My son loves to eat at Chipotle. He’s a grown man, so I can’t stop him from driving to that denizen of ill repute for lunch — but even he won’t go near the place after the latest norovirus news.
I don’t think there has ever been a case like this before, in corporate history. We’re seeing a great brand tarnished and ruined due to food safety issues and the company is utterly rudderless. They cannot stop it, or even tell us why it’s happening. It’s like an invisible hand is out there, targeting Chipotle, at random restaurants, making people sick. If I was tasked with investigating this, I’d be looking into corporate sabotage.
For us, as consumers and potential shareholders, CMG is toxic.
This latest norovirus breakout has come at the worst possible time. The company just started to turn the corner on revenues and earnings, after two years of hell.
Being the largest non-GMO food chain in America, I’m rooting for them. But can they recover? The last time I visited a Chipotle (last week with my son), the Princeton eatery was COMPLETELY empty, and it was only 5pm. In the past, that store would be brimming with people, with a line stretching outside the store. Now, no one even goes there. Sad!
Buy. And. Hold.
Serious answer: NO. This is Monsanto sabotaging and destroying a viable non-GMO business option that could gain popularity and spread..
It was always mediocre at best, pretty average Mexican food chain.
Like Starbucks, it just cultivated an image among the under 35 or so crowd to drive sales.
That age group acts pretty much like lemmings.
Just about every Chipotle I have been to (not many) in various cities were pig stys and had the urban industrial “cool” look for it’s imaging.
I would much rather frequent the local Mom and Pop Mex place as the food is more authentic.
There is no corporate ZeroHedge conspiracy theory sabotage.
You’re going to a restaurant where the folks put the unused ingredients back in the fridge at night until they spoil. Then whammo, onto your plate it goes the next day.
Adds flavor.
I worked one summer when I came home from UF at a place called the Yumbrella in S. Miami near the Univ. of Miami. It was a large cafeteria style room divided up into various foods of the world (Italian, German, etc.). I was a cook at the Coney Island section. If we had hot dogs at the end of the day still on the flat top, Gus the Manager would make us put the unused dogs back into the cooler and then the next day we would heat them up quickly for the lunch hour. We would put the dogs into the deep fryer (changed the oil about once a week) and then on the flat top. I can see the brown grease pooling around the dogs.
The place was the pits.
One time I was making a milk shake in one of those old fashioned mixers and when I put the metal container up into the machine to mix the shake I was just about electrocuted because I was standing in a small pool of water and the machine I found out was not grounded. The shake ended up on the ceiling.
Monsanto in their beneficence is loving and forgiving. But CMG must first repent and serve monster food.
Chatham locations seems to be doing just fine. I’ve never been but it has a crowd.
The open buffet style with the food preparation is the cause of this. Stay away from any buffet shit.
The way they re-fill the bins could be the problem. There is always a little bit of tomato or chicken left in the bin and instead of throwing out the remnants, they just top it off. the bottom layer ends up staying there for days. Always ask for a new bin if they are scraping the bottom for you. That goes for any buffet style place, not just CMG.
Yea exactly. Those bins gross me out.
Not to mention by the disgusting people talking/spitting on the food while going down the line. But they do have those gloves on!
This cuck factory is on full display in California. 99% of the patrons are 100% libtard cuck. The real Americans and Mexicans eat at the local joints. That are everywhere.
Si.
Weak Group. Stock under heavy distribution. Mountain of resistance $395-$415. Lt moving averages rolling over.. Can see a move below $300
Poor kid drives to Chipotle for Mexican food? Get back to Brooklyn where he can walk the streets, live in the real world, and eat real food. Suburbia is hell, even Princeton.
Great commentary from everyone. May I point out that everything from cosmic rays, natural selection, and man in the biolabs or caveman through forced cross pollination “Genetically Modifies” plants and animals. GMO is not the problem. Corporate competition, business modeling, and mismanagement may be the ultimate problem.
My view:
1. The present non-frozen fresh food model will not be safe enough at Chipotle, at the present price point. I got slammed for saying this before…but employees at that wage level cannot execute the concept. They have to pay more for higher competency employees and raise prices.
2. I don’t think Monsanto is doing this Chipotle. Demand for healthy pure food far overtakes one supply of it.
3. I’ve eaten at the Whole Foods hot food buffet hundreds, maybe a thousand times. I’m very careful what I choose. Only twice have I gotten a sore stomach that was probably from the food. Maybe a couple dozen times one item didn’t taste quite right, and I didn’t eat it.
4. No, I don’t think Chipotle will recover their image, unless they face up to the employee and price point issue. They might be able to go frozen/non-fresh and downmarket. I think much of their appeal is the menu is relatively inexpensive and customers have the opportunity to press the counter servers to pile on the food. These underclass customers might keep coming in as long as they pile it on.
Buy the dip!! theTelsey analysts believe menu innovation will ultimately drive growth!
hahaha
Same here. A couple years ago the line was always out the door. Always.
I go there now and there’s less than 10 people in the building. The very last time I went I walked straight up to the counter. Literally no line.
As for the food, the quality has taken a step back.
They’ll never get back to previous highs. The turn around story is almost impossible and can’t start until they stop having virus issues. If they go frozen or gmo they’ll be labeled corporate sellout and the hipsters will boycott. Chipotle is in a tough spot.
Daily Mail is reporting 3 rata fell out of the ceiling. Video is available.
It is over.