like a shittier version of Chipotle.
There's also a burger king and Popeyes on the army base.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Funny thing about fairbanks. We have... 2 fast food places... but we have like 7 thai restaurants. There's literally a thai restaraunt across the street (2 lane) from another thai restaraunt, with another one across another street. You can stand outside one and see the other two.
 
Here's the list of all fast food restaurants in Fairbanks:


Taco Del Mar : never heard of it
Quiznos Sub
Subway (x4)
Carl's Jr
McDonald's (x2)
Wendy's
Taco Bell (x2)
KFC
Pizza Hut (x3)
A & W All American Food
List is out of date, there are 2 KFC, 2 Carls Jr, 2 Quiznos, a Papa Johns, a Dominos and 3 Mcdonalds.

Might as well add the North Pole fast food places, it's basically a suburb, so +1 to Mcdonalds, wendys, Pizza hut and Subway.
 
Funny thing about fairbanks. We have... 17 fast food places... but we have like 7 thai restaurants.

yeah I saw that while searching for your fast food restaurants. Lemon Grass and Thai House are the top 2 rated restaurants in Fairbanks according to Trip Advisor
List is out of date, there are 2 KFC, 2 Carls Jr, 2 Quiznos, a Papa Johns, a Dominos and 3 Mcdonalds.

Might as well add the North Pole fast food places, it's basically a suburb, so +1 to Mcdonalds, wendys, Pizza hut and Subway.

I saw the aforementioned North Pole Wendys on the food network. you can snowmobile through the drive-thru
 

Ferrio

Banned
yeah I saw that while searching for your fast food restaurants. Lemon Grass and Thai House are the top 2 rated restaurants in Fairbanks according to Trip Advisor

Lemon grass deserves it for sure, best one in town. Only one that serves northern style thai.


You guys . . . you're killing my dreams of easy money you guys -_-

Guess I'll just open up a kickass Indian joint.

We used to have one, it shut down. Now they run a pizza joint... with a secret indian food menu.
 

Keikaku

Member
We used to have one, it shut down. Now they run a pizza joint... with a secret indian food menu.
Sounds like a pizza joint we have here in Redmond, WA. It's called Can-Am pizza and they have all the usual suspects but they also have some really different combos. Can't beat their Butter Chicken pizza though. It's so damn good.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Sounds like a pizza joint we have here in Redmond, WA. It's called Can-Am pizza and they have all the usual suspects but they also have some really different combos. Can't beat their Butter Chicken pizza though. It's so damn good.

Ya they have a indian chicken curry pizza which is amazing.

What we need up here is an *authentic* Japanese resteraunt. We have none. All the ones we have are run by koreans.. which is fine but it's mostly korean food. You can almost guarantee any asian place besides thai in town is actually run by koreans.
 

kirblar

Member
Ya they have a indian chicken curry pizza which is amazing.

What we need up here is an *authentic* Japanese resteraunt. We have none. All the ones we have are run by koreans.. which is fine but it's mostly korean food. You can almost guarantee any asian place besides thai in town is actually run by koreans.
Thai places not run by Thai people are like that around here too- soy sauce in all sorts of stuff that shouldn't have it (Curry, Pad Thai, etc.)
 

Ra\/en

Member
Arbys is disgusting. Why would anybody get a glint in their eye at the mention of it?


all you need to do is buy some horrible roast beef/ham whtever, some processd cheese and a puffy white bun. microwave the cheese on top of the meat and shove it inside the bun. There ya go. No need to drive to Arby's when you can eat home made horrible food.

blegh.
 

Chris R

Member
Ya they have a indian chicken curry pizza which is amazing.

What we need up here is an *authentic* Japanese resteraunt. We have none. All the ones we have are run by koreans.. which is fine but it's mostly korean food. You can almost guarantee any asian place besides thai in town is actually run by koreans.
Same here in Anchorage. All the Japanese and Chinese and sushi places are Korean places in disguise. Not saying that is a negative, I love Korean food.

Didn't know Interior Gaf had so many members :p
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Taco Bell sending Alaskan town free tacos after hoax:

Bethel, Alaska may not have a Taco Bell restaurant, but the town of 6,000 is getting the next best thing: free tacos.

Taco Bell heard of the residents' disappointment after someone who put up fake advertisements earlier this month announcing the chain was opening a location in the town, which has no fast food restaurants.

Taco Bell executives found out about the hoax and decided to treat residents to 10,000 tacos, free of charge.

The ingredients for the fiesta on Sunday will be flown in from Anchorage and include 950 pounds of beef, 300 pounds of lettuce, 150 pounds of cheese, 500 pounds of sour cream and 300 pounds of tomatoes, the Associated Press reported.


"It'll be a big event for our community," Mayor Joe Klejka said.

The hoax, which was further perpetrated with a fake website and a phone number for people interested in jobs, disappointed the fast food-deprived town.

"I think it caused a stir of excitement. We probably have a dozen mom-and-pop type restaurants. The only chain we have is Subway," Bonnie Bradbury, administrative assistant at the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, said earlier.

Residents can get fast food only a few times a year, when they place their McDonald's order for charity and have it delivered.

The closest Taco Bell to Bethel is 400 miles away in Anchorage.
 
Well that's nice of them. Though frankly, I am a bit disappointed to not find anything Jamaican related up in Alaska for the 11 years I've been living there.
 

RELAYER

Banned
There's people in my alaskan town (Fairbanks) that drive 350 miles south to go to Arbys..... Yes... arbys. It's quite frequent for people to buy a hundred dollars worth of arbys and drive it back up. They'll even package the buns/meat/sauce separately for these people.

Even if you mention arbys people get a gleam in their eye and talk about how awesome arbys is.

Fucking insane people up here man.

These sound like my kind of people.
I should really move to Alaska, it seems like paradise.
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
KYUK in Bethel reports it took more than a week for Bethel residents to uncover the disheartening truth.
Well, that was a funny joke.... Kyuk, kyuk, kyuk.
 
Bethel can get things by either barge or plane... I'd have to imagine they ship it on a barge rather than fly it in.

It's flown in, just like the stuff is flown in to the Subway in Nome. Barge would take too long and the food would go bad, not to mention the barge can't operate year round.

They can afford to fly stuff in because the prices are higher, just like for any other products that are being to sent to places that aren't easily reached. There's a reason why all the commercials say "prices are higher in Hawaii and Alaska"

If anyone wants to own a Subway in a remote Alaskan town, the Bethel Subway is For Sale

1.4 million
 
It's flown in, just like the stuff is flown in to the Subway in Nome. Barge would take too long and the food would go bad, not to mention the barge can't operate year round.

They can afford to fly stuff in because the prices are higher, just like for any other products that are being to sent to places that aren't easily reached. There's a reason why all the commercials say "prices are higher in Hawaii and Alaska"

If anyone wants to own a Subway in a remote Alaskan town, the Bethel Subway is For Sale

1.4 million

That's a sad looking subway. It looks like it's connected to an old barn
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
How do you smoke weed in Alaska, but not have a Taco Bell around at a moments notice.

Sounds like utter hell.
 
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