Chipotle Speaks

[Although we are in the middle of the $5 Showdown, I felt this particular post was too important to wait on, therefore the $5 Showdown resumes tomorrow.]

In a post a few weeks ago I wrote about Chipotle's rising prices and shrinking portions. We saw a fairly interesting response from a variety of people and one commenter in particular prompted a follow up post entitled, Value in the Mind of the Consumer.

In addition to writing here, I also frequently contribute to Creative Loafing (an online newspaper and blog here in Tampa). I submitted the same article, Chipotle's Rising Prices, Shrinking Portions to Creative Loafing today, and it received a very interesting comment from Joe Stupp from Chipotle.

Below is the text of his response:

"Dholm,

Hello there! It sounds like you have been a fan of our restaurants in the past, and we are glad for that. I’m sorry this hasn’t continued into the present. I work for Chipotle, so I hope you don’t mind a brief rejoinder.

It’s true that we did recently raise prices in many of our restaurants across the country, and we apologize for the sticker shock you are experiencing of late. Unfortunately, with the climbing costs of food, and also the overall uncertainties of long-term cost projections for food and transportation, many restaurants must raise prices these days - I am sure you have noticed this at your local grocery store too. We held off for as long as we could, but we could not wait any longer.

It's certainly not fun for us to know that we needed to raise prices, and we definitely understand that our customers don't like such things either. But unfortunately if we had kept our prices the same as they were, then we would eventually need to stop serving the high quality foods we serve now. We don't want to reverse those standards, not ever. "Food With Integrity," as we call it, has us looking at every ingredient we use and how we can get foods from more sustainable sources that raise animals and grow produce in ways that respect the environment, the animals, and the people who raise and grow the food. It's really a new perspective on eating.

Already, we serve more naturally raised meat (meat coming from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormones, and fed a pure vegetarian diet) than any other restaurant in the world. All of our cheese and sour cream is made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (used to stimulate milk production in dairy cattle). And an increasing percentage of the beans we use are organically grown (increasing as additional supply becomes available). And we keep pushing ourselves to learn more about all of the ingredients we use and how we can improve them. It's one of the ways we're changing the way the world thinks about and eats fast food.

As for our portions, we definitely have not decreased them. They’re still the same, and we aim to keep it that way. While it’s true that occasional employees and restaurants of ours can make temporary mistakes, this is not something we have decided to do on purpose or anything insidious like that. We would be happy to discuss your concerns with our team at whichever restaurant you normally frequent, since again, there should have been no decreases in portions. Can you tell me please which of our restaurants this would be (I’m assuming it’s somewhere in the Tampa area)? We’ll get this fixed. And while it’s true that “double meat” will alas cost extra, a normal portion of meat should never cost extra, and you should be able to get as much cheese as you want without trouble.

I hope these things make sense, and we also hope you’ll give us another shot.

Sincerely,

Joe Stupp
Chipotle"

Wow. Whether you love or hate Chipotle, you have to admit this type of thorough, passionate and honest response is impressive. I doubt any other restaurant company would care enough to actively seek out negative comments about their brand and then respond in this sort of fashion.

It is clear now more than ever that Chipotle cares about their customers deeply. I will be the first to admit, I'm not thrilled about the prices rising and the recent trend in giving slightly smaller portions, however I can't ignore the fact they continue to somehow impress me. This sort of repose gives me hope that Chipotle is still the same company that I grew to love so deeply.

Oh, and this letter from Joe also means that we now have permission to ask for and receive as much cheese on our burritos as we can possibly imagine....just print this and take it as proof that you are entitled to as much cheese as you want.

To give Chiptole feedback on a restaurant concern that you have, click here.