Bob Coe built the first Taco Bell in Lompoc in 1968, and now he’s about to close it.
The nation’s struggling economy is not directly to blame, although business is down at Coe’s six Taco Bells on the Central Coast, just as it suffers everywhere else.
Behind the impending closure of store No. 251 at 426 North H St., Coe said, is Taco Bell’s corporate campaign to rebuild its image. Part of the process involves requiring franchisees to build modern restaurants to replace the mission-style structures as their 20-year franchises expire.
Coe’s oldest Lompoc franchise was ready for renewal in 2008 but corporate extended by two years the requirement to rebuild because he was already renovating a Taco Bell in Santa Barbara and two others in Goleta, at a cost of $200,000 each. Full post.