What happened to Chipotle?
It used to be a good chain. Now customer service seems to be at an all time low, stock is plummeting, and customer satisfaction is at an all time low as well. Is this mismanagement from the top?
It used to be a good chain. Now customer service seems to be at an all time low, stock is plummeting, and customer satisfaction is at an all time low as well. Is this mismanagement from the top?
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An anecdote from last time I went to Chipotle in Brickell, Miami:
Super slow line and a lot of standing around behind the counter without much going on. Gets to my turn, I order tacos. They tell me they only have 2/3 taco wraps ready and seem to try and pass that off as ok? When I press them to get more wraps it was a bit of an ordeal for them.
Then while they're heating up the third wrap person #2 is filling the two wraps I already have. Just as they're finishing they receive the third now heated up wrap, act confused for a good few seconds then proceed to take fillings out of the other two wraps to put into the third one. I tell them to give me more filling and they're like ohhh right yeah that's the way to do it.
I go to pay and they tell me something along the lines of "Yeah like....our card machine only takes apple pay for some reason. Doesn't seem to like cards or Google Wallet". Which is fantastic because I only have Android. I try all my cards and the only one it accepts is my corporate Amex, weirdly enough.
Icing on the cake was the homeless man who had free reign to wander around the store sticking his mangey cup in everyone's faces while they're trying to eat.
Did you try speaking Spanish? Anywhere in Miami you'd be treated like garbage unless you spoke the language of the fatherland
The people behind the counter were all African Americans who spoke perfect, if mumbled, English
why android bro
I feel like Pixel has really come into its own these past couple of years
Just another example of enshittification. Companies can only raise prices so much, so cutting quality is the only other option to easily grease margins. Plenty of things in our modern economy are going this route.
Feel like this has happened to most of the fast food chains I grew up with. The one that stands out to me is Subway; that was my go to for years and was always just a good, cheap, reasonably guilt free meal (yeah I know their bread not really being bread and all but the toppings at least were fresh).
I don't think I've been to a subway in the past...5 years or so that hasn't been mediocre or worse. And if memory serves the last time I went into one (a while ago now) the prices were higher than I expected.
When was Subway ever good? Was just talk about this with a buddy, I feel like it's never been good.
Hard to maintain quality once you get pretty big. Overall, still a reasonably good fast casual option relative to the alternatives.
Haven’t ate there in years. I remember it being good but nothing I’d ever go out of my way to get. Best guess is customer service.
Greed
Prices at NYC midtown locations are also absurd. I swear extra steak and guacamole doubles the price
I think Covid happened… honestly, all restaurants (low end to high end) seem to have dropped several rungs in quality. I think owners were trying to value engineer for lack of customers in 2020-2021 and inflation spikes in 2022-2023, substituting cheaper ingredients to make the economics work. I think people got used to it, prices went up, and then the restaurateurs probably didn’t see why increasing their food quality (costs) would be worthwhile when bottom line profits grew to be just as good as they were pre pandemic. Americans prioritize speed over quality, so the consumer base’s palate is pretty tolerant of bad food as long as it fills the belly. That’s my cynical theory. I used to love Chipotle. I think it’s dog shit now, along with most restaurants - way tastier to cook at home. (Side note: Qdoba is actually a lot higher quality / tastier if you’re looking for a similar alternative).
Wall Street happened. No one seems to respect businesses that do a good job, are going concerns, and don't have plans to grow by double digits every year. Where was Chipotle supposed to go? They grew a lot, saturated a lot of markets, and then stopped growing aggressively, because companies cannot be in growth stage forever (incidentally, this is the entire explanation of the AI bubble currently being semi-fraudulently foisted on the public).
So what did they do? They cut costs to show improving margins. And now their product and service sucks, because that is what happens when you cut costs. Too many fucking MBAs learning the lessons of businesses from the 80s and wrongly applying them today.
I would probably eat it more frequently if I had locations near where I live. Always liked it.
Used to be a GOATed post workout meal back in the day. I remember everyone going there in the early-mid 2010s when the prices were like $6-8 for a bowl.
Kinda felt like a meme at a certain point. During workouts, you would always overhear some group saying Chipotle is the move.
chipotle is overrated. i can make better food
Yeah I bet you can make better food than what they serve now. Chipotle used to be the shit.
What’s overlooked about Chipotle is that they have beers for $4.49
bc fiat is worth even less and the wagies behind the counter are thus not exactly incentivized to do good service
Chipotle locations in DC and Nola are straight tragic
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