Chipotle customers were right — some restaurants were skimping, CEO says
Chipotle customers were right — some restaurants were skimping, CEO says
Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said the company is addressing portion sizes after finding 10% of its locations were skimping.
If you've felt your burrito was smaller than it should be, smaller than in the commercials, the CEO agrees.
Well, ya know what? Hope that 10% savings really helped you. Because between diminishing portions, diminishing quality, raised prices, and health issues from contaminated food over the years, I've stopped going. Like, completely. Used to get it once a week or so. Now I haven't had it since before the pandemic.
And I'm not the only one. My local chipotle in 2005 would have a line wrapped out the door, and down the plaza to 2 shops down. Just a continuous line, at all times, and you KNEW it'd be 45 minutes before you get your food.
Now most of the time when I walk by, I'll glance inside and see no line at all. I could walk right in, and order. No waiting. I COULD do that.....but still no.
I said this in another thread but Everytime I've gone to as chipotle to fix something as part of my job, the kitchen area has always been disgusting. Like brown water on the floor disgusting.
There are three restaurants I distinctly remember long-term as health risks: Chipotle, Chi-Chis (decades ago), and Jimmy Johns.
The first, I still consider a risk. The second is long gone, and exists only as branding for salsa and the like. The latter, made a concerted effort to get rid of the one risky part of their product which couldn't be cooked or otherwise sterilized (sprouts, by definition) and to my knowledge hasn't had a large-scale problem since.
JJs is the only one that handled it even remotely correctly, after either the first or second outbreak, by straight removing the risk. They're also the only one of the two remaining above that I'll patronize. I've never eaten Chipotle, and it strikes me as highly unlikely that I ever will.
I tried going to Jimmy Johns a few months ago. Now granted, I know each location is franchised, and your millage may vary, blah blah blah......
That out of the way, I walked in, looked at the prices, and walked back out. They wanted $26 for a sub. More if you add chips and a drink. I looked over at the guy eating his sub at a table, and it looked THIN.
I just said "fuck that. I'm not paying $26 for something half as big as what subway charged $5 for about 10 years ago. And when you consider it's half the size, it would be more like $2.50 10 years ago.
Now this sub place wants $26. For a god damned fast food sandwich.
So I walked into subway, and for a similiar sandwich (unsure if their portions are reduced) they wanted $16 for a sandwich.
These fast food places realize that their entire business model relied on speed, and CHEAP, right??? Half the time I feel like I could have went to a sit down place like red robin for similar prices. Maybe not a fancy sit down resteraunt, but one of those chains, like red robin, bw3, applebees, ect.
OH! And thats the other thing. These fast food places now on their screen ask for a tip. FUCK THAT. Thats not a place tipping is acceptable. I'm not sitting down. You're not my waitress. You're handing me food in a bag over a counter.
Or the one that REALLY pissed me off. Asking to tip at the self checkout at ALDIs. WHO THE HELL AM I TIPPING???
Not gonna lie. If I found an open Chi-Chis, I'd probably eat there. More out of nostalgia than anything but that used to be one of my favorite places.
I don't miss the lines, but I miss how good it looked behind the counter. Now I just don't eat there and it's much better
When chipotle first started the lines where long and the food was good. Their process flow was optimized for the constant stream of customers.
They had a large staff of people for the size of the restaurant so people had dedicated jobs with a few who spent all day cleaning.
They were always way under on their holding times for the food. They separated people handling hot and cold ingredients and the till.
From a foodborne pathogen aspect it was a really safe place to eat.
Then they overbuilt, increased their prices and lost quality control. Their customer flow started declining. With the decrease in customers, food was pushing holding times, crews were reduced so more cross-contamination occured, and cleaning fell way behind.
Today Chipotle can be referred to as "shitpotle" as the probability of foodborne disease is pretty much guaranteed.
I used to love Chipotle but hadn't had it in years. Got a burrito a month ago. It was a like someone tried to make a stew with no flavor, just water, then scooped it into a tortilla. Half of it ended in the trash.
I wonder how bad their financials are if the CEO is publicly speaking out about this problem.
Chipotle used to be my favorite restaurant, but the last time I ate there was probably 2019. It just stopped being worth the effort of trying to get a full bowl.
It shouldn’t really require effort. If I wanted to expend effort, I would cook this shit at home. Which is what I actually do do, because fuck fast food price gouging.
Coincidentally, 2019 is when they got a new CEO, laid off almost all the corporate personnel and moved from Denver to Newport Beach. Weird that decapitating the company would have an effect on it...
I remember that chipotle was the restaurant for college campuses. Early 2000s and into the 2010s. But then....it became shit.
Other companies came in and they were better and cheaper.
Now I only go to Chipotle when I'm on the road and literally can't find a better place. Hell, I'll go to McDonald's before I go to Chipotle.
They fell so hard.
There's a local cart that does burrito bowls and half the positive reviews say something like "its like chipotle used to be"
Pretty sure they got acquired by McDonald’s around that time. So, no surprise there really.
I stopped going there after they required ordering via their app. Not sure if that was a policy everywhere or just around here. I use apps to order at a lot of places, but I'd tried using the Chipotle app previously and found both smaller portions and that their error rate was higher than I was willing to deal with. If I can't walk in and watch my order being made so I can make sure it's correct, sorry, I'll go somewhere else.
I want to know what they did with the rice? Like it’s mushy and or has the wrong flavor. I think it used to have some lime juice in it, but now the rice being bad just overpowered the whole thing.
If it was just 10% of restaurants skimping a little, the effect would not be nearly enough to show up on quarterly financials. The fact that he addresses this at all, and the fact that it is big enough to show up on financials, shows that it is a significant company-wide issue. I also note the weasel word, over 10%. That could mean 100%. My guess is the vast majority if not all of their locations were skimping, because corporate told them to. And now suddenly they realize they lost customer good will, and a lot of people just stopped going. It probably shows up in focus groups, if enough people said I used to eat Chipotle but they started skipping on portions so I don't go there anymore, they realized they lost people. And an announcement like this is necessary because those customers aren't going back to the store and won't see the larger portion.
I usually get a bowl, my partner gets tacos. The tacos are a much smaller serving of food. The last time we got Chipotle, both food containers weighed about the same. We haven't been back since, despite there being a location very close to where we live. Once before that the rice was visibly under cooked (it looks slightly more opaque). At this point it would take some "free food" coupons for me to bother with them again.
There's also zero reason for me to ever set foot in a Chipotle when we've two different local chains, one primarily sit-down and one primarily food truck-based, offering broader menus, safer food, and better food - along with all the miscellaneous one-offs that one would expect in a city of any size.
(Shout-out to Moe's, for anybody in Chambana!)
Why do you assume it's safer? There's like thousands of Chipotle's and every couple years there's a few reports from a few of them making people sick. A one off shop with the same odds would have a very slim chance of having an issue, even after being open for over a decade.
This, but Qdoba.
Qdoba melted so fast to the Chipotle takeover. My buddy used to work in a Qdoba in college and he'd sing praises about Chipotle. Then his store melted (and nearly every Qdoba disappeared in my state)
Shame they both are falling apart.
Qdoba used to be great. Now it sucks as much as Chipotle.
There used to be a place in the town where I grew up that advertised "burritos as big as your head," but they did not take large-headed people like myself into account. The burrito was smaller than my head.
Lionel Hutz would have taken that case for you.
I would have sued, but they were damn good burritos.
There is a place here in Seattle that has pictures of their burrito grande next to babies and they are of equal size. Somewhat ironically the restaurant is name Gordito's Healthy Mexican restaurant.
By 'healthy,' they clearly mean the portions.
Burritogate in 3...2 ..1...
La Bamba in Madison? The burritos are yummy, but it's a lie — not as big as my head, either.
There used to be one in Kalamazoo MI on the west side of the WMU campus in the 90's. Loved that place, burritos were really good. No, not really as big as your head, but it was a lot of food.
The one I went to was in Indiana. Nice to see one of them is still around though.
At least those folks get some food. The chipotle near me tells people to order online and then does nothing until hours after the food was due and people complain.
ceo is subscribed to penguinz0
I don't eat at Chipotle but I respect the CEO for admitting it.
Why... These allegations been around since at least 2021...
He is only doing this because all the negative attention they got recently on youtube with million plus several exposes..
This is limp dick PR after they got caught
The food is always ice cold too.
Tip for chipotle: just order the kids meal, you get two tacos, chips, and a drink for less than $6 after tax.
Freebirds is better anyway, fucking fight me let's GOOOOOO!
Can’t get that here in Chicago, so no way to know if you’re right.
Thing is, the burritos are already really large. It's more than a dinner portion by itself. Everyone here wants to make fun of Americans for being fat, but then they bitch when their 1400 kcal burrito is now 1200 kcals.
Anyone would complain if they're paying the same price...
And anyone would complain even more if they're paying much more and getting less.
No they are not. They haven't been large enough to be considered a meal in the last 10 years. They are $15 for a little piece of shit that is about the same size a a child's cheese burger from a happy meal.
The link is about something else. Does no one actually click the links anymore?
Edit: The link is a video for me when I click it: something like cbsnews.com...master.m3u8. Seems to be issue with my app. Sorry about that.
We did read it. Don't know what your issue is, but it seems to be an issue not affecting us.
Link goes to the correct article for me. Not sure why it took you elsewhere.
I double-checked the article's comments page from your instance's website, and it seems to be displaying correctly. If you are using a mobile app, you may want to consider filing a bug report with the author.
The URL ends with chipotle-portion-order-size-bowl-ceo-brian-niccol/, which is clearly correct.
