With the Chipotle CEO in the news now is a good time to mention that my experiences at Chipotle have been consistently trending negatively in the past year nationwide. I visit them all over the country and recurring themes are sloppily prepared items and regularly out of stock of different staples. Cleaning the store is an afterthought possibly reserved for the end of the day. Also a steady stream of free food handed out to the homeless just to shoo them out while I spend my hard earned dollar… I digress. I should add that I am visiting these Chipotles in major metro areas usually close to downtown. Chipotle Des Moines is probably a completely different experience but that’s not typical of where they are located I would say.
If you look at the stock I am coming completely out of left field and maybe it’s because their growth base is the McDonalds customer “upping” their game? I get it, the masses need fed.
No opinion on their stock. But, a few weeks ago we had enough food donated by Chipotle to feed maybe 100 people at the shelter. So, credit to them for that.
I haven’t been to Chipotle in years. I do occasionally, when forced, visit Starbucks - which just hired Chipotle’s CEO, so I’m running with that vague connection for the purposes of this post.
IMO, Starbucks has been getting notably worse for a decade or more. It’s basically MacDonald’s now. 30 years ago I would go to Starbucks because I could get a cup of coffee worth drinking and the snacks were decent, if not gourmet. Nowadays, if given the option, I will choose Dunkin over Starbucks based on quality of the fare, which is not a compliment (despite me being a Mass. resident and therefore contractually bound to like DD).
Wandering, not well-constructed point being - I hope Starbucks’ onboarding of the Chipotle dude brings things up a notch or two. But if you’re saying Chipotle has been trending downwards as well, I suppose I shouldn’t hold out hope.
I haven’t been to Chipotle in years. I do occasionally, when forced, visit Starbucks - which just hired Chipotle’s CEO, so I’m running with that vague connection for the purposes of this post.
IMO, Starbucks has been getting notably worse for a decade or more. It’s basically MacDonald’s now. 30 years ago I would go to Starbucks because I could get a cup of coffee worth drinking and the snacks were decent, if not gourmet. Nowadays, if given the option, I will choose Dunkin over Starbucks based on quality of the fare, which is not a compliment (despite me being a Mass. resident and therefore contractually bound to like DD).
Wandering, not well-constructed point being - I hope Starbucks’ onboarding of the Chipotle dude brings things up a notch or two. But if you’re saying Chipotle has been trending downwards as well, I suppose I shouldn’t hold out hope.
Shares are up about 22% today as of this post. Does that count?
I haven’t been to Chipotle in years. I do occasionally, when forced, visit Starbucks - which just hired Chipotle’s CEO, so I’m running with that vague connection for the purposes of this post.
IMO, Starbucks has been getting notably worse for a decade or more. It’s basically MacDonald’s now. 30 years ago I would go to Starbucks because I could get a cup of coffee worth drinking and the snacks were decent, if not gourmet. Nowadays, if given the option, I will choose Dunkin over Starbucks based on quality of the fare, which is not a compliment (despite me being a Mass. resident and therefore contractually bound to like DD).
Wandering, not well-constructed point being - I hope Starbucks’ onboarding of the Chipotle dude brings things up a notch or two. But if you’re saying Chipotle has been trending downwards as well, I suppose I shouldn’t hold out hope.
Shares are up about 22% today as of this post. Does that count?
Maybe. I’m sure it’s incrementally good for my 401(k). I bet their coffee still tastes like battery acid filtered through a dirty diaper though. I’m hopeful the new guy can do something about that, but I’m not holding my breath or tossing out my antacids.
Sorry to hear about your negative experiences at Chipotle. My experience has been super positive in the year or so I’ve been going to the Spokane Valley location. I’m addicted.
Always a very clean restaurant, quality food and service, and busy.
I completely agree re: Starbucks… Can you believe I was in a location where they actually didn’t brew drip coffee but used some space age gadget that did “one off†cups! Screw that! But yep it’s just a Slushee stand at this point cross bred with Dairy Queen. Since everyone is now morbidly obese they should be killing them…. errrr, killing it!
Well Qdoba’s food has always been boring and horrendous compared to Chipotle . . . and I only hit Chipotle when I’m traveling and can’t find any other Mexican restaurant around.
There are still good Chipotle like you described. And I really like that Chipotle. But the ones I visit, just like the areas they inhabit, are a mess. And I think these ones are the norm. I believe a key for a brand to excel is consistency of product.
I tried to go to the one closest to my house few months ago, but they were out of a number of different things. Funny thing is that they never seem to be busy. It probably doesn’t help that they are close to a Taco Bell.
I don’t understand Chipotle at all. Although their stuff is pretty good, the menu is very limited. It’s like you always get the same stuff in a different wrapper. And they don’t have good sauces, to me it’s all about the sauces.
And their stock price before the recent 50 for 1 split, what the heck, why was it so high?
I haven’t been to Chipotle in years. I do occasionally, when forced, visit Starbucks - which just hired Chipotle’s CEO, so I’m running with that vague connection for the purposes of this post.
IMO, Starbucks has been getting notably worse for a decade or more. It’s basically MacDonald’s now. 30 years ago I would go to Starbucks because I could get a cup of coffee worth drinking and the snacks were decent, if not gourmet. Nowadays, if given the option, I will choose Dunkin over Starbucks based on quality of the fare, which is not a compliment (despite me being a Mass. resident and therefore contractually bound to like DD).
Wandering, not well-constructed point being - I hope Starbucks’ onboarding of the Chipotle dude brings things up a notch or two. But if you’re saying Chipotle has been trending downwards as well, I suppose I shouldn’t hold out hope.
Starbucks has shifted their model from creating inviting places where people could gather to basically just another fast food joint. We have had a ton of stores close, and others have downgraded their space or are focusing on drive through only. They’re basically on a trajectory to convert all their stores in to vending machines or as close to such as possible.
With the Chipotle CEO in the news now is a good time to mention that my experiences at Chipotle have been consistently trending negatively in the past year nationwide. I visit them all over the country and recurring themes are sloppily prepared items and regularly out of stock of different staples. Cleaning the store is an afterthought possibly reserved for the end of the day. Also a steady stream of free food handed out to the homeless just to shoo them out while I spend my hard earned dollar… I digress. I should add that I am visiting these Chipotles in major metro areas usually close to downtown. Chipotle Des Moines is probably a completely different experience but that’s not typical of where they are located I would say.
If you look at the stock I am coming completely out of left field and maybe it’s because their growth base is the McDonalds customer “upping” their game? I get it, the masses need fed.
Anybody else feel the same?
This part of your experience became common enough for us on the times we went there since COVID, coupled with skimping on what staples they did have, and we just stopped giving them chances.
We have plenty of small places run by Mexicans/Guatemalans/Hondurans that Chipotle was only really a last resort when we were coming home from somewhere and wanted something quick.
Chipotle is very bland. I guess it’s good if you like food that doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Even Taco Bell has more flavor. I prefer most food trucks over chain stores for Mex style.
Chipotle is very bland. I guess it’s good if you like food that doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Even Taco Bell has more flavor. I prefer most food trucks over chain stores for Mex style.
I think that’s why it’s so popular. It’s like white bread. It’s what you get when you don’t want to think too hard deciding what to eat for dinner.
I’m not sure when the local one opened around here, not much before the pandemic I think. It was a complete shit show coming out of the pandemic. Randomly just closed because they didn’t have enough employees. They are now at least open regularly, but still often out of ingredients, or they get the order wrong, and always pretty grimy inside. But they are basically the only game in town.
I visit them all over the country and recurring themes are sloppily prepared items and regularly out of stock of different staples. Cleaning the store is an afterthought possibly reserved for the end of the day.
This is weird. (Not JD weird, but a little odd). I’ll be the first to ask: why do you repeatedly, and ‘all over the country,’ frequent a chain of establishments that consistently provide a shitty experience? Is there nowhere else, all over the country, where you can get a decent meal? Stay with me… couldn’t you just … not go there?
IMO, Starbucks has been getting notably worse for a decade or more. It’s basically MacDonald’s now.
Proud to note that Australia is the only country in which Starbucks comprehensively failed. Australia is pretty coffee obsessed (indeed, Starbucks imagined a goldmine when they noted how many cafes there are in Oz). But their coffee was poor quality and over-priced, with a menu skewed towards bucket sized franken-drinks that were not recognisable as coffee at all. People love cafes, they hated Starbucks.
Ironically enough, McDonalds in Australia, after a couple of false starts, developed the McCafe concept (which is now global). Their brief was to serve the best coffee in the country. Of course they are a long way from that, but their coffee now isn’t terrible, in the way Starbucks was, and coffee contributes a far higher proportion of their revenue & margin than it does in the US.
Starbucks in Canada has gone way downhill as well. Staff seldom seem to know how to make your coffee as you ask. They used to allow you to put your own cream, milk and sugar in coffee. That is gone now so I am sentenced to repeatedly getting my coffee the way I don’t want it. Besides nobody knows who Starbuck was. Or the Pequod.
Starbucks in Canada has gone way downhill as well. Staff seldom seem to know how to make your coffee as you ask. They used to allow you to put your own cream, milk and sugar in coffee. That is gone now so I am sentenced to repeatedly getting my coffee the way I don’t want it. Besides nobody knows who Starbuck was. Or the Pequod.
I haven’t frequented Starbucks in well over a decade and rarely before that. I drink coffee black and their’s always was awful. Nowadays it seems like I see the students with a lot of Dunkin Donuts or these colored surgery drinks from places like Aroma Joe’s.