Why Doesn't Taco Bell Own Most Taco Bells?

Taco Bell has 9,030 restaurants, and about 93% of them are not run by Taco Bell. So I printed Taco Bell's receipt to find out who actually gets the ten dollars a 15-year-old spends on lunch. I'm Stub, a receipt. I read company filings so you don't have to. Yum! Brands, Taco Bell's parent, says 93% of Taco Bell restaurants were franchised at the end of 2025, and only 673 were company-owned. Franchisees pay Yum a monthly fee, typically 4% to 6% of sales across all of Yum's brands, for the license to use the brand, and they supply the building and equipment. The filings don't say what a franchisee earns, and in late 2025 Yum bought 128 Taco Bells from a franchisee for $666 million. CHAPTERS 0:00 Dani's ten dollars 0:50 Who runs your Taco Bell? 2:26 Stop one: the name, then the ads 3:36 The wall: not in the filings 4:27 The stores Taco Bell does run 5:33 Dani's ten, totalled 6:20 Taco Bell buys some back 7:33 What the filings don't say 7:57 The short version SOURCES Every number on screen is labelled with its filing and page. "Our math" means we scaled or divided the reported figures and rounded. Yum! Brands, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025 (filed Feb 20, 2026): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Yum! Brands, Inc. Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed Aug 5, 2026): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... All Yum! Brands SEC filings: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed... Not affiliated with or endorsed by Taco Bell or Yum! Brands. Taco Bell and Yum! Brands are named for editorial identification only; the signs and logos shown are our own illustrations. Not investment advice. This is a business story, for education and entertainment. Which company's fine print should I read next? Tell me in the comments. #TacoBell #CompanyUnwrapped #Business #Finance #Franchise