Has Chipotle Raised Its Prices Too Much

[Alpha8472]

When restaurant prices go up, customers buy less or buy cheaper items. Raising prices could have the opposite effect and customers will visit less often or buy less.

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/fast-casual ... s-too-much

[storewanderer]

Close to $3 for a drink and over $9 for a Chicken Burrito in Reno. Sparks location has slightly lower prices for some reason. This chain has become a very poor value. I think they have been increasing prices to cover up for losses in customer count for years.

At least their iced tea is still very good and strong. Meals there in recent years the iced tea has been the best part of the meal most of the time; the pollo asado or whatever that seasoned chicken was, was tasty, but it is gone now.

[Brian Lutz]

I don't think I've been to a Chipotle since the E. Coli incident in 2015, which followed years of virtue signaling about how much "cleaner" they were than the competition. Don't plan on going back any time soon.

[storewanderer]

Chipotle seems to have recovered and then some from the e-Coli incident.

Or have they? Chipotle used to have lines out the door. I just don't see that anymore. But their financial results are better than ever.

[Alpha8472]

The E-coli incident will stay with the brand name for a long time. Many people are still afraid to eat there. They lost some old customers and some potential new customers will stay away.

The incident really highlighted that the chain was not so healthy or clean as they claimed. It also showed how high priced food doesn't mean safe or high quality.

[ClownLoach]

Seems that in SoCal right now if a Carl's Jr or Burger King closes the top bidder for the location is Chipotle. One of the reasons I think the traffic appears to have disappeared is that they are opening too many locations, more than most markets need. I looked at a couple of neighborhoods I used to live in - both areas back at the purge after the outbreak lost at least one location. Now there are 3 locations in one of those neighborhoods (+2 added) and 5 in the other neighborhood (+3 added). I am seeing that they are rapidly opening and sometimes relocating restaurants in SoCal to drive through locations. Also tons of mall food court locations which seems counterintuitive since many of these malls are struggling with traffic. I do wonder if the intent for now is to grab every drive through spot they can in SoCal and then eventually close the in line locations at lease end, following the same strategy as Starbucks.

Starbucks however will immediately close the in line store(s) and open the drive through, there was one nice in line location I used to frequent which underwent a full 20 year renovation in which the entire interior was gutted and everything from counter to restrooms to backroom was moved to improve customer flow. This was a very expensive renovation to a "deluxe/luxury" decor and build, if you frequent Starbucks you know some locations have cheap interiors while others are "deluxe" with terrazzo floors etc. A Burger King a block away closed a few months later and Starbucks grabbed the site then moved and closed the just thoroughly renovated deluxe in line store. From day one the drive through always has at least six cars so they must be able to make up for all that wasted remodel work on the closed store.

The big problem is that Chipotle will not accept an order in the drive through, there is no menu board or two way radio box. The drive through is only for online order pick ups. Many customers do not understand this and place an order in the parking lot then immediately drive to the window and clog up the entire line because their food is not ready. Other times the employees are nice to the confused customer and they don't see a line so they'll take the order at the window, only for a sudden line to appear out of nowhere. And if you did the right thing and ordered online then got in the drive through on time you potentially wind up with cold food because you had to wait behind a confused customer who couldn't figure out how this drive through that isn't a real drive through works. I would have expected them to take a few years of testing on this concept but after the first two or three opened it has been full speed ahead at least in their headquarters market of SoCal. What a mess.

[SamSpade]

The big problem is that Chipotle will not accept an order in the drive through, there is no menu board or two way radio box. The drive through is only for online order pick ups. Many customers do not understand this and place an order in the parking lot then immediately drive to the window and clog up the entire line because their food is not ready. Other times the employees are nice to the confused customer and they don't see a line so they'll take the order at the window, only for a sudden line to appear out of nowhere. And if you did the right thing and ordered online then got in the drive through on time you potentially wind up with cold food because you had to wait behind a confused customer who couldn't figure out how this drive through that isn't a real drive through works.

Off Topic

I am not a fan of the "Chipotlane" either. We have one in this area, from a former Carls Jr. restaurant. The access off the roadway at this store is very strange from some directions, as you have to enter it from a nearby McDonalds parking lot from the west. It's all a mess.

the pollo asado or whatever that seasoned chicken was, was tasty, but it is gone now.

I really liked that limited time offering; sorry to hear it did not continue. It was more expensive and I admit I have struggled a bit on the price point with the chain because local execution became very uneven.

[BillyGr]

The big problem is that Chipotle will not accept an order in the drive through, there is no menu board or two way radio box. The drive through is only for online order pick ups. Many customers do not understand this and place an order in the parking lot then immediately drive to the window and clog up the entire line because their food is not ready. Other times the employees are nice to the confused customer and they don't see a line so they'll take the order at the window, only for a sudden line to appear out of nowhere. And if you did the right thing and ordered online then got in the drive through on time you potentially wind up with cold food because you had to wait behind a confused customer who couldn't figure out how this drive through that isn't a real drive through works. I would have expected them to take a few years of testing on this concept but after the first two or three opened it has been full speed ahead at least in their headquarters market of SoCal. What a mess.

If they do go ahead and take the order, or someone does as you suggest and orders then gets in line too quickly, it shouldn't be hard to say "Sorry, your order isn't ready yet - pull up to the side and we'll get it to you as soon as it is" (much like most any drive thru place will do) or "Sorry, your order isn't ready quite yet - please circle around to the back of the line" - that way others in line who do have completed orders get theirs in a timely fashion before they get cold or stale or whatever.

[ClownLoach]

The big problem is that Chipotle will not accept an order in the drive through, there is no menu board or two way radio box. The drive through is only for online order pick ups. Many customers do not understand this and place an order in the parking lot then immediately drive to the window and clog up the entire line because their food is not ready. Other times the employees are nice to the confused customer and they don't see a line so they'll take the order at the window, only for a sudden line to appear out of nowhere. And if you did the right thing and ordered online then got in the drive through on time you potentially wind up with cold food because you had to wait behind a confused customer who couldn't figure out how this drive through that isn't a real drive through works. I would have expected them to take a few years of testing on this concept but after the first two or three opened it has been full speed ahead at least in their headquarters market of SoCal. What a mess.

If they do go ahead and take the order, or someone does as you suggest and orders then gets in line too quickly, it shouldn't be hard to say "Sorry, your order isn't ready yet - pull up to the side and we'll get it to you as soon as it is" (much like most any drive thru place will do) or "Sorry, your order isn't ready quite yet - please circle around to the back of the line" - that way others in line who do have completed orders get theirs in a timely fashion before they get cold or stale or whatever.

It's what happens when a restaurant that has no drive through experience is paired up with customers who somehow don't understand how mobile ordering works. Considering that the CEO of Chipotle was poached from Taco Bell this is really hard to understand.

[Brian Lutz]

There are some restaurants that a drive thru format just isn't suited to, but which seem to have them anyway. For example, Burgermaster in the Seattle area runs mostly drive-ins, but had a location in Everett (with inside seating) which was in a former Burger King, and they did operate the drive-thru there. Since all items are cooked to order there were signs that warned that orders from the drive thru would take a while. Eventually this location closed and was converted to a MOD Pizza, which also operates the drive-in. I have also seen other MOD pizzas with drive-thrus as well, but these don't seem widespread, and most of the time when I go there it's to eat in so I have no experience with actually using one. I suspect with the prep and cooking time required there you're probably better off just ordering ahead and picking up inside if you aren't eating in.

By the same token, a lot of newer Cafe Rio locations in Utah were built in former fast food places and they do operate the drive thrus in those. Once again I pretty much only go to Cafe Rio to eat in, but you do generally have your food pretty quickly (even with the added step of the conveyor oven) so it might work better there than at some places. That said, I don't know if the Cafe Rios with drive-ins run a separate prep line for the drive thru and pickup orders or if they just use the main one. Most Cafe Rio locations are still in strip malls, and those ones generally have only one line so pickup orders have to be sandwiched in between in-person customers. I assume Chipotle would operate the same way, but I have never seen a Chipotle with a drive thru.