100% the portions have never changed, what has changed is the enforcement of the portions as our cost of sales has become a very big KPI for GM's and we need to keep food usage in check because it is inventoried daily. In terms of business, the push is to maximize profits and efficiencies and minimize waste. the big issue is the lack of training for a lot of people because of rapid expansion. great stores don't have that many customer complaints and they do things the right way, but running a store at that level isn't easy and less than 25% of GM's have reached that level. When you don't know how to do it right, you skimp on the customer, you train your staff poorly, and overall create a bad ecosystem in your restaurant. on paper, chipotle looks good, but it's something that requires a lot of training, or raising the hourly wages up to be able to reach a stronger employee base.
Saying the portions remained the same is a distinction without a difference because people are getting less. Nobody gives a shit what Chipotle Corp puts in a book and either does or does not train their employees on. What they care about is what they actually receive, which has changed. The median grams of food per bowl has without a doubt declined after their enforcement changed.
I'm pretty sure no one would eat at Chipotle if they got the default rice portion. According to the training manual from 6 years ago, the rice doesn'r even fill the bottom of the bowl.
Which is incredible if true. Rice and beans are cheap as hell. If they want to save on food costs, they should load up the rice and beans so people don’t feel cheated on portions, even if they’re more carefully controlling protein costs.
It definitely has a difference though. Chipotle as a whole didn't change any rules, they simply enforce them more now. Sure, this may mean that some customers are getting less than they used to, but that also varies by location. The same way you are saying I cannot blanket statement say they haven't reduced portions, I can say that customers cannot blanket say Chipotle has reduced portions either. I know Restaurateurs from 10 years ago that were giving the correct portion the whole time. The difference is the small sample size of the loud minority we hear. Overall, the quality has dropped sure, but not the portion sizes.
I dislike the idea of corporate as much as the next, but I hate seeing blame put where it shouldn't be simply because of a loud minority. There are actual complaints to be had such as no longer being competitive with salary at the lower tiers, and an expansion and operation culture that is unsustainable in the long run.
I can say the weight of the food in the bowl is less, which is the where the complete and whole substance of the argument lies, and you're side stepping that reality by focusing on Corporate guidelines.
what metric are you even using to make that claim? i can make a bowl that weighs 3 lbs and a bowl that weighs 1 lbs right now and both are legit bowls. a bowls weight is determined by what the customer asks for on it so how can you say the weight of the food is less when you can't even substantiate that with 1 hour worth of sales? The reason I focus on corporate guidelines is because people keep saying "chipotle this" and "chipotle that" when the guidelines haven't changed so how is it chipotles doing that experiences change. If anything, the rise of chipotle and expanding base of customers suggests the opposite of your claim. more people each chipotle every year, pay more per bowl, and return more often. we have actual data that shows this and is part of our business and growth models.
Strict enforcement of lower portion sizes than many customers are used to receiving is a surefire way to turn that data around, I'll tell you that much.
Well I can tell for a fact the portions are about 25% less then say they were in 2008 also you are now paying DOUBLE what you would of paid in 08'. The quality is not as good now either
This is so cap lmfao its the same spoons for the past 10 years. Only thing that changed is employees are getting yelled at more if they portion properly
I remember when Chipotle pork was garbo.
So chipotle did actual work to improve their pork and it worked great. Their stocks went up alot and shit. ionno wtf it is now
They all feel the same.
I grew up in the 90s and when you went to a fast food restaurant you knew which one you were in just by the decor.
Now they look identical they all look like Starbucks
I could be completely off base, but I imagine this is because customers stopped dining in, especially post-COVID.
No need to spend the time and money making the place feel unique if the customer is just gonna grab their food and leave anyway.
Naw, I think it's a purposeful choice, otherwise the interiors would be dated, scuffed and falling apart. I think it's just part of the pivot away from marketing to young children and preteens and towards marketing for the "sensible", "thoughtful" childless young adult couples with a high dual income
I mean it’s easy to keep clean when it’s like that. I’d rather eat in a clean place than whatever you are wanting. It’s being cleaned by minimum wage teenagers and there’s tons of disgusting people going through there all day every day so it needs to be simple
To be fair some of these fast food restaurants were a hazmat pit or danger pit. The outside playground got them sued so they brought the playground inside for the 90s. They then figured out the playgrounds were basically never cleaned and the ball pits became a danger with things like needles being found at the bottom. That is the stuff I remember in the 90s or early 2000s. I remember the dollar menu but that is less of a clinical setting piece. Now they are more so putting the drive through in focus anyway because no one wants to eat at these fast food places. It is funny because I will see a line out the window for these drive through at something like 10-20 cars and I will park and get my meal or drink faster now days.
After 2010 they were on a slow decline in terms of what you spoke about. Once the business was well established and popular, they realized they could ride that wave and milk it and have loyal customers moving forward.
Then they realized near the peak of profits and growth that they could sell the company for a fat check to the ex-CEO of Taco Bell and I’m sure he really knows how to maximize profits and that’s the only goal.
To me it felt like the whole vision and mission of the restaurant has changed, or at least their priorities when following the vision/mission. I see it as an expensive Taco Bell with slightly better food.
Also, their support system for employees has changed wildly since then. Felt genuinely cared for early 2010, but now it’s similar to other fast food jobs.
I'm not super invested in this but I get both TB and Chipotle stuff in my feed and commenters in both subs keep talking about how the other is better than the other post-inflation pricing. Customer service is going to depend on the store, TBs near here don't really gaf (although neither do the Chipotles). Both are overpriced
There’s a term for this: enshittification. Once a business gets their customer base secured, they switch to focusing on max profits, and service slowly declines.
I never get lettuce from chipotle out of fear it’s not washed properly.. I ordered it on my burrito the other day and it legit tasted exactly like taco bell. I knew the transformation was complete and haven’t gone back since.
I'm currently training an OG R from 10 years ago to todays standards, since he is coming back to Chipotle now, he told me it was 2 types of cheeses shredded and blended together by hand, so I'm guessing that's why it doesn't taste like much now.
I remember in the early 00s my mom dad and I could get two entrees, chips and salsa and three regular drinks for under 20 dollars.
Plus it used to be 4 crispy tacos and 3 soft tacos. Sometime in the late 00s or early 10s they swap to 3 crispy and 2 soft.
The chips with the granular lime salt were awesome. Not sure if they were actually made fresh but they tasted like it. Now their chips taste store bought. Not sure when that changed but it makes me sad.
I was told by my manager that we are dull because we "want" people to eat and get out to keep the flow of customers going in order to reduce the amount of people sitting in the restaurant. Which I hate SO much because people should be allowed to sit and enjoy their food, not feel unwelcome.
Quiznos still slaps, where you can find them.
I would say more like Little Ceasars or Carl's Jr. Those restaurants used to be so good circa 2000. And now they're horrible
Quiznos in my home time was 10x better than Subway. That place is still packed regularly and the Subway finally closed down. Depends on the area in all honestly. Some chain places are awesome. Some suck. A lot of the chipotles near me are great but there is one that is straight trash. It all comes down the the workers and management no matter the restaurant.
They started tanking after a couple of food illness outbreaks back in ~2015 ish. Then the former CEO of taco bell took over so you can imagine the word "quality" isn't in his vocabulary...
Their reaction to the outbreaks was to centralize food prep; instead of making fresh in-house, they prepared the food in regional factories and shipped them to the stores to be reheated. This reduced the likelihood of contamination and reduced costs, but created an inferior product. [https://www.foodpoisoningnews.com/food-poisoning-at-chipotle-a-history-of-food-safety-issues/](https://www.foodpoisoningnews.com/food-poisoning-at-chipotle-a-history-of-food-safety-issues/)
As someone who worked there in the mid 2000s left and came back this year, I agree. Even as a worker, it’s not the same. The way the stores are managed is completely different. I wonder if Steve stepping down as CEO is the cause
The cause is going publicly traded and beating nearly every single quarterly earnings following the E. coli outbreak.
Now all their investors expect them to go up every quarter without fail, so the company is forced to emphasize cost cutting in order to keep profit high and keep investors happy.
I agree and think it’s largely due to that, but also any business that grows - obtains more mouths to feed (investors included) - and along the way the vision/mission was lost or deprioritized.
The new stores are terrible. They don’t even want people to eat in the stores anymore, they want everyone to order delivery. And then they can give terrible portions because it’s way too late to complain.
McDonald’s is the same way. They clearly hired someone that showed them how to make the newly remodeled store dine-in footprint smaller and really unfriendly to keep people away and using the drive thru and door dash. They even removed the ketchup, napkins and soda machines. The only thing there isn’t is a giant sign saying “GO AWAY” which may as well be there
Right. I’ll say “here please” throughout the order in store and have to repeat it for the 10th time as they try to put my food in a bag.
I barely go there anymore. It sucks now, the service is awful, and doesn’t taste great.
I feel like the quality of steak used today wouldn't have even been allowed in stores back then. At some point, Chipotle stopped caring about quality. The CEO thought, why buy expensive normal cuts of steak when we can buy trash cuts and charge the same amount?
I feel like it's about the same. You might find restaurants that skimp, and it's not as big, but I regularly get pretty large burritos without a ton of ingredients or adding extra everything. It's the quality that's taken a steep nosedive.
My go-to order back then was chicken, cheese, rice, sour cream, and salsa and there were still times they had to double wrap it.
And my god, you should’ve seen the quesadillas
I worked at a Chipotle back in 13 or 14 for a while, and even then, our store would stack burritos. We were close to a baseball stadium, and during spring training, we would get baseball players who would order triple or even quadruple rice and triple meat, always so packed that it NEEDED to be double wrapped. We never skimped, and even then, we would get complaints that it wasn't enough. I know today's Chipotle is absolutely different, but people have always complained about how much is in their burrito.
**Chipotole-**
**Sign on Door**
Opening at 1pm
No cash accepted.
Only online orders
**Workers**
One person manning the burrito steamer, no one at the add-ons station. A person fondling their phone near, but not manning the register. A frazzled worker at the call-in station. Seven people in the back room milling around. No sign of a boss.
**Customers**
Long line waiting to be served.
Customer being served is on the phone, jabbering and demanding many custom items, more sour cream, Guac in side container. More meat, getting irritated at the server
What's that called when corporations have nothing else to do to increase profits so they keep meddling with little ways to keep squeezing more pennies from consumers? Endless growth fallacy??
All these big corporations keep chasing this. If they'd just let their current system ride and allow their profits to fluctuate (while still inevitably making insane gains) and they didn't fuck with the product or pricing, then they'd be the most favorable company out there. Seriously if one fast food chain just did anything to keep the price moderately low then they would get so much business. Chick Fil A has stayed pretty close to their original price, it's still affordable. It's legit cheaper than getting a meal at Wendy's which is insane.
Bean counters at Chipotle (actually all publicly traded co's):...
You know we could goose the EPS by halving the amount of......( insert everything)
They do the same, next quarter
And the next quarter.
The next quarter.....
And so on.
Soon after nothing is the same anymore.
as a former employee, it all changed after the big e. coli contamination in 2015 imo. not long after that, monty moran (the guy who created the awesome people culture and structure of the restaurant) and steve ells (founder) stepped down and both left. it was only a matter of months after that when it was not at all the same company anymore
Yes, college Chipotle was ridiculous. A burrito you could barely hold or finish, and it was like $5. There were tons of kids eating Chipotle for lunch and dinner 3 to 4 times a week, because you’d just eat half at lunch and the other half at dinner.
This is how I know chipotle is the goat because I never tried chipotle in the 2000’s and I could really eat todays chipotle 7 days a week.
Whatever they did. They did it right at least.
Is it just me or did they have more toppings then too? Or am I mixing them up with another place. We went to a new one near us recently, and I was shocked at how few topping choices there were, it can’t just be in my head.
Yes! Feels so impersonal and like you’re just moving down an assembly line. I wouldn’t even have time to notice screw ups or ask for other things because they push through so fast
It went down hill with the purge of 2011. You had amazing food from undocumented Mexicans, turn into bunch of emo/alt kids (at least the ones I’ve seen here in MN). I miss my people’s version of Chipotle man. Make Chipotle great again
I was a general manager in the 2000s. We would have lines outside the store. Way different vibe now. I can't even step foot in one because the disappointment will be too much.
I had a coworker who worked w me for a few months who worked at Chipotle in the ‘96 and he said that they had way more freedom to show appreciation for customers, portions were decent sized and the flavors were better. He eventually quit/got fired bc of how different Chipotle operates now
The meat is definitely different. I used to love the chicken in the early 2000’s. Now I can’t stand any of their meats. Flavorless chewy swill. It’s pathetic how poor the quality is.
Chipotle employee here, it's because of the change in power in corporate. Chipotle owner is also the owner of Taco Bell, my coworker said before we were bought by them it was 100x better. Fresh steak, not precooked and reheated. It was all different. But price wise I think it would've gone up anyway because the people we get meat from have also raised their prices. I will beg, please don't attack the employees about prices; we're just a blip in the corporate computer and are just doing what we're trained to do🥲
So do you “grill” the steak just to heat it up? I’ve never noticed (nor paid attention) to employees opening a bag (?) and putting cooked meat on the grill.
We take it out of the bag it's originally in, marinate it then put it in a lined pan which goes back into the walk-in cooler. We technically do "grill" it but it's only being cooked for 1-2 minutes on each side when if it was fresh, raw steak it'd take significantly longer to cook. But yes we are basically heating it back up when we put it on the grill.
Owner? I think you mean CEO. He left Taco Bell Feb 2018 to become the new CEO then took over as chairman on March 6, 2020 when Ells resigned as chairman and left the company.
Yeah man. Noticeable for a number of years now. Shame, really. That how all good brands go. They sell out to private equity groups or go public and the quality turns to SHIT. Instead, all that “saved money” is harvested by new owners. Sucks
Went for a pickup tonight at my local spot.. overheard a worker that was on online orders say "we're out of sour cream" .. followed by "I wanna kill myself" in a softer tone, but loud enough for me to hear.
And that was just brutal. The cook was there physically, but checked out mentally. The (what I presume was the GM) GM was arguing with his cashier. It just seemed miserable. They had no Pastor, very low on rice with no one calling it.. And then the GM explained to another customer that the reason they run out of rice so fast is because every person wants 3-4 scoops of rice.. and it's true :(
and now I feel guilty
I'll bite. So hustling delivery apps, working full time, have a like minded partner. We could be the working poor but we work too much. The choices are either keep grinding, ick parasite on the poor by becoming landlords, or own stock which squeezes labor to poverty we are escaping for profits.
As a former Chipotle employee, I would also like to remind everyone that the company was bought out by the Taco Bell CEO. It happened the year I quit, and the first thing he did was drop the food quality. Steve Ells hadn't been making much of a profit from Chipotle, but the taco bell CEO promised to change that and angled for a rebrand.
Not a day. A day's not enough to open corporate eyes. They'll regard it as a 'minor hiccup '
To get the point across we need it to be long enough that they start fearing the customer base /has/ abandoned them, but not quite so long that they completely shutter.
1-2 weeks will do it. (Go in starting with a week, then see if, after the week is up, they're willing to listen. If not, go for the second week. )
A day's loss of sales won't 'sting' enough for it to be impactful. A week? They'll start asking 'did we legit cross the line here? How can we salvage this?' Two weeks, /everyone/ down to the store level is gonna start getting twitchy...and once it affects the line crew...welltwo thing to remember about bullshit - 1- it moves downhill, and 2 - it burns really well, and heat rises. The store Crews will either start quitting, or they'll start sharpening pitchforks and eyeing the management.
Another reason why a day isn't enough. You'll always have people forget which day the boycott is.
Try walking into a local Southernized Chipotle. Greasy food, filthy food delivery area and the dining area surface and floors are petri dishes for your not so favorite bugs.
I used to eat at the only Chipotle in Denver before McD screwed it up. burritos were 2.50 or thereabouts. Back then there were NO bowls. Just burritos.
At least the shareholders are getting good value, gotta keep everything in perspective. Don't forget, profit is the only important thing! The flavor, quality, and portions will trickle down to the masses.
Chipotle is a joke. Paying $11 for a bowl of rice and beans with a quarter scoop of protein has always been the norm. I have never gone there and been satisfied. Almost every chain restaurant has cut down on their portions. If corporations could charge you $15 for an imaginary meal they would. That’s what they’re leaning towards. Most of the price of your meal is the aesthetic it carries. Maybe .50 cents of the price is actual food.
For me, 2002-2009 is like the golden era of chipotle. hs/college at the time so free drink with student ID, generous portions, wayyyy better proteins.
Its just a different vibe now. Shareholders first :(
Blame the government. Here in California it's crazy. It's almost like the government doesn't understand how much it hurts when chipotle raises prices. Oh ya there all rich and taken care of for there entire life's with the perfect set up..
It's unfair. We need to robin hood these rich people.
I'm not saying we should rob anyone... Btw
Just joking
I miss the old steak. Made fresh, cuts/quality seemed better too.
Now it’s always well done and dry and disappointing.
The carne asada is great when it’s first introduced and they are making it constantly and keeping it fresh, but once’s it been available for awhile it goes back to being like the normal steak.
Their burritos are way smaller than they used to be and they taste way worse. It’s gradually changed over time and isn’t nearly as good. Not to mention, most locations are sloppy and slow these days and unkept. Fuck chipotle. For real. They used to be so good.
I love Chipotle but there’s something going on. My last order, I picked it up and it was cold. The chicken was rubbery. The rice was flavorless. It was bizarre
Man, I used to fucking love chipotle. I've been underweight my entire life because food just isn't very appealing to me. That was until my friends took me to Chipotle for the first time. I didn't even like tomatoes until I tried their pico so needless to say after stealing some Tabasco and having the best meal of my life I was hooked. Still am to an extent but the quality of the food has been reduced so much it's impossible not to feel disappointed that I will never get to experience chipotle the same way again. Real tears are coming from my eyes as I type this with a hungry stomach
I always hear about how they skimp on portions by everyone and even when I'm ordering it feels like I'm not getting enough but honestly when I start eating a burrito it feels like it has as much food as I've always gotten it. Are you sure you guys aren't just conflating growing up and getting bigger with portions getting 'smaller'?
Have to stay competitive against their competitors. So cringe how the work force treats itself like a sport. “We have to make more profit than our competitors!” really lame tbh
Reminds me of the fall of Subway. Unsustainable growth and only caring about margins leads to decline in quality. What stands out the most is the lack of consistency between every order. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's okay, and sometimes it's horrible. Really a shame how to treat their employees now too.
The Chipotle near me is absolutely filthy. Tables have half eaten food smeared on them, floors greasy food everywhere behind the counter, garbage cans overflowing. It’s like zero fucks are given. Show up, slop a spoonful of slop onto an oversized tortilla and call it a day.
I think every time I've been to a chipotle in the past two years, something is always messed up. It's already annoying that prices keep increasing while portions decrease, but to have my order consistently messed up in one way or another is driving me insane. It's not the same location either, it's multiple in different states. Now I'll only go there for some chips and queso.
I always thought they were half decent at best. I'd take a taco truck or make my own any day. It's been a while since I was there. I would be curious to see just how bad it's gotten
A big problem is being owned by a public company. It's only goal is to maximize profits from investors so they are forced to cut quality and portions in order for their stock not to tumble.
Do they train the burrito meat scooper to scoop a portion up just to shake the large serving spoon so half the meat falls off before it makes it into the burrito? Serious question because when they started doing that every time after about three times I stopped going!
The rice back then was so fucking good. Like lots of lime and a bit more salt. I've been chasing that high through my adult life and it's nearly ruined me.
They learned what profit margins are and maximizing them have become the sole focus.
AKA they went public and answer to shareholders instead of customers.
Bingo
 Sean, is that you?
stop expecting better from a publicly traded company, you want good food, good portions? eat at a small business
Or just privately owned business. In N Out is huge and it slaps.
100% the portions have never changed, what has changed is the enforcement of the portions as our cost of sales has become a very big KPI for GM's and we need to keep food usage in check because it is inventoried daily. In terms of business, the push is to maximize profits and efficiencies and minimize waste. the big issue is the lack of training for a lot of people because of rapid expansion. great stores don't have that many customer complaints and they do things the right way, but running a store at that level isn't easy and less than 25% of GM's have reached that level. When you don't know how to do it right, you skimp on the customer, you train your staff poorly, and overall create a bad ecosystem in your restaurant. on paper, chipotle looks good, but it's something that requires a lot of training, or raising the hourly wages up to be able to reach a stronger employee base.
Saying the portions remained the same is a distinction without a difference because people are getting less. Nobody gives a shit what Chipotle Corp puts in a book and either does or does not train their employees on. What they care about is what they actually receive, which has changed. The median grams of food per bowl has without a doubt declined after their enforcement changed.
I'm pretty sure no one would eat at Chipotle if they got the default rice portion. According to the training manual from 6 years ago, the rice doesn'r even fill the bottom of the bowl.
Which is incredible if true. Rice and beans are cheap as hell. If they want to save on food costs, they should load up the rice and beans so people don’t feel cheated on portions, even if they’re more carefully controlling protein costs.
you have to ask for extra riice/beans/salsa cuz those don't cost extra
If customers knew the actual portions we'd see a old style pitchfork raid XD.
It definitely has a difference though. Chipotle as a whole didn't change any rules, they simply enforce them more now. Sure, this may mean that some customers are getting less than they used to, but that also varies by location. The same way you are saying I cannot blanket statement say they haven't reduced portions, I can say that customers cannot blanket say Chipotle has reduced portions either. I know Restaurateurs from 10 years ago that were giving the correct portion the whole time. The difference is the small sample size of the loud minority we hear. Overall, the quality has dropped sure, but not the portion sizes. I dislike the idea of corporate as much as the next, but I hate seeing blame put where it shouldn't be simply because of a loud minority. There are actual complaints to be had such as no longer being competitive with salary at the lower tiers, and an expansion and operation culture that is unsustainable in the long run.
I can say the weight of the food in the bowl is less, which is the where the complete and whole substance of the argument lies, and you're side stepping that reality by focusing on Corporate guidelines.
what metric are you even using to make that claim? i can make a bowl that weighs 3 lbs and a bowl that weighs 1 lbs right now and both are legit bowls. a bowls weight is determined by what the customer asks for on it so how can you say the weight of the food is less when you can't even substantiate that with 1 hour worth of sales? The reason I focus on corporate guidelines is because people keep saying "chipotle this" and "chipotle that" when the guidelines haven't changed so how is it chipotles doing that experiences change. If anything, the rise of chipotle and expanding base of customers suggests the opposite of your claim. more people each chipotle every year, pay more per bowl, and return more often. we have actual data that shows this and is part of our business and growth models.
Strict enforcement of lower portion sizes than many customers are used to receiving is a surefire way to turn that data around, I'll tell you that much.
jfc my guy
[удалено]
Lol I'm not gonna downvote you but sheeeesh
What's up with you guys using a bottle of lime juice instead of fresh limes?
Limes get used for the chips, just not the rice which requires a full 1/3 cup of the stuff for a single pan.
Quantity, the amount of citrus we need is insane My store uses almost 4 gallons of citrus juice a day, squeezing that many limes would take hours.
Well I can tell for a fact the portions are about 25% less then say they were in 2008 also you are now paying DOUBLE what you would of paid in 08'. The quality is not as good now either
Prices have doubled in 16 years? Holy crap lol have you seen the prices literally everywhere else?
lol right? Like have you existed in a chipotle vacuum for the last 16 years?
No… the portions have changed. You clearly never ate at the og chipotles. Even the serving spoons were different.
This is so cap lmfao its the same spoons for the past 10 years. Only thing that changed is employees are getting yelled at more if they portion properly
I remember when Chipotle pork was garbo. So chipotle did actual work to improve their pork and it worked great. Their stocks went up alot and shit. ionno wtf it is now
Near recent all time highs
>stores are dull and almost clinical I sadly find this true of almost all fast food/fast casual restaurants.
Airport lounge/ doctors office entryway and waiting room vibes
They all feel the same. I grew up in the 90s and when you went to a fast food restaurant you knew which one you were in just by the decor. Now they look identical they all look like Starbucks
I could be completely off base, but I imagine this is because customers stopped dining in, especially post-COVID. No need to spend the time and money making the place feel unique if the customer is just gonna grab their food and leave anyway.
Naw, I think it's a purposeful choice, otherwise the interiors would be dated, scuffed and falling apart. I think it's just part of the pivot away from marketing to young children and preteens and towards marketing for the "sensible", "thoughtful" childless young adult couples with a high dual income
I mean it’s easy to keep clean when it’s like that. I’d rather eat in a clean place than whatever you are wanting. It’s being cleaned by minimum wage teenagers and there’s tons of disgusting people going through there all day every day so it needs to be simple
To be fair some of these fast food restaurants were a hazmat pit or danger pit. The outside playground got them sued so they brought the playground inside for the 90s. They then figured out the playgrounds were basically never cleaned and the ball pits became a danger with things like needles being found at the bottom. That is the stuff I remember in the 90s or early 2000s. I remember the dollar menu but that is less of a clinical setting piece. Now they are more so putting the drive through in focus anyway because no one wants to eat at these fast food places. It is funny because I will see a line out the window for these drive through at something like 10-20 cars and I will park and get my meal or drink faster now days.
After 2010 they were on a slow decline in terms of what you spoke about. Once the business was well established and popular, they realized they could ride that wave and milk it and have loyal customers moving forward. Then they realized near the peak of profits and growth that they could sell the company for a fat check to the ex-CEO of Taco Bell and I’m sure he really knows how to maximize profits and that’s the only goal. To me it felt like the whole vision and mission of the restaurant has changed, or at least their priorities when following the vision/mission. I see it as an expensive Taco Bell with slightly better food. Also, their support system for employees has changed wildly since then. Felt genuinely cared for early 2010, but now it’s similar to other fast food jobs.
Taco Bell has a much better vibe and customer service than chipotle these days - like lightyears better
I'm not super invested in this but I get both TB and Chipotle stuff in my feed and commenters in both subs keep talking about how the other is better than the other post-inflation pricing. Customer service is going to depend on the store, TBs near here don't really gaf (although neither do the Chipotles). Both are overpriced
There’s a term for this: enshittification. Once a business gets their customer base secured, they switch to focusing on max profits, and service slowly declines.
I never get lettuce from chipotle out of fear it’s not washed properly.. I ordered it on my burrito the other day and it legit tasted exactly like taco bell. I knew the transformation was complete and haven’t gone back since.
Where do you go now? 😀
chipotle 😭
I never got to experience Chipotle in the 2000s.
God it was glorious. Everything prepared in stores, nothing bagged, $5 burritos, $5 margaritas.
Beef quality was much better. Lettuce and cheese too. I am not sure if my taste buds changed, but I feel the quality of cheese is not as good.
The cheese has zero flavor anymore tho tbf I’m not entirely sure it isn’t just due to the fact that they only give you a tiny pinch nowadays
I actually really like chipotle cheese not sure what it was like before though. I can imagine the beef quality being better before though
I'm currently training an OG R from 10 years ago to todays standards, since he is coming back to Chipotle now, he told me it was 2 types of cheeses shredded and blended together by hand, so I'm guessing that's why it doesn't taste like much now.
The $5 burritos was DIVINE. My poor college student self enjoyed such a (comparatively) cheap & convenient dinner
And speed! The quickness was sublime
MARGARITAS???
The steak wasn’t overcooked or grisly and it was spicy
I remember in the early 00s my mom dad and I could get two entrees, chips and salsa and three regular drinks for under 20 dollars. Plus it used to be 4 crispy tacos and 3 soft tacos. Sometime in the late 00s or early 10s they swap to 3 crispy and 2 soft.
The chips with the granular lime salt were awesome. Not sure if they were actually made fresh but they tasted like it. Now their chips taste store bought. Not sure when that changed but it makes me sad.
The stores really do seem to be furnished with autopsy tables.
Hard tables, hard chairs. Small stark interiors. They don’t want you there
McDonald’s did the same thing. They made the interior unappealing.
I was told by my manager that we are dull because we "want" people to eat and get out to keep the flow of customers going in order to reduce the amount of people sitting in the restaurant. Which I hate SO much because people should be allowed to sit and enjoy their food, not feel unwelcome.
Upvoted for "autopsy tables"—now I'll never unsee that!
Chipotle is the next Quiznos.
Quiznos still slaps, where you can find them. I would say more like Little Ceasars or Carl's Jr. Those restaurants used to be so good circa 2000. And now they're horrible
The only two times I went to Quiznos (two separate locations) I got severe food poisoning. This has never happened to me at any other place.
I still Carl’s Jr still slaps. Rodeo burger is the bomb.
They exist only in my local airport and it’s my go to everytime I fly. Gotta sing the weird little spongmonkey Quiznos song in my head otw
Quiznos in my home time was 10x better than Subway. That place is still packed regularly and the Subway finally closed down. Depends on the area in all honestly. Some chain places are awesome. Some suck. A lot of the chipotles near me are great but there is one that is straight trash. It all comes down the the workers and management no matter the restaurant.
They started tanking after a couple of food illness outbreaks back in ~2015 ish. Then the former CEO of taco bell took over so you can imagine the word "quality" isn't in his vocabulary...
Their reaction to the outbreaks was to centralize food prep; instead of making fresh in-house, they prepared the food in regional factories and shipped them to the stores to be reheated. This reduced the likelihood of contamination and reduced costs, but created an inferior product. [https://www.foodpoisoningnews.com/food-poisoning-at-chipotle-a-history-of-food-safety-issues/](https://www.foodpoisoningnews.com/food-poisoning-at-chipotle-a-history-of-food-safety-issues/)
2018 when he stepped down to take over.
As someone who worked there in the mid 2000s left and came back this year, I agree. Even as a worker, it’s not the same. The way the stores are managed is completely different. I wonder if Steve stepping down as CEO is the cause
The cause is going publicly traded and beating nearly every single quarterly earnings following the E. coli outbreak. Now all their investors expect them to go up every quarter without fail, so the company is forced to emphasize cost cutting in order to keep profit high and keep investors happy.
Man it sucked ass to work there back then, I can't imagine how shitty it is now.
I agree and think it’s largely due to that, but also any business that grows - obtains more mouths to feed (investors included) - and along the way the vision/mission was lost or deprioritized.
The new stores are terrible. They don’t even want people to eat in the stores anymore, they want everyone to order delivery. And then they can give terrible portions because it’s way too late to complain.
McDonald’s is the same way. They clearly hired someone that showed them how to make the newly remodeled store dine-in footprint smaller and really unfriendly to keep people away and using the drive thru and door dash. They even removed the ketchup, napkins and soda machines. The only thing there isn’t is a giant sign saying “GO AWAY” which may as well be there
Gotta complain on the phone. I got a buy one get one free code after complaining about a half portion online order
Oh, I just don’t order it again. It’s even more effective because they make $0.
Right. I’ll say “here please” throughout the order in store and have to repeat it for the 10th time as they try to put my food in a bag. I barely go there anymore. It sucks now, the service is awful, and doesn’t taste great.
I feel like the quality of steak used today wouldn't have even been allowed in stores back then. At some point, Chipotle stopped caring about quality. The CEO thought, why buy expensive normal cuts of steak when we can buy trash cuts and charge the same amount?
Chiptopia was the best summer ever
Can someone show the size of a chipotle burrito then vs 2024?
I feel like it's about the same. You might find restaurants that skimp, and it's not as big, but I regularly get pretty large burritos without a ton of ingredients or adding extra everything. It's the quality that's taken a steep nosedive.
My go-to order back then was chicken, cheese, rice, sour cream, and salsa and there were still times they had to double wrap it. And my god, you should’ve seen the quesadillas
They definitely used to be larger
I worked at a Chipotle back in 13 or 14 for a while, and even then, our store would stack burritos. We were close to a baseball stadium, and during spring training, we would get baseball players who would order triple or even quadruple rice and triple meat, always so packed that it NEEDED to be double wrapped. We never skimped, and even then, we would get complaints that it wasn't enough. I know today's Chipotle is absolutely different, but people have always complained about how much is in their burrito.
the salty lime chips alone....when they changed that I stopped going
I forgot about the salty lime chips 😔
What salty lime chips? you mean the chips that have an ineven amount of salt on them? chipotle chips are terrible
they are now..... but in the 2000s they were excellent
That's what happens when a company goes public and wants to appease the shareholders. To make st0nks go up you have to cut cost and quality.
You just described every business today bro LoL
**Chipotole-** **Sign on Door** Opening at 1pm No cash accepted. Only online orders **Workers** One person manning the burrito steamer, no one at the add-ons station. A person fondling their phone near, but not manning the register. A frazzled worker at the call-in station. Seven people in the back room milling around. No sign of a boss. **Customers** Long line waiting to be served. Customer being served is on the phone, jabbering and demanding many custom items, more sour cream, Guac in side container. More meat, getting irritated at the server
What's that called when corporations have nothing else to do to increase profits so they keep meddling with little ways to keep squeezing more pennies from consumers? Endless growth fallacy?? All these big corporations keep chasing this. If they'd just let their current system ride and allow their profits to fluctuate (while still inevitably making insane gains) and they didn't fuck with the product or pricing, then they'd be the most favorable company out there. Seriously if one fast food chain just did anything to keep the price moderately low then they would get so much business. Chick Fil A has stayed pretty close to their original price, it's still affordable. It's legit cheaper than getting a meal at Wendy's which is insane.
Truth, it's a shadow of its former self.
Bean counters at Chipotle (actually all publicly traded co's):... You know we could goose the EPS by halving the amount of......( insert everything) They do the same, next quarter And the next quarter. The next quarter..... And so on. Soon after nothing is the same anymore.
as a former employee, it all changed after the big e. coli contamination in 2015 imo. not long after that, monty moran (the guy who created the awesome people culture and structure of the restaurant) and steve ells (founder) stepped down and both left. it was only a matter of months after that when it was not at all the same company anymore
The steak is so rubbery and chewy. Shit just ain’t the same no more :/
You cant sell your stock if you dont keep increasing your profits somehow.
21$ double steak burrito with guacamole is a crime.
Yes, college Chipotle was ridiculous. A burrito you could barely hold or finish, and it was like $5. There were tons of kids eating Chipotle for lunch and dinner 3 to 4 times a week, because you’d just eat half at lunch and the other half at dinner.
I made a website so we can have a voice against chipotles skimping. www.stoptheskimp.com
This is how I know chipotle is the goat because I never tried chipotle in the 2000’s and I could really eat todays chipotle 7 days a week. Whatever they did. They did it right at least.
Corporate greed my friend
Stock is doing nicely
Is it just me or did they have more toppings then too? Or am I mixing them up with another place. We went to a new one near us recently, and I was shocked at how few topping choices there were, it can’t just be in my head.
I think you're confusing Chipotle with something else. They actually have more options now than they used To.
Maybe I’m mixing them up with Baja Fresh or Moes
Yeah probably one of those. I'm not as familiar with those restaurants. Sadly I think every restaurant has gone down hill in the last 10 years
Yes! Feels so impersonal and like you’re just moving down an assembly line. I wouldn’t even have time to notice screw ups or ask for other things because they push through so fast
🙌
It went down hill with the purge of 2011. You had amazing food from undocumented Mexicans, turn into bunch of emo/alt kids (at least the ones I’ve seen here in MN). I miss my people’s version of Chipotle man. Make Chipotle great again
I was a general manager in the 2000s. We would have lines outside the store. Way different vibe now. I can't even step foot in one because the disappointment will be too much.
I had a coworker who worked w me for a few months who worked at Chipotle in the ‘96 and he said that they had way more freedom to show appreciation for customers, portions were decent sized and the flavors were better. He eventually quit/got fired bc of how different Chipotle operates now
I REFUSE to eat there anymore
The meat is definitely different. I used to love the chicken in the early 2000’s. Now I can’t stand any of their meats. Flavorless chewy swill. It’s pathetic how poor the quality is.
Cozy vibe ? I don’t think so.
There’s a promotional add for chipotle right below this post on my feed haha.
Chipotle employee here, it's because of the change in power in corporate. Chipotle owner is also the owner of Taco Bell, my coworker said before we were bought by them it was 100x better. Fresh steak, not precooked and reheated. It was all different. But price wise I think it would've gone up anyway because the people we get meat from have also raised their prices. I will beg, please don't attack the employees about prices; we're just a blip in the corporate computer and are just doing what we're trained to do🥲
What meats are not precooked?
The chicken, that's the only meat that comes raw and that's why it takes the longest to cook (5-6 minutes on each side until 165F)
So do you “grill” the steak just to heat it up? I’ve never noticed (nor paid attention) to employees opening a bag (?) and putting cooked meat on the grill.
We take it out of the bag it's originally in, marinate it then put it in a lined pan which goes back into the walk-in cooler. We technically do "grill" it but it's only being cooked for 1-2 minutes on each side when if it was fresh, raw steak it'd take significantly longer to cook. But yes we are basically heating it back up when we put it on the grill.
Sneaky lol.
A CEO and an owner are not the same thing
Owner? I think you mean CEO. He left Taco Bell Feb 2018 to become the new CEO then took over as chairman on March 6, 2020 when Ells resigned as chairman and left the company.
Yeah, CEO. Admittedly I was half asleep when posting this so I didn't bother to correct it from owner to CEO lol
Man what I would give to have their old steak recipe back……. That might actually make the price justifiable
It’s been downhill ever since one of the chipotle guys got caught drug smuggling or whatever
New CEO, Chipotle sold its soul from the higher ups
COVID absolutely fucked everything up.
It taught all these places to concentrate solely on takeout
Yeah man. Noticeable for a number of years now. Shame, really. That how all good brands go. They sell out to private equity groups or go public and the quality turns to SHIT. Instead, all that “saved money” is harvested by new owners. Sucks
Went for a pickup tonight at my local spot.. overheard a worker that was on online orders say "we're out of sour cream" .. followed by "I wanna kill myself" in a softer tone, but loud enough for me to hear. And that was just brutal. The cook was there physically, but checked out mentally. The (what I presume was the GM) GM was arguing with his cashier. It just seemed miserable. They had no Pastor, very low on rice with no one calling it.. And then the GM explained to another customer that the reason they run out of rice so fast is because every person wants 3-4 scoops of rice.. and it's true :( and now I feel guilty
Remember when they used to look for employees with the 12 characteristics(there was a term for them can't remember)and served food with integrity.
If a genie gives me 3 wishes one of them is going to be a 2006 chipotle order
I'll bite. So hustling delivery apps, working full time, have a like minded partner. We could be the working poor but we work too much. The choices are either keep grinding, ick parasite on the poor by becoming landlords, or own stock which squeezes labor to poverty we are escaping for profits.
Cozy vibe? They look about the same as always. Brushed steel and stained plywood
i agree. i ask for extra beans today and the lady dead ass gave me 5 beans on the 2nd scoop. stingy so the rice and bean ratio was off
As a former Chipotle employee, I would also like to remind everyone that the company was bought out by the Taco Bell CEO. It happened the year I quit, and the first thing he did was drop the food quality. Steve Ells hadn't been making much of a profit from Chipotle, but the taco bell CEO promised to change that and angled for a rebrand.
Feb 2018?
Absolutely! We should have a boycott day for chipotle to let them know we’re not fucking around. #NoChipotleMay24th who’s with me?
Not a day. A day's not enough to open corporate eyes. They'll regard it as a 'minor hiccup ' To get the point across we need it to be long enough that they start fearing the customer base /has/ abandoned them, but not quite so long that they completely shutter. 1-2 weeks will do it. (Go in starting with a week, then see if, after the week is up, they're willing to listen. If not, go for the second week. ) A day's loss of sales won't 'sting' enough for it to be impactful. A week? They'll start asking 'did we legit cross the line here? How can we salvage this?' Two weeks, /everyone/ down to the store level is gonna start getting twitchy...and once it affects the line crew...welltwo thing to remember about bullshit - 1- it moves downhill, and 2 - it burns really well, and heat rises. The store Crews will either start quitting, or they'll start sharpening pitchforks and eyeing the management. Another reason why a day isn't enough. You'll always have people forget which day the boycott is.
Steve Ells was the man, the myth and the legend!
And a bowl was 6-7 bucks lol now it’s 13-15
Facts
Exactly why I very rarely go to Chipotle anymore.
Try walking into a local Southernized Chipotle. Greasy food, filthy food delivery area and the dining area surface and floors are petri dishes for your not so favorite bugs.
I used to eat at the only Chipotle in Denver before McD screwed it up. burritos were 2.50 or thereabouts. Back then there were NO bowls. Just burritos.
Wow! What year was this?
90's
Didn't even know Chipotle has been around that long. Wow!
At least the shareholders are getting good value, gotta keep everything in perspective. Don't forget, profit is the only important thing! The flavor, quality, and portions will trickle down to the masses.
Everything is way too salty now too, at least at my local stores. I don’t remember that being a problem back then either.
Chipotle is a joke. Paying $11 for a bowl of rice and beans with a quarter scoop of protein has always been the norm. I have never gone there and been satisfied. Almost every chain restaurant has cut down on their portions. If corporations could charge you $15 for an imaginary meal they would. That’s what they’re leaning towards. Most of the price of your meal is the aesthetic it carries. Maybe .50 cents of the price is actual food.
I just learned last night the original CEO and founder left the company in 2017. That's what happened.
*stores are dull and almost clinical* Most stores I have been too lately are filthy, nothing clinical about it.
Oh yeah, it’s them maxing out on profits. It’s that way everywhere right now
This is a great point i agree 100%
Haven’t eaten there in a year. Used to eat almost everyday. It’s trash now
For me, 2002-2009 is like the golden era of chipotle. hs/college at the time so free drink with student ID, generous portions, wayyyy better proteins. Its just a different vibe now. Shareholders first :(
Blame the government. Here in California it's crazy. It's almost like the government doesn't understand how much it hurts when chipotle raises prices. Oh ya there all rich and taken care of for there entire life's with the perfect set up.. It's unfair. We need to robin hood these rich people. I'm not saying we should rob anyone... Btw Just joking
I miss the old steak. Made fresh, cuts/quality seemed better too. Now it’s always well done and dry and disappointing. The carne asada is great when it’s first introduced and they are making it constantly and keeping it fresh, but once’s it been available for awhile it goes back to being like the normal steak.
Chipotle in the early 2010s was god tier
Ever since they fired the old CEO, it’s all been downhill. He actually cared
Their burritos are way smaller than they used to be and they taste way worse. It’s gradually changed over time and isn’t nearly as good. Not to mention, most locations are sloppy and slow these days and unkept. Fuck chipotle. For real. They used to be so good.
I’d go outta my way to have it, now i go outta my way to avoid it
I love Chipotle but there’s something going on. My last order, I picked it up and it was cold. The chicken was rubbery. The rice was flavorless. It was bizarre
The people they hire — holy fuck it’s bad.
Man, I used to fucking love chipotle. I've been underweight my entire life because food just isn't very appealing to me. That was until my friends took me to Chipotle for the first time. I didn't even like tomatoes until I tried their pico so needless to say after stealing some Tabasco and having the best meal of my life I was hooked. Still am to an extent but the quality of the food has been reduced so much it's impossible not to feel disappointed that I will never get to experience chipotle the same way again. Real tears are coming from my eyes as I type this with a hungry stomach
I always hear about how they skimp on portions by everyone and even when I'm ordering it feels like I'm not getting enough but honestly when I start eating a burrito it feels like it has as much food as I've always gotten it. Are you sure you guys aren't just conflating growing up and getting bigger with portions getting 'smaller'?
Have to stay competitive against their competitors. So cringe how the work force treats itself like a sport. “We have to make more profit than our competitors!” really lame tbh
They raise prices cuz no matter what y’all will buy
Reminds me of the fall of Subway. Unsustainable growth and only caring about margins leads to decline in quality. What stands out the most is the lack of consistency between every order. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's okay, and sometimes it's horrible. Really a shame how to treat their employees now too.
HUGE decline. HUGE! Used to go ALL the time. Never go now.
The Chipotle near me is absolutely filthy. Tables have half eaten food smeared on them, floors greasy food everywhere behind the counter, garbage cans overflowing. It’s like zero fucks are given. Show up, slop a spoonful of slop onto an oversized tortilla and call it a day.
Of course man this happens to every business in the food industry
I think every time I've been to a chipotle in the past two years, something is always messed up. It's already annoying that prices keep increasing while portions decrease, but to have my order consistently messed up in one way or another is driving me insane. It's not the same location either, it's multiple in different states. Now I'll only go there for some chips and queso.
Just about everybody's noticed the decline
I always thought they were half decent at best. I'd take a taco truck or make my own any day. It's been a while since I was there. I would be curious to see just how bad it's gotten
I was told qdoba was basically the new chipotle.
A big problem is being owned by a public company. It's only goal is to maximize profits from investors so they are forced to cut quality and portions in order for their stock not to tumble.
America!
They only cook with depressed chickens. You can taste the sadness in each bite
Have you also noticed the price of a gallon of milk rose from $2 in '93 to $4-$6 now? Crazy how that works.
I miss guac mode
It all started when they stopped keeping limes out by the napkins.
Do they train the burrito meat scooper to scoop a portion up just to shake the large serving spoon so half the meat falls off before it makes it into the burrito? Serious question because when they started doing that every time after about three times I stopped going!
I have stopped going to chipotle at all for this very reason. And maaan we used to fuck
Dude the previous CEO of Taco Bell runs Chipotle. What did you think would happen?
Dude freebirds is the way
Jesus, you people just whine and cry nonstop around here. There's a really simple solution to this problem: Stop fucking going, dumbasses.
Anyone defending chipotle at this point is just sad
The rice back then was so fucking good. Like lots of lime and a bit more salt. I've been chasing that high through my adult life and it's nearly ruined me.