Chipotle stock craters as company says young people without jobs can't afford their food anymore

It's actually been this way for a while. The top 10% of American earners do half of all consumer spending. A massive amount of the economy has shifted to reflect this. Businesses are often targeting business to business sales rather than business to customer. Pay to win video games use free players as content for whales to play through. And if you're selling physical goods, you're probably either doing it as cheaply as possible, or absolutely gouging the assholes you're selling to (think ikea vs Kohler's premium brand, for which a lamp costs 5 figures and the website doesn't gave prices listed).

We pre-cook as much as we can in Asian restaurants. The wok isn't magic, the chicken/beef/pork is already 75% cooked.

My issue with chipotle has always been that the food is lukewarm.

I’m not paying 20 dollars for a lukewarm, lightly seasoned burrito.

Now you go to chipotle and pay $20 for a burrito and a soda. Still fast, still decent enough (at least the one near me), but $20 is highway robbery.

Chipotle Burrito and a small fountain soda is $14 in my area. Its certainly risen in price over the last 6 years.

The problem is that Chipotle was never really fast food, they were one of the pioneers of the Fast Casual concept, where it was good food, served quickly, but not necessarily cheap. They never really intended to compete against McDonalds head to head. They wanted to be something different.

Chipotle wasn't that fast. They were locally blacklisted by a lot of doordash drivers due to the wait.

it used to be 7$ for a giant burrito, now its almost half the size and more than double the cost.

They do get it, better than most customers.

The entire point is maximizing profit. If you can charge fewer people more for the same product, you're doing less while making more.

This is just the result of crapitalism. It will never be a system where everyone can afford Chipotle.

I went to Chipotle for the first time in a long while, and I don't even recall what the hype was to begin with. It's just not that great anymore. It's been a while since I've been back. Given inflation I'd rather learn how to make my own burrito that's better than them

Corporate slop bowls.. I can't see them any different from that now

I don't eat there because the last time I did, I got severe food poisoning. If I want shit fast Mexican food, I'll go to Taco Bell.

There is one sentence in that quote which isn't complete nonsense

Isn't it Mission style which once was part of Mexico but is now the USA. It's the style from the SF bay area.

Split that meal into four payments

It’s an older reference but it checks out sir.

higher wages are not the solution; universal basic income is. higher wages just mean it's even more difficult for companies to higher employees, which means there will be fewer jobs overall. also, you're excluding people who are unable to work that way.

But it's such delicious (and overpriced) rice & beans.

Yeah i don't eat there often so it was quite apparent the last couple times that they've removed everything with flavor and substituted it for extra rice and beans, while charging more for it. My city has dozens and dozens of Mexican restaurants and food trucks that offer way better taste and portions for way less money.

I remember when Reddit was flooded with posts about how great Chipotle was. Felt a little manufactured; their food was fine, but nothing better than I can get from a halfway decent local place.

I love the taste of supply chain optimization.

and they charge extra for sloppy gaucomole, you might as well buy your own.

Also $11 for a burrito? Yeah, miss me with that bullshit. I'm thankful for chipotle keeping me full while I was in college but shit is literally double the price it was then.

I think folks in our age group have cut more aggressively. More responsibilities

My household and I weren’t able to eat at a restaurant since before COVID hit, even fast food had jacked their prices up too high. That’s only just now starting to change because we’ve left the US.

I thought I was CRAZY. I tried the $5 burrito hack on a take out order and was mildly unimpressed. It’s ok in a pinch but for 50 cents more I’ll get way more food at McDonald’s. My wife went in and ordered it on a different day and they gave her SIGNIFICANTLY more food. Like double. In that scenario it’s definitely worth it.

Millenials killed chipotle too, huh?

Oof media didn't talk about DEI. I'm not going to chipotle anymore

Nah, a standard Chipotle burrito bowl is about $15 where I am. That's before drink or chips.

Any info on this? I can't find anything about Chipotle removing any DEI stuff.

I can get a bowl w/guac and a large drink for $17, including tax. I live in an HCOL area that has a high sales tax. The portion sizes seem reasonable, though they have gotten a little smaller over the years. Went from being an oversized meal to still a good solid meal. The drink is admittedly a bad value, but that's true of any fast food.

There is either some serious regional variances (with this locality being on the cheaper end despite being HCOL), or people are using apps and getting gouged. I order at the counter.

Plenty of better Mexican options

It's not even recognizably Mexican. At best, it's vaguely Mexican-themed. Some of the ingredients are there (including the occasional e. coli), but none of the flavor. "Fresh Mex" is a brain-dead corporate abomination.

The ecoli is the best part.

Is like a free game of Russian roulette.

The stock market is a psychopath. If you're not actively growing you're dying, so stable/steady profits and no year over year growth = stock plumits. That's why companies that are profitable, but hit a saturation point, start to try to squeeze. Gotta make the almighty line go up. It's all very short cited, but executive incentives are nearly always short term.

Nah, we set up some pillars across the board and place another board on top. Repeat after that one is full. Each level gets more rickety.

The food is actually good. The disease issue was lack of local food inspections. My problem with them is you get 25% less if you order online versus in person, so I stopped.

they were on downward spiral once they started charging more and shrinkflationed thier product.

the best taco place in town (current opinion fluid, we just lost the previous best taqueria and we're in mourning and search mode) has $2.50 tacos. I have the appetite of a teenager and three satisfy me, plus they're delicious. i have trouble justifying going elsewhere

Most of the time Chipotle's "new" is just an old protein with a new exotic-sounding seasoning on it.

Uh, the food at both those restaurants is considerably worse. It’s all just microwaved crap as far as I can tell. You CAN get a beer as either tho, which has them generally winning in my book tho.

at least one is mostly frequented by upper middle class tech workers, near a conference center, so that made sense.

It wasn't the multiple ecoli scares?

Fuck, the chipotle skimping was such a load of bullshit.

Glad I don't go there, or any restaurant, any more.

The Qdoba near me is garbage at folding burritos, and I've rarely seen anyone else in there. I wonder if it's a money laundering front. Still better than Chipotle 😅

Do you boycott every company thats had a breach?

Yeah, what we got instead was a place selling lobster rolls for $23 a pop.

I am with you, there should be (a place selling dollar cheesies), but the fact that there isn't is telling about how unfeasible that is.

Food poisoning, exorbitant prices, what's not to love?

/s

maybe they should letting it sit lukewarm out in the open, and the employees wash thier hands after pooping.

also the shrinkflation too.

Money

The stock holders are the owners. The owners can in theory direct the board of people representing their interests to do whatever, but generally stock owners want the board to do things they believe will make the value of the stock go up. Like any average owner of a private company, just we all get to watch since it's a public company.

On top of what others said, they issued it for cash so they can expand their business and pass the risk onto investors.

...Hence the risk now.

why not?

Or put another way, have the unemployed been able to afford to eat at Chipotles up until this point? Strong doubt.

From the place i work, they have a convention center so its just upper middle class tech workers going to chipotle, barely anyone lower than thier income goes there if at all.

And if it was cheaper. Real texmex costs less

But but but...

This is the way. I buy a CAVA bowl once a week. The way I have it made will feed me three times. That's three dinners for less than $14.

CAVA is doing the exact same business strategy as Chipotle. They're working on rapid expansion, but once they either reach market saturation, or stall out, they'll reduce quality and increase prices

It's the model for every fast-casual chain. I really wish people would support local restaurants more. You get better food at a cheaper price when you don't have corporate taking a 30% profit margin

Cava is so expensive though, I think it's like $4-5 more than a burrito bowl by me.

I think it's just a classic case of profit maximization. Chipotle felt pressure from shareholders to continue increasing profit every quarter, and that inherently involves cutting costs and increasing prices

Better than Subway or Quiznos and the price was right.

Yes I literally remember when a meatless chipotle bowl was only $6.45.

I'm pretty sure I haven't eaten there since those good old days.

Qdoba by me is one of the few that does breakfast. $5-7 for a breakfast bowl/burrito, and it's Qdoba so you get all the queso, salsa, guacamole, cheese, etc toppings for free.

When was Qdoba ever a decent option? Their best has always been "disappointing" for me.

I am not being snarky, I just don't ever remember them being good.

As for Chipotle, I don't go there very often but even the last time I was in and saw chicken going on the grill and they said fresh avocados are used every morning to make the guacamole, that was how I remembered them. And how I always figured the differentiation was: Chipotle made their food, but Qdoba was just put together Sisco truck food.

I distinctly remember when Qdoba started phasing out the Impossible. My local one held onto it a bit longer and was one of the later locations to lose it.

I like Impossible, but it's a hard sell for many because it was the most expensive of the regular protein options. I say "regular" because they sometimes had limited-time specials that were more expensive. Chipotle took a better path with the sofritas because it is its own thing rather than a fake meat, and it is the lowest tier of pricing. From my own observation, it is at least somewhat popular with meat-eaters, but only a vegetarian/vegan is likely to get Impossible due to the higher price.

rice and beans mostly, almost non-existent "lettuce"

it was 7$, then it start shrinkflaitoning, and jump 2+$ everytime like in the past 5 years. it was quite cheap for the amount "burrito you are getting", now its not worth it.

Used to be able to feed my partner and I for less than $20 easily and have leftovers.

Now it's damn near $30