system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why does a cheesy bean and rice burrito cost less than a bean burrito at Taco Bell?
gpt
The prices of things aren't always directly connected to the cost of making them.  This is one of those cases.

The bean+rice burrito is a newer item & part of a promotion while the bean burrito is an old standby.  They know that the people who have been ordering bean burritos for 30 years are going to keep ordering them regardless of the 20c price difference but they're trying to get new customers drawn in with low prices.

Just to speculate about some more complex reasons...

When you're running a restaurant, you need to consider the food costs of the store as a whole, not just on a per-item basis.  Maybe they've decided they *must* have rice on the menu so they can use it for high-profit items but they're having to throw a bunch of it out when it dries up (as opposed to beans which you can keep fresh by just adding a bit of water) so they came up with the bean+rice burrito to sell more rice.  In this case, the rice is effectively "free" since it would have ended up in the trash.

Ultimately, every "value menu" at fast food restaurants is there to get you in the door for products they make little to no profit on in the hopes you buy something fancy or a soda that has a high profit margin.  Breaking even on a $1 burrito is good enough, since they're going to have the restaurant open anyways.