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.
…why is the water BROWN??? Is this as obvious as I think, and I’m just refusing to mentally accept that it’s what I think it is?
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???
I thought I was the only one!
Jimmy Johns is priced so stupidly. Hell, all fast food is. Domino’s has a $25 pizza? Subways wanted $12 for a meal?
Fast food shouldn’t cost MORE than the price of a local business.
Those places are dead to me.
Woah, that’s absolutely insane. Subway has always struck me as a little pricey for what they offer, but they’re also dead consistent which counts for something.
JJs, no way I’d spent $26 for a sandwich of any size.
At those prices (or McDonald’s prices these days, TBH), I’d just as soon sit down and also tip for basically the same amount of money with better quality food.
Self-checkout tipping has never made sense to me. I haven’t done the deep dive research, but I suspect that since the tips are not directed at an employee, it’s an easy way for the business itself to get tips w/o being in violation of tip theft laws. No intended employee recipient == free-for-all and business can grab the cash.
You consider chipotle to be a health risk because the food is cooked there? I assume you would consider a Burger King a health risk?
I really want to stop eating Chipotle, but I’m autistic and it’s one of my few safe foods that I just can’t give up.
…define “safe”. I’m not sure from a health standpoint it’s all that safe.
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.
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.
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.
Was that during COVID? I regularly eat Chipotle around the US and I’ve never encountered this requirement, I always order at the counter so it is fresh.
Yeah, that’s when the requirement started. I’d tried the app before that and that was when I decided I wouldn’t use it. They kept the policy around long enough for me to completely give up on them. Not actually sure if it’s still a thing around here. Not super urgent for me to find out. I go to Pancheros now for a quick service burrito analogue.
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.
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.
