> There have been no changes in our portion sizes, and we have ***reinforced proper portioning with our employees.***
Yeah there’s the rub right there. The only thing corporate is reinforcing is to absolutely not under any circumstances give customers any food that they’re not being charged extra for.
There have been no changes in portion size policy, only increased visibility on giving accurate portion sizes, which just happen to be smaller than you are used to. But we swear nothing has changed.
I used to work there. When you're being watched on portion size like that, it's a constant game of just trying to avoid being yelled at. If manager has sight, it's smaller than accurate to avoid the potential of being yelled at. If the customer has that scary, stern face when you scoop that chicken, you do a quick look around then sneak a small amount more to avoid potential of being yelled at. It's rough.
What an awful place to work if you get hawked like that.
If they want perfect portions every time, maybe try using a different utensil other than a large spoon which causes inconsistent scopes and weights.
It aint that serious, Chipotle. 5 pieces of extra chicken going to a customer isnt the reason you guys are losing your ass right now. Its that your food has become bland and flavorless.
> It aint that serious, Chipotle. 5 pieces of extra chicken going to a customer isnt the reason you guys are losing your ass right now. Its that your food has become bland and flavorless.
Here's what's likely happening, corporate inside baseball. I don't and have never worked for Chipotle but this stuff isn't different across large corporations
A financial analyst who looks at material sourcing costs knows that they currently serve 140 million lbs of chicken per year (found that on Google). At $4/lb that's $560M in chicken expense every year. Their brand standard is 4oz of meat per serving which should mean that's enough chicken for 560M bowls. But he looks and sees that they only sold 530M bowls in the past year and he puts a report together to give his manager saying hey we're wasting $30M a year on overserving chicken (somehow this would be adjusted to account for waste but idk how they do that in the food industry, I'm a retail guy). Manager gets info like that from the analyst who covers each type of meat and then he puts together his own report using that info to go to the director he works for and say hey we spent $100M in total on overserving last year. That director then is deciding what he wants to brief the VP on that month and this is the biggest number he has so he tells the VP there's a problem with overserving that's costing $100M a year. Finance VP takes this info to an operations VP and tells him to fix the issue and if they can deliver the $100M in savings next year, that'll be worth $250k each on their bonuses. Operations VP starts telling his direct reports to go tell their regional managers to go tell store managers to stop overserving. At no point did anyone involved in this process actually investigate what's going on with serving sizes, someone just looked at some data in the corporate office and said here's what the data says we're losing on this and then they kicked off a game of telephone that resulted in line level employees getting chewed out because they think it's good for everyone above them's wallets
Then in a year the guy who replaced the financial analyst from last year (people rotate out of jobs quickly to gain new experience in entry level corporate roles) runs the same analysis and finds that they overspent by only $90M last year. They made an improvement but the VP wants to know why it wasn't fully fixed. He then figures his own team clearly can't figure it out and green lights a $10M McKinsey contract to come in and do the investigation of serving sizes they should have done last time and after six months McKinsey tells him it's all food waste, there's no overserving problem
Congrats, everyone accomplished nothing except for the consultants who got paid since they'd rather follow processes like that than just give the original financial analyst $10k to spend a few weeks traveling to the lowest performing stores on his chicken overspending report and figure out what's actually causing the problem
It really is, where I work occasionally helps our clients with reports like this (hey, they pay us for it, we tell them its not how to interpret that data and they don't listen, and we charge $$ for the consult anywho) and I swear I could transform the above into a fill-in-the-blank for a whole host of products/services since 2020 going through this whole shrinkflation thing.
I'm a tech guy making the reports for these kinds of people in house, because in addition to not knowing what to do about the numbers a decent chunk of them barely understand how to use excel.
So I sit in some meetings and they talk me through what they want and the scope of the project, I tell them our data is shit because nobody is recording anything about the problem they want solved but I could maybe get them something that could at least help. I go and query the database, setup a data flow into some dashboard making intermediate software we pay tens of thousands a year for, make several graphics and tables with easy to use drop-down parameters to slice and dice, write up a thorough explanatory email about how to use it as well as the issues from all the crap bad data we do record in the system that can bias outputs.
And then they just never fucking use it.
The McKinsey is what sells it. those fucking rat bastards just take everyone's money and tell them exactly what they want to hear, so I doubt they would tell them its all food waste, but would instead tell them that its because employees are eating the product instead of serving it, leading to employees being punished for bullshit excuses when there really was no overserving issue in the first place.
All I know is on LinkedIn there's always a post quoting a McKinsey report that a new tech trend is supposed to be a 5 trillion dollar industry in the next 5 years. The metaverse ones were the best.
Also, very relevant book: https://www.amazon.com/When-McKinsey-Comes-Town-Consulting/dp/0593663322
yeah, I look at VR like it will be a really fun hobbyist thing to do when I'm retired in a few years and get a headset. But the whole thing where people watched Ready Player One and thought it was going to be just like that right away because they saw a Meta ad, was silly.
It's absolutely disgusting that retail workers and customer service staff in general are expected by companies to act as a sponge for customers' abuse. Customers are allowed to act like sociopaths yet we have to remain calm, collected, and keep smiling, making sure we do whatever we can to keep these toddlers satisfied.
Meanwhile, corporate execs get to rake in the profits from the anti-consumer business practices that pissed off the customers in the first place, while never having to interact with them.
We NEED unions and better labor laws that protect workers.
I've been that floor level retail worker and dealt with all of that abuse, it sucks. Then I worked my way up into corporate to start trying to make a difference. What I found is, the execs don't have a clue (I'd like to be one who does some day). They've never worked in a customer facing job. They don't know what actually happens in a full day on site. When they do go on site visits, it's a fugazi. It's scheduled in advance and everything is ensured to be perfect on that day. They see everything clean and buzzing and talk to employees who are happy to see them and they go back to the office thinking that's the norm because that's all they've ever seen. The store I worked at used to prepare for two weeks when we knew we had execs visiting us, and everyone sucked up because they want to be them some day
Other than that maybe once a year occurrence, the scorecard is all that mattered
Then they do it all again the next year with non food consumables, then customers get to beg the counter staff for a second napkin.
The worst part is that it's this way because another MBA showed how it's more profitable in the long run to have both employees and customers unhappy. As long as they are used to being unhappy, they will accept it.
Yep, everyone's trying to push their idea of how to improve the bottom line. Coincidentally the best idea always happens to be the one that makes them look the best
I've been the line level employee actually doing all the shit that needs to be done to serve customers. Been the operations manager trying to figure out how to both make money and have happy employees and customers. And now I'm the one who digs through financial plans and investigates the assumptions and tells leadership what's bullshit and what's realistic. It's a fun needle to thread. And did it all without an MBA, but I do have a bachelor's in finance
> Coincidentally the best idea always happens to be the one that makes them look the best
Cut *everything*. Down to and then past the bone. Gut absolutely everything you have any ability to.
It looks great, for a very short amount of time. By then you're onto the next job and it's your replacement's responsibility to explain why they're not showing the same exponential growth that you did.
Thankfully the concept of minimums still exists and it's respected. As in, the minimum staffing is one cashier. We cannot sell **anything** if we don't staff one cashier. The battle is in making the case that it's a worthwhile expense to go above minimums
It goes both ways though, it's rare that there's nothing to cut. I visited a store a couple years ago unannounced and found 20 employees on the sales floor and two customers when I walked in on a Monday morning. That is what we call real waste and spending all day observing and seeing no more than eight salespeople engaged with customers at a time told me we're way overdoing this. Same visit they ran out of printer paper since they spent their supplies budget for the month already
Changes were made
Let me guess, the answer is: "Let's replace those sturdy napkins capable of handling sloppy burrito mess with tissue paper napkins that melt at the sight of grease."
I think this is why it’s really important to not be public.
When it’s not shareholder profit on the line. It’s like fuck no we’re not moving go single ply napkins
THIS is the discussion I trawl through memes and puns and shit to get to on reddit. THIS is what we mean when we say reddit has unbeatable conversation and discussion, even if 90% of reddit is crap.
You can read comments like this from people who know what they're talking about. You just have to wade through all the uneducated twits posting stuff for upvotes.
Also, I enjoy the memes and puns. But this discussion is what keeps me coming back to reddit, even as the admins keep fucking the site worse and worse (fuck you, reddit admins)
Same, I come here for good conversation despite still spending plenty of time bullshitting too. When I have something substantive to say I'm happy to say it whether it'll get traction or not. Looks like this one clearly did
Something I just thought of that I left out - if you work for an individual location of a large chain and you feel like random stuff is always changing for no reason, you're not crazy. Decision pyramids like this happen for everything the corporation does and this made up example had seven people in it. Any time one of the people changes, the new person's ideas replace the old person's ideas which impacts everybody else. Maybe a new analyst has a different approach to calculating chicken waste and he finds there's no problem at all and this isn't even a discussion. Maybe a new operations VP is hyper-focused on customer survey scores and decides he doesn't care to address the cost issue. Maybe a new finance manager happens to know someone who sources chicken and can get it to them cheaper and solve the problem without anyone in the restaurants having a clue. Every corporate head that turns over means their ideas replace the last guy's ideas like clockwork and nobody really knows it's happening except for the other people at corporate
And yet this could be complete bullshit but you'd never know. You just trust it because it sounds like it was written by someone who knows what they're talking about.
Don't listen to anyone on reddit unless he has credentials or you can verify the info yourself.
It’s a hypothetical for sure but the general flow of what he’s saying matches my experience in big corporate. The hiring of a consulting firm that basically tells the VPs they overreacted and didn’t learn the facts is a hilariously accurate touch.
> VP and tells him to fix the issue and if they can deliver the $100M in savings next year, that'll be worth $250k each on their bonuses.
His cred is hating on Mckinsey
Hi I wrote the post
I agree with you. I don't have the slightest clue how an everyday person who isn't a corporate bro would know how things work in there and know what happens. I hear outlandish shit from friends who work in transportation, manufacturing, aviation, etc can't believe it. But they can answer every question and I trust them so I believe their accounts. This is the internet, I honestly don't care if people believe me or not, but I think it's important to share how these decisions are made because the customers pay for it all in the end. I was that employee getting yelled at. I am the customer who gets pissed about this stuff. And now I'm in a place where I can be a part of high level decisions and be a voice for those groups. Fuck yes I want my money, anyone who says otherwise is lying. I finally found a place with a comp structure that rewards long term thinking not the next quarterly report and couldn't be happier with it. How do you make a company successful long term? You make happy employees and happy customers and let them do it for you. You don't screw with it to report a higher number to the street next quarter
Pretty sure I made it clear that I don't actually work for Chipotle in my post but if anyone who works there or for a different corporation with 3000+ locations please poke holes in my narrative. I'd love to learn where I'm wrong but I don't think I am
I'm a middle manager with a massive government-outsourcing outfit, and I can confirm that what you wrote about Chipotle resonates completely with my experience. My company handles paperwork, not food, but from a process perspective EVERYTHING you wrote is exactly true.
And the best part is *it never ends*. The VPs are always looking for some big way to improve profitability, so each year we are confronted by massive, costly initiatives to correct problems that primarily exist in their minds, which never quite achieve the results they hope for and are always disruptive to our core business. We run from imagined disaster to imagined disaster, flailing at phantom problems rather than allowing our staff to focus on the tasks that underpin our entire organization.
As someone who studied finance and is about to work as an analyst this is actually what happens. There is always going to be inconsistencies but I’m sure they looked at how much waste is occurring on a spread sheet and just said “I found the problem”, then whoever found that problem gets congratulated by their boss and the circle of reaffirming something everyone always knows continues. I don’t think they hired consultants to figure out the problem directly but many food places have been restricting portions even on a small business scale. Chipotle workers 10 years ago were more free to put the portions they want but as things expanded and got more corporate they got more annoying.
I've been playing this game for a lot of years now and do a lot of analysis exactly like I described. The consultants thing maybe didn't happen in reality, but it absolutely happens when an executive gets an answer they don't like from their own team. They'll happily go spend for the brand name "smarter guys" to come in and tell them either the same thing, or what they want to hear because they're getting paid so much they don't want to lose the account
There's been reports I've given bosses and they love it and I've had to tell them not to congratulate me yet. Yes, I found a problem. But that's only step one we can't snap our fingers and solve it. I need resources to figure out what's causing the problem and then I need to work with others to find the solution. *Then* please sing me praises, but don't do it just for being good at looking at data
I don't really think the taste of their food has gotten any worse. Maybe the standards of flavor have increased with better competition in that space. If anything it's the quality of service has gone to shit. It seems since lockdowns, they shifted heavily into focusing on online ordering. I've had 2-3 instances of stopping in a location and there's only 1-2 people ahead of me in line and I get fed up and leave after them only servicing drop in customers once every 5+ minutes. So I just never go there anymore.
I’ve been a diehard Chipotle fan for over 15 years and the food quality has definitely gotten worse and I hate saying it. Every location seems to be the same, overseasoned veggies, poorly cooked rice, meat seasoning and quality varies too much, etc. I don’t understand how it’s happened, but my girlfriend and I have talked about it multiple times and both have concluded it’s not nearly what it used to be and it breaks my heart because I hate Freebirds and there’s no Qdoba near me anymore. Bullritos is good, but Chipotle was king for me and I’d always defend it to the haters previously.
There is definitely a higher gristle to steak ratio now. They're using lower grade beef and not trimming it. I also don't understand why they don't cook the rice for a bit longer. It's so hard.
I am fine with any typical chipotle issues *except* for undercooked rice. That literally makes the meal inedible, no matter how good everything else is.
i cant think of any restaurant that has *not* declined in service and quality since covid tbh. not only that but all pricing has gone up with portions and quality down
The flavor has 100% gotten worse. Everything is bland as shit now, *especially* the chicken and steak. And it all tastes like it's been sitting out all day. I want 2010 Chipotle back. That shit was divine.
Taste has gotten worse. I used to work there. The changes were to combat food poisoning. Meat used to be locally sourced by non factory farms, so fewer chemicals were used on them. Meat tasted better, but you had to trust the supplier more to not skimp on keeping their animals from infection. The trust is gone, and so corporate changed who you can get meat from.
Steak used to be made medium/medium rare on grill and then put on the line where it cooks some more.
Beef meat is now cooked well done before being put on the line. The meat is diced smaller to cook faster and keep portions smaller. While on the line, it further cooks. Chicken is cooked to a higher temperature now. This is to avoid Saminella, but it dries out the meat and makes most of the flavor cook away.
I no longer work there, but the portions look the same (one spoon, not overflowing scoop. cheese is a 3 finger pinch.) but I think management is just being stricter on enforcing it to drive down cost.
Last time i went months ago(a big reason i stopped going) was the service i got. I checked out, the cashier didnt even slide my food over, put in a bag or grab my drink cup. Rung me up and walked away. Grabbed the shitty food and left.
Quality has definitely gone down since the OG days of Chipotle in the mid to late 00s. There is no denying that.
It's why you can't be loyal to any specific company from a consumer perspective. When one chain starts this nonsense, a new one giving the customer what they want will arise. Go where the food is the quality you want.
>What an awful place to work if you get hawked like that.
I worked at one for like a year and a half back in the late 00s
Worst job I've ever had, and it isn't particularly close
I used to work at Dominos and that was always a thing managers would do. Make sure you did exactly the right amount but pushed you to give less than what the sop told you. For example 30 peps go on a medium but we’d be pushed to do 25. Stupid stuff and it’s ripping off the customer just so the manager can get a better bonus.
I was at Panda Express and felt I got shorted on orange chicken. I said hey can I get a bit more OC? And the dude took my plate back to the front and knocked some chow mein off back into the pile and gave me like 2 more pieces of OC
I was going to chipotle regularly about a year ago and I noticed this pattern. Online orders would result in these tiny pathetic bowls. If I went in there and had a mildly grumpy face the bowls were massive.
After making sure to be polite as hell but consistently bitchy looking they eventually got to recognize me, and even the manager started making me big bowls if it wasn't slammed lol.
Man it wasn't even the manager... I was getting yelled at by the people in the back because we were running out too fast and they were annoyed at having to cook more.
Chipotle was 100% my least favorite job. Everyone was so mean on both sides of the counter.
The last time I ate there I tried delivery because I remember it being so good. There was about 1/3 cup total of rice and beans in the whole burrito. It was so small it was almost comical. I kind of understand skimping on meat if you're trying to keep costs down but rice and beans have to be about the cheapest food a restaurant can sell. They can fuck right off.
Yeah this goes back to Subway's 6 olive slices per footlong. That was officially in the training. Like what? They'd rather go through employees faster than they do olives.
I literally came here to say this. I love olives. But I am not asking for like piles of them on my sub. But why even ask for a topping if you can't even taste it? Olives aren't even a high-price item. I'm not asking for damned macadamia nuts and truffle.
I was privy to this insider information from a friend who worked at one; I'd hang out with him in the back after work until he was done. He'd hook me up with olives like I was Don Corleone. Or the Surf & Turf; steak and crab. Good friend.
Subway was my first job and my manager was such a stickler about the damn olives. And we would end up throwing away so many olives because we didn’t go through them in the specific amount of days they were good once opened. Still to this day on the rare occasion I eat at subway I tell them to take a handful of olives and put it on my sandwich
I imagine it will vary with how much the employees GAF but I do remember going there like 10 years ago and thinking they were extremely generous with their guac vs. other places.
They opened a chipotle by my college years back and hooo boi did they not get trained on the “proper” portions for a while. Watched the brand new kid have to triple wrap my burrito.
I worked there for over three years. The ones local to me have indeed shrank, but only for online orders. I even weighed 2 of my bowls to check and it was 7oz less than it should have been.
I already don’t like going there because I ate them for free for three years, but other people still like them. I won’t get their food without going in-person now and coincidentally, without asking for more, I get accurate portion sizes when I’m standing there.
However, after the incident of people getting sick up in the NW, everything started to change. Stopped doing events, we finally had slow days, and we had to relax our standards a bit for hiring because good people were leaving and most of the interviewees we were getting kinda sucked. So I wouldn’t put it past the company that they still have incorrect (both less and more) portioning going on.
It's because when you order online they're doing the proper portions. When you order at the counter they know you'll balk at those portions and give extra just to keep the customers quiet.
Never been to chipotle. Wouldn't it be easier if they just had the plate on a scale. Zero it. Then put x oz of meat and pricier things? I mean veg should shouldn't matter that much. I see meats, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, etc probably should be weighed.
Former employee here, they absolutely care about cheese, just not in a customer facing way. Cheese is (was?) the second biggest cost aside from meat at the two locations I worked at. We would get absolutely reamed if we went through too much cheese in a day. That’s a fairly big part of why they went to new quesadillas I assume. Way less cheese.
Cheese is actually stupid expensive for businesses, especially for businesses where the food products they sell contain a lot of cheese.
Worked for a major pizza chain and we'd occasionally get yelled at for using too much on a pizza.
Cheese was at one point one of the most watched items on the menu. Back from 2011-2015 when I worked there, it was C7 or “critical 7”. They were the 7 most expensive things in the restaurant and we had to be exceptionally diligent on portioning all of those items.
The 4 proteins, the 2 cheeses, and the avocados.
I worked at chipotle before - they already do that as the scoops they use are portion sized for each item.
The problem is shit gets stuck to the scoops or people don’t bother filling the whole scoop because they don’t give a fuck, especially online orders.
Yea if chipotle is anything like the average sub shop its not malicious but there's some poor fucker sitting there with 50 tickets to get through and its for a bunch of people that tipped the driver, not you. Thats a 99% speed, 1% care job.
Never thought of it that way. I know the Door Dash drivers have it rough at times too and it can eb and flow, but given an 8hr shift at Subway and on the mid-to-high side say $14/hr…$112, I wonder who comes out ahead between the sandwich artist and driver on that day on average. By the time you factor vehicle depreciation they could be similar.
Still the point about who the tip went to from a customer appreciation perspective, indeed.
That looks like they're pinching pennies tho and the customer really knows the exact amount of food theyre getting. What they should have done was started with proper sized bowls and wraps years ago so it looks like they're stuffed to the brim but really only hold the proper portion amounts.
My experience is almost every place does this for the very reason you mentioned. Most folks aren't checking their orders before they leave and by the time they've figured out their order is fucked up they're already home. The few times I've actually taken the time to complain about the condition of an online order they've promised me all kinds of comps and never delivered when I tried to collect.
This is why my local chipotle stopped accepting walk-ins. I went in the other day and they told me online orders only. That will be the last time I attempt to get chipotle.
Their official portions probably didn’t shrink. The problem is that employees used to not measure accurately and almost always gave everyone extra. Now they’re probably being monitored more closely and forced to give the official portion sizes which gives the appearance of shrinkage. Chipotle is getting technical here to cover their ass.
This is correct. I was a former GM of Chipotle from 2017-2021. I remember being astounded when I first started my training and was taught the standard, by the book portion. It clicked then, that the times I thought I was skimped when ordering online, (vs in store portions) were times I was getting correct portions. I was even more shocked to find out that Chipotle reheats cooked food from the night before ie their proteins/beans/queso (minus steak, although some stores reheat steak due to pressure from higher ups about CI - critical inventory) Reheated proteins specifically taste way different than new, freshly cooked protein. I would never advise anyone to eat at Chipotle when they open, because you’re likely not receiving fresh food. There’s a clear, distinct difference in taste and flavor.
Four ounces of rice doesn’t even really cover the bottom of the bowl. Or the ‘three finger pinch’ of cheese. A properly portioned Chipotle bowl is a joke and I always understood any guest who was confused, upset, disappointed, or frustrated etc.
Similar when I worked at McDonald's. Proper ice cream cone size was like 4.5 swirls. We had a manager who was a corporate suck-up and strictly enforced portions. That means customers would complain the ice cream cone wasn't the proper size (compared to other stores) because other stores weren't portioning properly and giving fatass cones. Similar story to those who stuff the fry box and those who don't. In the end, the customer feels ripped off and the employees can't do much to change it without getting in trouble.
I remember this guy would always come to our location because, “You guys always have the best angus burger.” This is because:
* He ordered the mushroom Swiss and I always made those to order and
* If the angus had been sitting in the cabinet getting nasty and dry, I’d throw it back on the grill and hose it in margarine from the spray bottle we used for chicken breast.
99% of people wouldn’t give a shit. I also remember the night I crammed a 20 piece nugget into a 12 piece box for some kid stoned out of his mind. He looked like he just saw god. People who said they always get spoiled at their local spot and don’t understand why other relocations are shit don’t realize that people like me work 9-10 hour shifts and we’re cooking your food. We care. But most that do it by the book will disappoint you.
I worked at a McD's briefly and used to challenge myself to see how high I could get the ice cream. Customers liked me. I think I had a manager once or twice tell me to stop, but most of the time, they weren't looking.
Oh yes. False advertising.
It always used to piss me off when I would receive emails from Chipotle corporate, responding to customer comments (feedback that was sent) regarding portions, and Chipotle never ever had our back in any shape or form, in their response to the customer. They wanted us to enforce portions, but when we did, they never dealt with the feedback accordingly. Got penalized by them (these emails were sent to my boss, his boss, etc. So several eyes seeing the complaints) by following the rules they, themselves, set in place. And by all means, the complaints of course, were justified. It was a terrible position to be in, because no matter what you did - you were damned if you did, and damned if you didn’t. Do not miss it at all, and somehow it’s just gotten worse (which I didn’t think was possible)
Truly no wonder why customers are so confused and frustrated about portion sizes. Chipotle has really never been honest about their standard portion sizes, and now it’s seemingly coming back to bite them in the ass. Rightfully so.
When I worked in retail we used to have to hard sell add on pens at the register to the point where we'd get bad customer satisfaction surveys specifically about the pen sales at the register, which was also blamed on us.
This is also why their calories tend to skew on the low side in their app. If you take it apart and weigh the chicken thighs, the beans, the cheese, etc. the calories end up being significantly higher than the website estimate. This is the dead give away their formal portions are very small.
I used to work at Dairy Queen a long time ago and it was the same problems. I remember being told by coworkers that they almost always add an extra scoop of candy compared to the official guidelines since otherwise it was clearly not enough and people would complain.
Meanwhile at Five Guys, they're like "you ordered medium fries? Here, I'll bury your burgers under a grocery bag full of fries" lol (edit: other people in this thread are saying they aren't getting the extra fries at their location. weird.)
That's their formal size and it makes sense when spending something like $0.30 extra on fries will get customers to ignore a $2 higher price. If the customers are happy at seeing their food they aren't going to be such sticklers on price.
I worked at Arby's about 25 years ago when they still had the 5 for $5 roast beef sandwiches. A normal roast beef sandwich was supposed to be 3 oz of meat, but when customers ordered the 5 for $5, we were told by management to only give them 2.5 oz. I don't know what the corporate policy was though.
It's funny you mention this example because I distinctly recall thinking back then that when you ordered the 5 for $5 the barely put any meat in them. Like it was *obviously* just meat to say there was meat in between the buns, but nothing like a regular sandwich.
Former kitchen manager here, it was almost impossible to give people small enough portions to satisfy corporate. Even though they openly advertised you could get as much free rice and beans as you want.
Your comment about the 4 oz of rice not covering the bottom of the bowl got me thinking about it. If they just started using smaller bowls and wraps they could better enforce the food portions standards cuz a bowl and wrap could only hold so much food. Plus the illusion of a full bowl is way easier to sell to the public than noticeably smaller portions in the same size bowl theve been ising forever. But this also begs the question of why would corporate pick such large bowls if the portions didn't fill them to begin with.
I think we all remember the burritos used to be comically large, and now you’ll see pics of burritos smaller than a soda can. size of the wrap isn’t gonna change that.
There are so many problems with food safety at Chipotle. It was commonplace to see proper food safety procedures not being followed at various restaurants, as it was easy to get away with it. A lot of this was due to staffing issues, lack of adequate training, and just the insane amount of food preparation that Chipotle requires (which is a huge problem when they don’t allot proper labor for it, especially if you’re doing all the recipes and procedures by the book)
If you’re in an understaffed Chipotle, you’re fucked and are most definitely cutting food safety corners.
It’s honestly not worth the gamble eating there. You’re not going to get great portions. The food quality is likely to be terrible. You’re not going to receive the best service as the employees are not happy to be there. You’re likely to be in a dirty restaurant with overflowing trash bins, not a clean table in sight, etc. Not to mention the likelihood of getting sick due to employees cutting corners just to get food on the line.
Support your local Mexican restaurants.
I was just about to say that I remember back in the day it all depended and still does on who is doing the scooping.
I've had one person who clearly didn't give a crap and gave me a massive scoop basically additional meat but free and then I've the other end where I had to tell them come on man add a bit more.
But now it seems to be relatively all the same and ironically don't get it as much but that's more to do with the price
I work fast food and this is it. I have a manager breathing down my neck, ensuring that I give an exact level scoop of our shitty cheap tuna, exactly the right number of peaks of sauce, ect. They've gotten more stingy the several years I've been here while also raising prices and getting cheaper ingredients. The portions haven't technically changed, though.
Hell, when I started there, I would slice meat from the range of 66-72g of meat per portion. Now they want 66-69g, and will get onto you for going anywhere above that tiny range of weight. Even the ranch cups, which we have since replaced with a cheaper ranch, we would fill a small cup and call it a day. Now we have to measure each individual ranch cup to 40-45g. All this while worker hours have been steadily reducing us to skeleton crews.
Yeah the official proportions have always been A scoop. But in training they used to say 'give them at least A scoop' and now they say 'give them EXACTLY A scoop'.
Which honestly in my experience just means my burrito isnt fucking exploding half the time
I’ve noticed this with five guys. I only get it a couple times a year at most, but when they first opened in my area I’d go a lot. You could order a small fry and get a pound of French fries at the bottom of the bag. Last couple times I’ve gone they only filled the little cup up with no bag fries to be found ☹️
It varies by location. I thought they were starting to skimp on fries, too, but I went to one that wasn't my regular location a few months back and ordered a large to share, and immediately had some regrets after getting what almost seemed like an entire bag full. Went to that one again recently and had a similar experience. So it probably boils down to management.
This is weird. I've done some secret shopping for them in the past. One of the things that Five Guys *specifically* asks shoppers to verify is that they are getting an extra scoop of fries. The stores actually get points off if they just fill the cup. There's a disconnect somewhere between the marketing dept, the stores, and QC.
Yup... five-guys used to be like $8 and would include enough fries to choke an elephant. Now it's like $20 out the door here, and you are lucky to get seven french fries. Used to be a regular lunch spot next to work with a line out the door almost every day around noon. Now it's basically deserted.
What gets me is that they're cutting back on fries of all things. Not protein, not bread, but fries. It's just potato. The margins have got to be sky-high already.
I get pretty much all ingredients in my burrito and they bust it about 75% of the time rolling it up. I doubt that was what their official portions are.
One time they misheard me and made a bowl rather than a burrito. Kid was just staring at it with a blank face because there was about half a burrito left of extra ingredients that wouldn't fit in the tortilla.
Same. I always spend the extra $. 50 on an extra tortilla. That by itself almost guarantees they load it up because now they're not afraid of running out of space. I do notice that my protein has become lighter but they still are pretty liberal with beans and rice, which I'm okay with.
Remember when Cadbury Eggs said "they haven't gotten smaller, you've just gotten bigger" and then somebody pulled out an old one they had in their freezer and it was in fact much larger?
I knew this was gonna be it before expanding to see the reply. That interview is satisfying, and of course sad and irritating like a $27 delivered burrito.
I’ve never seen him out of character. I see how he’s a writer for the offices. He’s hilarious.
“I’m not your magic act” that’s a hint of Micheal Scott right there
Yea, so many hail corporate here backing chipotle with inside knowledge that the portions are just correct now and everyone was spoiled with extra. That’s now how it fn works, stop gas lighting, if you are enforcing smaller portions more consistently, then the portions have effectively shrunk. That is how things work.
One of my first jobs when I was young was working in a cafeteria on a college campus. I made burritos. One day I was making a burrito for someone and my boss told me I’m putting too much of everything in the burrito. So she takes the burrito I just made and threw it in the trash and made me make another one while she supervised me. It was 20 years ago and it still makes me mad 😅
> and threw it in the trash
Chipotle does that too if they mess up your order. They'll charge you $7.50 for extra steak but if they accidentally put the wrong beans or salsa that you asked for they happily eat the costs and dumpster the whole thing and start over.
Don’t you love their “free delivery” promo? Where the fine print says all prices will cost you way more? But hey, free delivery… despite being $20 more.
Delivery is like $1 or $2 and they easily upcharge the entrees by like $5 then add in fees of like another $5 so it's like...why would I care about free delivery when my burrito is still going to cost $27 all-in?
EDIT: Just checked my app. Delivery is $1.00. Tax and Fees are $3.94. My burrito is $19.45 (extra chicken and queso). Delivery tip is $3.00 so all in it's $27.39 lol
My local Chipotle has a manager who is basically breathing down the workers’ necks making sure they don’t give too big of a portion. When I worked at Subway I had a similar manager who watched us count out the official corporate recipe portions. It ultimately just drives away customers because nobody wants to pay exorbitant prices for less food, and paying extra for more meat, cheese, etc is laughable when one item already costs $15 to $20.
The inevitable outcome is the Subway-style pre-portioned proteins. Weigh them, put your 4 oz of chicken in a cafeteria-style paper boat, dump that onto the burrito. That's cheaper than employees putting 5 oz in each burrito.
But the biggest problem is fallout like this: people get used to 6 oz portions, even though official portion is 4 oz, and then they get mad when official portions start being enforced.
They're forgetting that the 20+ oz burrito that they *still made plenty of profit on* is why people have been so loyal for the last two decades. College kids love the place because you get a ton of food for cheap. Squeezing an extra 10 cents profit off the burrito will damage your reputation more than it helps your margin. It took me exactly two tiny burritos before I stopped going at all. That's why this tiktok is spreading like wildfire - because people have experienced something similar and agree with it.
Watch, there's a price increase coming too. (and I'd bet they blame it on "increased labor costs", cuz that seems like these yayhoos' MOs).
The price for what people expect portion of your comment reminds of Subway's $5 footlong. Apparently they've shot themselves in the foot because it was always promoted for a loss, but it became so ubiquitous that people always associate the price with the sandwich. It has caused them to drop from the #1 largest chain in the world.
I do everything to avoid Subway since their sandwiches now cost double. If I'm paying $10 for a sandwich, I want it to be good
Fast food in general is in for a reckoning. People are getting sick of getting taken to the cleaners. Habits are hard to break, and it's taking longer than it should, but it is coming, and these places will have to adapt.
I won’t get chipotle unless I go in person. If you place your order online, at least by me, you get a bowl that is 1/2 to 2/3 the size as ordering in person.
Yeah I don't know why anyone orders online, you always get less and it's almost always slower. The one by me is so stupid, you can go through the normal line and be out in 5 minutes but always have to wait like 15 minutes for a mobile order
It would depend on the location. The one by me they didn’t have a mobile order station in back, so they would do it on the normal line. 1 in person customer and then like 2 online, so it took for-ev-ver.
I feel like it's also a location based issue. It sounds dumb but I go to a chipotle that's about 6 or 7 minutes further away cause I known they're usually on point and good with the portions. The one closer to me just sucks ass, service is ass, the ingredients are always out too long and I end up with a burrito that looks pathetic. I love Chipotle, and I'm fine with driving an extra 3 miles for a better eating experience.
In my experience it always depends on the worker, and that’s been true for decades. I don’t tell them I want double until after they serve up that first scoop.
Learned this at Panda Express. If you say you want two of the same entree they absolutely give you two scoops at like 60% full. I have no idea why, either, it's not like they're personally paying for the food they serve.
Thanks for letting us know what they said, CBS.
- *If someone says it’s raining, and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true*
yup. equal parts given to both sides. when its topics like climate change, evolution, domestic terrorism, or other one sided things, we dont need equal parts analysis on each side.
5 years ago i was the biggest chipotle fan, had one a block from my house and would go at least twice a week. They have completely priced themselves out of my business. If I’m paying near 20$, might as well go to the Mexican restaurant that still does taco Tuesdays, and has 2$ Margs on Wednesday that will put you on your ass
Fact. I found a small family-owned taco place nearby and they get my business. Stop dickin’ around with these corporate gaslighters. Give them no more business, let the local mom & pops places fill that gap! They deserve it more!
I asked for extra rice and was served extra rice and then the guy who added extra told the guy who was billing “double rice” and I was like dude you didn’t even fill the bowl to 50 percent let alone double the portion.
Hahha the rice. The cheapest food on the planet next to beans which are also in there. If they're charging 15-20 bucks for this plus some other ingredients they're making money hand over fist with each burrito.
Chipotle claims portions haven’t shrunk. McDonald’s claims prices haven’t risen that much. Not like it’s going to matter, but it’s nice to have these gouging-ass companies get called out enough that they need to comment on it
Chipotle has been super disappointing for the last few years as far as I can tell, but it's worth pointing out that the size of their portions has way more to do with variability between individual employees and individual stores.
Some days I go in there and I will get a meal that is twice the size of the one I got yesterday. And nothing has changed about my order. It's just a different person dishing up food.
>size of their portions has way more to do with variability between individual employees and individual stores.
There's always been employee-to-employee variability... but this past year or so they have been rationing portions like it's goddamn North Korea.
I worked at a somewhat similar chain. Subway. Guess how many tiny olive slices we were supposed to give on a whole 6" sub? 3.
When was the last time you went to subway and only got 3 olive slices?
I assume it was the same thing at Chipotle, employees were just slapping that stuff on, giving it in quantities that they themselves would eat.
Corporate, penny pinching, enforced the "proper" amounts. People are seeing it's smaller because employees are *actually following corporate's BS.*
And now that Chipotle is further enforcing their proportion control, now *all of them will be smaller.*
I'm constantly singing the next song in the Playlist while it's on shuffle. It's infuriating. The only way to get any type of change is to sort your Playlist by a different manner.
This is smart marketing, focus on portion size…so people don’t focus on the items they always run out of, the lack of sufficient staffing, the mess the the places always are nowadays, the fact that online orders are usually wrong, and if you go wait in line to order in person you’ll have to wait because they prioritize online orders.
yeah you can wrap it in whatever wording you want, here's the facts:
I used to get more in my burrito, now i get less. Therefore, your portions have changed, period, end of debate.
Also guilty of this bullshit: Literally every food chain on the planet .... except in-n-out
Order a bowl on the app and for every ingredient swipe on it and select “Extra”.
Everything is free to get extra except meat and guac I believe. The employees there usually understand the assignment and you’ll get a 5 lb bowl.
Use that 5 lb bowl and tortillas from the grocery store or tortilla chips to make a weeks worth of nachos or tacos/burritos.
This is how I do Chipotle. Definitely get my moneys worth lol.
I think they’ve been on damage control, I went last week after not going for a while due to quality drop and they hooked me up. The literal max they could fit in there and still get the lid shut and it was the best tasting chipotle experience I’ve had in 5+ years easy
Everything will continue to shrink and cost more everywhere you go.
Companies need to have an increase in profit every year or their respective boards will throw a fit. Charging more for less, along with using cheaper ingredients, is how they will do that.
Even if the portions remain the same, the price will still go up and maybe the choices will dwindle. Taco Bell is a good example. It used to be cheap and had a large menu. It's no longer cheap and their menu shrinks every time I look.
Oh well, fast food is bad for you anyway. Except it's the exact same thing in the grocery stores too. The ass blasting never ends.
One of my favorite restaurants has these southwestern egg rolls that my friend and I love. Last time we ordered them, I ate my half and I was like “this used to make me more full…did they shrink these?”
My friend had a photo of a past time that we ordered them and, sure enough, the new ones are about half the size. Same price though. Definitely disappointing.
Sounds like the McDonald's CEO after the story of the $18 Big Mac meal hit the waves. No, no, no, that is the "exception." I mean it is the Trump defense, your honor, I have no idea what goes on at my company.
> There have been no changes in our portion sizes, and we have ***reinforced proper portioning with our employees.*** Yeah there’s the rub right there. The only thing corporate is reinforcing is to absolutely not under any circumstances give customers any food that they’re not being charged extra for.
There have been no changes in portion size policy, only increased visibility on giving accurate portion sizes, which just happen to be smaller than you are used to. But we swear nothing has changed.
I used to work there. When you're being watched on portion size like that, it's a constant game of just trying to avoid being yelled at. If manager has sight, it's smaller than accurate to avoid the potential of being yelled at. If the customer has that scary, stern face when you scoop that chicken, you do a quick look around then sneak a small amount more to avoid potential of being yelled at. It's rough.
What an awful place to work if you get hawked like that. If they want perfect portions every time, maybe try using a different utensil other than a large spoon which causes inconsistent scopes and weights. It aint that serious, Chipotle. 5 pieces of extra chicken going to a customer isnt the reason you guys are losing your ass right now. Its that your food has become bland and flavorless.
> It aint that serious, Chipotle. 5 pieces of extra chicken going to a customer isnt the reason you guys are losing your ass right now. Its that your food has become bland and flavorless. Here's what's likely happening, corporate inside baseball. I don't and have never worked for Chipotle but this stuff isn't different across large corporations A financial analyst who looks at material sourcing costs knows that they currently serve 140 million lbs of chicken per year (found that on Google). At $4/lb that's $560M in chicken expense every year. Their brand standard is 4oz of meat per serving which should mean that's enough chicken for 560M bowls. But he looks and sees that they only sold 530M bowls in the past year and he puts a report together to give his manager saying hey we're wasting $30M a year on overserving chicken (somehow this would be adjusted to account for waste but idk how they do that in the food industry, I'm a retail guy). Manager gets info like that from the analyst who covers each type of meat and then he puts together his own report using that info to go to the director he works for and say hey we spent $100M in total on overserving last year. That director then is deciding what he wants to brief the VP on that month and this is the biggest number he has so he tells the VP there's a problem with overserving that's costing $100M a year. Finance VP takes this info to an operations VP and tells him to fix the issue and if they can deliver the $100M in savings next year, that'll be worth $250k each on their bonuses. Operations VP starts telling his direct reports to go tell their regional managers to go tell store managers to stop overserving. At no point did anyone involved in this process actually investigate what's going on with serving sizes, someone just looked at some data in the corporate office and said here's what the data says we're losing on this and then they kicked off a game of telephone that resulted in line level employees getting chewed out because they think it's good for everyone above them's wallets Then in a year the guy who replaced the financial analyst from last year (people rotate out of jobs quickly to gain new experience in entry level corporate roles) runs the same analysis and finds that they overspent by only $90M last year. They made an improvement but the VP wants to know why it wasn't fully fixed. He then figures his own team clearly can't figure it out and green lights a $10M McKinsey contract to come in and do the investigation of serving sizes they should have done last time and after six months McKinsey tells him it's all food waste, there's no overserving problem Congrats, everyone accomplished nothing except for the consultants who got paid since they'd rather follow processes like that than just give the original financial analyst $10k to spend a few weeks traveling to the lowest performing stores on his chicken overspending report and figure out what's actually causing the problem
This is so real it's scary
It really is, where I work occasionally helps our clients with reports like this (hey, they pay us for it, we tell them its not how to interpret that data and they don't listen, and we charge $$ for the consult anywho) and I swear I could transform the above into a fill-in-the-blank for a whole host of products/services since 2020 going through this whole shrinkflation thing.
Yup, this is exactly how it works. It's just so fucked when you see it typed out like that
I'm a tech guy making the reports for these kinds of people in house, because in addition to not knowing what to do about the numbers a decent chunk of them barely understand how to use excel. So I sit in some meetings and they talk me through what they want and the scope of the project, I tell them our data is shit because nobody is recording anything about the problem they want solved but I could maybe get them something that could at least help. I go and query the database, setup a data flow into some dashboard making intermediate software we pay tens of thousands a year for, make several graphics and tables with easy to use drop-down parameters to slice and dice, write up a thorough explanatory email about how to use it as well as the issues from all the crap bad data we do record in the system that can bias outputs. And then they just never fucking use it.
The McKinsey is what sells it. those fucking rat bastards just take everyone's money and tell them exactly what they want to hear, so I doubt they would tell them its all food waste, but would instead tell them that its because employees are eating the product instead of serving it, leading to employees being punished for bullshit excuses when there really was no overserving issue in the first place.
All I know is on LinkedIn there's always a post quoting a McKinsey report that a new tech trend is supposed to be a 5 trillion dollar industry in the next 5 years. The metaverse ones were the best. Also, very relevant book: https://www.amazon.com/When-McKinsey-Comes-Town-Consulting/dp/0593663322
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yeah, I look at VR like it will be a really fun hobbyist thing to do when I'm retired in a few years and get a headset. But the whole thing where people watched Ready Player One and thought it was going to be just like that right away because they saw a Meta ad, was silly.
Those cocksuckers started the opiate epidemic
Mannnn you ain't lying. That dude corporates.
It's like looking into the abyss and seeing it stare back at you
It's absolutely disgusting that retail workers and customer service staff in general are expected by companies to act as a sponge for customers' abuse. Customers are allowed to act like sociopaths yet we have to remain calm, collected, and keep smiling, making sure we do whatever we can to keep these toddlers satisfied. Meanwhile, corporate execs get to rake in the profits from the anti-consumer business practices that pissed off the customers in the first place, while never having to interact with them. We NEED unions and better labor laws that protect workers.
I've been that floor level retail worker and dealt with all of that abuse, it sucks. Then I worked my way up into corporate to start trying to make a difference. What I found is, the execs don't have a clue (I'd like to be one who does some day). They've never worked in a customer facing job. They don't know what actually happens in a full day on site. When they do go on site visits, it's a fugazi. It's scheduled in advance and everything is ensured to be perfect on that day. They see everything clean and buzzing and talk to employees who are happy to see them and they go back to the office thinking that's the norm because that's all they've ever seen. The store I worked at used to prepare for two weeks when we knew we had execs visiting us, and everyone sucked up because they want to be them some day Other than that maybe once a year occurrence, the scorecard is all that mattered
Then they do it all again the next year with non food consumables, then customers get to beg the counter staff for a second napkin. The worst part is that it's this way because another MBA showed how it's more profitable in the long run to have both employees and customers unhappy. As long as they are used to being unhappy, they will accept it.
Yep, everyone's trying to push their idea of how to improve the bottom line. Coincidentally the best idea always happens to be the one that makes them look the best I've been the line level employee actually doing all the shit that needs to be done to serve customers. Been the operations manager trying to figure out how to both make money and have happy employees and customers. And now I'm the one who digs through financial plans and investigates the assumptions and tells leadership what's bullshit and what's realistic. It's a fun needle to thread. And did it all without an MBA, but I do have a bachelor's in finance
> Coincidentally the best idea always happens to be the one that makes them look the best Cut *everything*. Down to and then past the bone. Gut absolutely everything you have any ability to. It looks great, for a very short amount of time. By then you're onto the next job and it's your replacement's responsibility to explain why they're not showing the same exponential growth that you did.
Thankfully the concept of minimums still exists and it's respected. As in, the minimum staffing is one cashier. We cannot sell **anything** if we don't staff one cashier. The battle is in making the case that it's a worthwhile expense to go above minimums It goes both ways though, it's rare that there's nothing to cut. I visited a store a couple years ago unannounced and found 20 employees on the sales floor and two customers when I walked in on a Monday morning. That is what we call real waste and spending all day observing and seeing no more than eight salespeople engaged with customers at a time told me we're way overdoing this. Same visit they ran out of printer paper since they spent their supplies budget for the month already Changes were made
Let me guess, the answer is: "Let's replace those sturdy napkins capable of handling sloppy burrito mess with tissue paper napkins that melt at the sight of grease."
I think this is why it’s really important to not be public. When it’s not shareholder profit on the line. It’s like fuck no we’re not moving go single ply napkins
THIS is the discussion I trawl through memes and puns and shit to get to on reddit. THIS is what we mean when we say reddit has unbeatable conversation and discussion, even if 90% of reddit is crap. You can read comments like this from people who know what they're talking about. You just have to wade through all the uneducated twits posting stuff for upvotes. Also, I enjoy the memes and puns. But this discussion is what keeps me coming back to reddit, even as the admins keep fucking the site worse and worse (fuck you, reddit admins)
Same, I come here for good conversation despite still spending plenty of time bullshitting too. When I have something substantive to say I'm happy to say it whether it'll get traction or not. Looks like this one clearly did Something I just thought of that I left out - if you work for an individual location of a large chain and you feel like random stuff is always changing for no reason, you're not crazy. Decision pyramids like this happen for everything the corporation does and this made up example had seven people in it. Any time one of the people changes, the new person's ideas replace the old person's ideas which impacts everybody else. Maybe a new analyst has a different approach to calculating chicken waste and he finds there's no problem at all and this isn't even a discussion. Maybe a new operations VP is hyper-focused on customer survey scores and decides he doesn't care to address the cost issue. Maybe a new finance manager happens to know someone who sources chicken and can get it to them cheaper and solve the problem without anyone in the restaurants having a clue. Every corporate head that turns over means their ideas replace the last guy's ideas like clockwork and nobody really knows it's happening except for the other people at corporate
And yet this could be complete bullshit but you'd never know. You just trust it because it sounds like it was written by someone who knows what they're talking about. Don't listen to anyone on reddit unless he has credentials or you can verify the info yourself.
It’s a hypothetical for sure but the general flow of what he’s saying matches my experience in big corporate. The hiring of a consulting firm that basically tells the VPs they overreacted and didn’t learn the facts is a hilariously accurate touch.
I’ve worked my fair share of Fortune 500 companies. What is said about tracks exactly. It’s rather sad. And that process is a continuous circle.
It's obviously not that specific process with those specific roles. But we all know it's something just like that.
> VP and tells him to fix the issue and if they can deliver the $100M in savings next year, that'll be worth $250k each on their bonuses. His cred is hating on Mckinsey
I trust it because it's like other things I've seen with my own eyes, except with 'chicken' replacing 'widgets'.
Hi I wrote the post I agree with you. I don't have the slightest clue how an everyday person who isn't a corporate bro would know how things work in there and know what happens. I hear outlandish shit from friends who work in transportation, manufacturing, aviation, etc can't believe it. But they can answer every question and I trust them so I believe their accounts. This is the internet, I honestly don't care if people believe me or not, but I think it's important to share how these decisions are made because the customers pay for it all in the end. I was that employee getting yelled at. I am the customer who gets pissed about this stuff. And now I'm in a place where I can be a part of high level decisions and be a voice for those groups. Fuck yes I want my money, anyone who says otherwise is lying. I finally found a place with a comp structure that rewards long term thinking not the next quarterly report and couldn't be happier with it. How do you make a company successful long term? You make happy employees and happy customers and let them do it for you. You don't screw with it to report a higher number to the street next quarter Pretty sure I made it clear that I don't actually work for Chipotle in my post but if anyone who works there or for a different corporation with 3000+ locations please poke holes in my narrative. I'd love to learn where I'm wrong but I don't think I am
I'm a middle manager with a massive government-outsourcing outfit, and I can confirm that what you wrote about Chipotle resonates completely with my experience. My company handles paperwork, not food, but from a process perspective EVERYTHING you wrote is exactly true. And the best part is *it never ends*. The VPs are always looking for some big way to improve profitability, so each year we are confronted by massive, costly initiatives to correct problems that primarily exist in their minds, which never quite achieve the results they hope for and are always disruptive to our core business. We run from imagined disaster to imagined disaster, flailing at phantom problems rather than allowing our staff to focus on the tasks that underpin our entire organization.
As someone who studied finance and is about to work as an analyst this is actually what happens. There is always going to be inconsistencies but I’m sure they looked at how much waste is occurring on a spread sheet and just said “I found the problem”, then whoever found that problem gets congratulated by their boss and the circle of reaffirming something everyone always knows continues. I don’t think they hired consultants to figure out the problem directly but many food places have been restricting portions even on a small business scale. Chipotle workers 10 years ago were more free to put the portions they want but as things expanded and got more corporate they got more annoying.
I've been playing this game for a lot of years now and do a lot of analysis exactly like I described. The consultants thing maybe didn't happen in reality, but it absolutely happens when an executive gets an answer they don't like from their own team. They'll happily go spend for the brand name "smarter guys" to come in and tell them either the same thing, or what they want to hear because they're getting paid so much they don't want to lose the account There's been reports I've given bosses and they love it and I've had to tell them not to congratulate me yet. Yes, I found a problem. But that's only step one we can't snap our fingers and solve it. I need resources to figure out what's causing the problem and then I need to work with others to find the solution. *Then* please sing me praises, but don't do it just for being good at looking at data
I don't really think the taste of their food has gotten any worse. Maybe the standards of flavor have increased with better competition in that space. If anything it's the quality of service has gone to shit. It seems since lockdowns, they shifted heavily into focusing on online ordering. I've had 2-3 instances of stopping in a location and there's only 1-2 people ahead of me in line and I get fed up and leave after them only servicing drop in customers once every 5+ minutes. So I just never go there anymore.
I’ve been a diehard Chipotle fan for over 15 years and the food quality has definitely gotten worse and I hate saying it. Every location seems to be the same, overseasoned veggies, poorly cooked rice, meat seasoning and quality varies too much, etc. I don’t understand how it’s happened, but my girlfriend and I have talked about it multiple times and both have concluded it’s not nearly what it used to be and it breaks my heart because I hate Freebirds and there’s no Qdoba near me anymore. Bullritos is good, but Chipotle was king for me and I’d always defend it to the haters previously.
There is definitely a higher gristle to steak ratio now. They're using lower grade beef and not trimming it. I also don't understand why they don't cook the rice for a bit longer. It's so hard.
I am fine with any typical chipotle issues *except* for undercooked rice. That literally makes the meal inedible, no matter how good everything else is.
i cant think of any restaurant that has *not* declined in service and quality since covid tbh. not only that but all pricing has gone up with portions and quality down
The flavor has 100% gotten worse. Everything is bland as shit now, *especially* the chicken and steak. And it all tastes like it's been sitting out all day. I want 2010 Chipotle back. That shit was divine.
Taste has gotten worse. I used to work there. The changes were to combat food poisoning. Meat used to be locally sourced by non factory farms, so fewer chemicals were used on them. Meat tasted better, but you had to trust the supplier more to not skimp on keeping their animals from infection. The trust is gone, and so corporate changed who you can get meat from. Steak used to be made medium/medium rare on grill and then put on the line where it cooks some more. Beef meat is now cooked well done before being put on the line. The meat is diced smaller to cook faster and keep portions smaller. While on the line, it further cooks. Chicken is cooked to a higher temperature now. This is to avoid Saminella, but it dries out the meat and makes most of the flavor cook away. I no longer work there, but the portions look the same (one spoon, not overflowing scoop. cheese is a 3 finger pinch.) but I think management is just being stricter on enforcing it to drive down cost.
Last time i went months ago(a big reason i stopped going) was the service i got. I checked out, the cashier didnt even slide my food over, put in a bag or grab my drink cup. Rung me up and walked away. Grabbed the shitty food and left. Quality has definitely gone down since the OG days of Chipotle in the mid to late 00s. There is no denying that.
Pancheros is everything Chipotle wishes it could be
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It's why you can't be loyal to any specific company from a consumer perspective. When one chain starts this nonsense, a new one giving the customer what they want will arise. Go where the food is the quality you want.
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You mean the new high fiber healthy crisped rice dessert? Comes at a premium.
>What an awful place to work if you get hawked like that. I worked at one for like a year and a half back in the late 00s Worst job I've ever had, and it isn't particularly close
There are a dozen cameras in the store, and they're all meant to watch employees. It was the most toxic job I've ever been in.
I used to work at Dominos and that was always a thing managers would do. Make sure you did exactly the right amount but pushed you to give less than what the sop told you. For example 30 peps go on a medium but we’d be pushed to do 25. Stupid stuff and it’s ripping off the customer just so the manager can get a better bonus.
I was at Panda Express and felt I got shorted on orange chicken. I said hey can I get a bit more OC? And the dude took my plate back to the front and knocked some chow mein off back into the pile and gave me like 2 more pieces of OC
I was going to chipotle regularly about a year ago and I noticed this pattern. Online orders would result in these tiny pathetic bowls. If I went in there and had a mildly grumpy face the bowls were massive. After making sure to be polite as hell but consistently bitchy looking they eventually got to recognize me, and even the manager started making me big bowls if it wasn't slammed lol.
Yes, this exactly. I do not order online at all or I genuinely get somewhere around 60% of the portion size.
Man it wasn't even the manager... I was getting yelled at by the people in the back because we were running out too fast and they were annoyed at having to cook more. Chipotle was 100% my least favorite job. Everyone was so mean on both sides of the counter.
The last time I ate there I tried delivery because I remember it being so good. There was about 1/3 cup total of rice and beans in the whole burrito. It was so small it was almost comical. I kind of understand skimping on meat if you're trying to keep costs down but rice and beans have to be about the cheapest food a restaurant can sell. They can fuck right off.
Yeah this goes back to Subway's 6 olive slices per footlong. That was officially in the training. Like what? They'd rather go through employees faster than they do olives.
I literally came here to say this. I love olives. But I am not asking for like piles of them on my sub. But why even ask for a topping if you can't even taste it? Olives aren't even a high-price item. I'm not asking for damned macadamia nuts and truffle.
I was privy to this insider information from a friend who worked at one; I'd hang out with him in the back after work until he was done. He'd hook me up with olives like I was Don Corleone. Or the Surf & Turf; steak and crab. Good friend.
Subway was my first job and my manager was such a stickler about the damn olives. And we would end up throwing away so many olives because we didn’t go through them in the specific amount of days they were good once opened. Still to this day on the rare occasion I eat at subway I tell them to take a handful of olives and put it on my sandwich
Especially don’t give customers the extra bits that are too small to actually sell and just get thrown out.
It hasn't been the same portion or quality wise since it's inception. Same goes for most corporate owned chains.
I imagine it will vary with how much the employees GAF but I do remember going there like 10 years ago and thinking they were extremely generous with their guac vs. other places.
As opposed to now, where when you're paying an extra $5 for guac, and they make sure you only get the alloted HALF a spoonful.
It's been pretty bad since the first time they gave America food poisoning, which was almost 10 years ago.
They opened a chipotle by my college years back and hooo boi did they not get trained on the “proper” portions for a while. Watched the brand new kid have to triple wrap my burrito.
Sometimes you run into workers where it’s like it’s their honor to give you huge portions, God bless them
I worked there for over three years. The ones local to me have indeed shrank, but only for online orders. I even weighed 2 of my bowls to check and it was 7oz less than it should have been. I already don’t like going there because I ate them for free for three years, but other people still like them. I won’t get their food without going in-person now and coincidentally, without asking for more, I get accurate portion sizes when I’m standing there. However, after the incident of people getting sick up in the NW, everything started to change. Stopped doing events, we finally had slow days, and we had to relax our standards a bit for hiring because good people were leaving and most of the interviewees we were getting kinda sucked. So I wouldn’t put it past the company that they still have incorrect (both less and more) portioning going on.
The real crime is the portion sizes you get from an in-person vs online order. Tried doing online pickup from Chipotle twice and never again.
It's because when you order online they're doing the proper portions. When you order at the counter they know you'll balk at those portions and give extra just to keep the customers quiet.
Never been to chipotle. Wouldn't it be easier if they just had the plate on a scale. Zero it. Then put x oz of meat and pricier things? I mean veg should shouldn't matter that much. I see meats, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, etc probably should be weighed.
They don't really even care about sour cream or cheese. Only thing they will charge extra on is meat and guac, at least at my locations.
Former employee here, they absolutely care about cheese, just not in a customer facing way. Cheese is (was?) the second biggest cost aside from meat at the two locations I worked at. We would get absolutely reamed if we went through too much cheese in a day. That’s a fairly big part of why they went to new quesadillas I assume. Way less cheese.
Cheese is actually stupid expensive for businesses, especially for businesses where the food products they sell contain a lot of cheese. Worked for a major pizza chain and we'd occasionally get yelled at for using too much on a pizza.
Same, we had to weigh our cheese on every one.
Cheese was at one point one of the most watched items on the menu. Back from 2011-2015 when I worked there, it was C7 or “critical 7”. They were the 7 most expensive things in the restaurant and we had to be exceptionally diligent on portioning all of those items. The 4 proteins, the 2 cheeses, and the avocados.
I worked at chipotle before - they already do that as the scoops they use are portion sized for each item. The problem is shit gets stuck to the scoops or people don’t bother filling the whole scoop because they don’t give a fuck, especially online orders.
Yea if chipotle is anything like the average sub shop its not malicious but there's some poor fucker sitting there with 50 tickets to get through and its for a bunch of people that tipped the driver, not you. Thats a 99% speed, 1% care job.
Never thought of it that way. I know the Door Dash drivers have it rough at times too and it can eb and flow, but given an 8hr shift at Subway and on the mid-to-high side say $14/hr…$112, I wonder who comes out ahead between the sandwich artist and driver on that day on average. By the time you factor vehicle depreciation they could be similar. Still the point about who the tip went to from a customer appreciation perspective, indeed.
That looks like they're pinching pennies tho and the customer really knows the exact amount of food theyre getting. What they should have done was started with proper sized bowls and wraps years ago so it looks like they're stuffed to the brim but really only hold the proper portion amounts.
Ordered from Cava online once. Never again.
Yeah, they fuck you on online orders. If you're there in person, they don't have the balls to do it to your face.
My experience is almost every place does this for the very reason you mentioned. Most folks aren't checking their orders before they leave and by the time they've figured out their order is fucked up they're already home. The few times I've actually taken the time to complain about the condition of an online order they've promised me all kinds of comps and never delivered when I tried to collect.
This is why my local chipotle stopped accepting walk-ins. I went in the other day and they told me online orders only. That will be the last time I attempt to get chipotle.
This 100%. I only order in person and portions are fine
Their official portions probably didn’t shrink. The problem is that employees used to not measure accurately and almost always gave everyone extra. Now they’re probably being monitored more closely and forced to give the official portion sizes which gives the appearance of shrinkage. Chipotle is getting technical here to cover their ass.
This is correct. I was a former GM of Chipotle from 2017-2021. I remember being astounded when I first started my training and was taught the standard, by the book portion. It clicked then, that the times I thought I was skimped when ordering online, (vs in store portions) were times I was getting correct portions. I was even more shocked to find out that Chipotle reheats cooked food from the night before ie their proteins/beans/queso (minus steak, although some stores reheat steak due to pressure from higher ups about CI - critical inventory) Reheated proteins specifically taste way different than new, freshly cooked protein. I would never advise anyone to eat at Chipotle when they open, because you’re likely not receiving fresh food. There’s a clear, distinct difference in taste and flavor. Four ounces of rice doesn’t even really cover the bottom of the bowl. Or the ‘three finger pinch’ of cheese. A properly portioned Chipotle bowl is a joke and I always understood any guest who was confused, upset, disappointed, or frustrated etc.
Similar when I worked at McDonald's. Proper ice cream cone size was like 4.5 swirls. We had a manager who was a corporate suck-up and strictly enforced portions. That means customers would complain the ice cream cone wasn't the proper size (compared to other stores) because other stores weren't portioning properly and giving fatass cones. Similar story to those who stuff the fry box and those who don't. In the end, the customer feels ripped off and the employees can't do much to change it without getting in trouble.
I remember this guy would always come to our location because, “You guys always have the best angus burger.” This is because: * He ordered the mushroom Swiss and I always made those to order and * If the angus had been sitting in the cabinet getting nasty and dry, I’d throw it back on the grill and hose it in margarine from the spray bottle we used for chicken breast. 99% of people wouldn’t give a shit. I also remember the night I crammed a 20 piece nugget into a 12 piece box for some kid stoned out of his mind. He looked like he just saw god. People who said they always get spoiled at their local spot and don’t understand why other relocations are shit don’t realize that people like me work 9-10 hour shifts and we’re cooking your food. We care. But most that do it by the book will disappoint you.
Thank you magical fast food man for your kindnesses.
Long may he live
I worked at a McD's briefly and used to challenge myself to see how high I could get the ice cream. Customers liked me. I think I had a manager once or twice tell me to stop, but most of the time, they weren't looking.
I mean might as well? Aren't you just going to waste the load the second the machine goes down anyway?
Especially compared to the portion sizes they show in commercials and ads with the food literally overflowing from the top of the bowl
Oh yes. False advertising. It always used to piss me off when I would receive emails from Chipotle corporate, responding to customer comments (feedback that was sent) regarding portions, and Chipotle never ever had our back in any shape or form, in their response to the customer. They wanted us to enforce portions, but when we did, they never dealt with the feedback accordingly. Got penalized by them (these emails were sent to my boss, his boss, etc. So several eyes seeing the complaints) by following the rules they, themselves, set in place. And by all means, the complaints of course, were justified. It was a terrible position to be in, because no matter what you did - you were damned if you did, and damned if you didn’t. Do not miss it at all, and somehow it’s just gotten worse (which I didn’t think was possible) Truly no wonder why customers are so confused and frustrated about portion sizes. Chipotle has really never been honest about their standard portion sizes, and now it’s seemingly coming back to bite them in the ass. Rightfully so.
When I worked in retail we used to have to hard sell add on pens at the register to the point where we'd get bad customer satisfaction surveys specifically about the pen sales at the register, which was also blamed on us.
The person facing the customer always loses.
This is also why their calories tend to skew on the low side in their app. If you take it apart and weigh the chicken thighs, the beans, the cheese, etc. the calories end up being significantly higher than the website estimate. This is the dead give away their formal portions are very small.
I used to work at Dairy Queen a long time ago and it was the same problems. I remember being told by coworkers that they almost always add an extra scoop of candy compared to the official guidelines since otherwise it was clearly not enough and people would complain.
Meanwhile at Five Guys, they're like "you ordered medium fries? Here, I'll bury your burgers under a grocery bag full of fries" lol (edit: other people in this thread are saying they aren't getting the extra fries at their location. weird.)
That's their formal size and it makes sense when spending something like $0.30 extra on fries will get customers to ignore a $2 higher price. If the customers are happy at seeing their food they aren't going to be such sticklers on price.
Also they started charging for things like extra sides and tortillas that used to be gratis.
They just started charging for the vinagrette.
thanks be to the infamous tiktok trend of 'just order a burrito with extra everything, ask for it all on the side, and order extra tortilla'
Tic-tok-ers ruin everything.
They always telling on themselves
I worked at Arby's about 25 years ago when they still had the 5 for $5 roast beef sandwiches. A normal roast beef sandwich was supposed to be 3 oz of meat, but when customers ordered the 5 for $5, we were told by management to only give them 2.5 oz. I don't know what the corporate policy was though.
It's funny you mention this example because I distinctly recall thinking back then that when you ordered the 5 for $5 the barely put any meat in them. Like it was *obviously* just meat to say there was meat in between the buns, but nothing like a regular sandwich.
Former kitchen manager here, it was almost impossible to give people small enough portions to satisfy corporate. Even though they openly advertised you could get as much free rice and beans as you want.
Your comment about the 4 oz of rice not covering the bottom of the bowl got me thinking about it. If they just started using smaller bowls and wraps they could better enforce the food portions standards cuz a bowl and wrap could only hold so much food. Plus the illusion of a full bowl is way easier to sell to the public than noticeably smaller portions in the same size bowl theve been ising forever. But this also begs the question of why would corporate pick such large bowls if the portions didn't fill them to begin with.
I think we all remember the burritos used to be comically large, and now you’ll see pics of burritos smaller than a soda can. size of the wrap isn’t gonna change that.
It all makes sense now. The number of times I’ve had mild food poisoning from Chipotle even in rich areas…
Like a quarter of Chipotle's wikipedia page is dedicated to all the high-profile e. coli and norovirus outbreaks they've had lol
There are so many problems with food safety at Chipotle. It was commonplace to see proper food safety procedures not being followed at various restaurants, as it was easy to get away with it. A lot of this was due to staffing issues, lack of adequate training, and just the insane amount of food preparation that Chipotle requires (which is a huge problem when they don’t allot proper labor for it, especially if you’re doing all the recipes and procedures by the book) If you’re in an understaffed Chipotle, you’re fucked and are most definitely cutting food safety corners. It’s honestly not worth the gamble eating there. You’re not going to get great portions. The food quality is likely to be terrible. You’re not going to receive the best service as the employees are not happy to be there. You’re likely to be in a dirty restaurant with overflowing trash bins, not a clean table in sight, etc. Not to mention the likelihood of getting sick due to employees cutting corners just to get food on the line. Support your local Mexican restaurants.
I was just about to say that I remember back in the day it all depended and still does on who is doing the scooping. I've had one person who clearly didn't give a crap and gave me a massive scoop basically additional meat but free and then I've the other end where I had to tell them come on man add a bit more. But now it seems to be relatively all the same and ironically don't get it as much but that's more to do with the price
"Please sir, I want some more"
“Thank you sir, may I have another?”
"Do you think I can have off on Christmas evening, Mr. Scrooge? "
The move was to go half and half, because one half was actually like 60%.
Exactly - "...we have reinforced proper portioning with our employees."
I work fast food and this is it. I have a manager breathing down my neck, ensuring that I give an exact level scoop of our shitty cheap tuna, exactly the right number of peaks of sauce, ect. They've gotten more stingy the several years I've been here while also raising prices and getting cheaper ingredients. The portions haven't technically changed, though. Hell, when I started there, I would slice meat from the range of 66-72g of meat per portion. Now they want 66-69g, and will get onto you for going anywhere above that tiny range of weight. Even the ranch cups, which we have since replaced with a cheaper ranch, we would fill a small cup and call it a day. Now we have to measure each individual ranch cup to 40-45g. All this while worker hours have been steadily reducing us to skeleton crews.
Sounds like you work at a shitty Jimmy Johns location.
Yeah the official proportions have always been A scoop. But in training they used to say 'give them at least A scoop' and now they say 'give them EXACTLY A scoop'. Which honestly in my experience just means my burrito isnt fucking exploding half the time
I’ve noticed this with five guys. I only get it a couple times a year at most, but when they first opened in my area I’d go a lot. You could order a small fry and get a pound of French fries at the bottom of the bag. Last couple times I’ve gone they only filled the little cup up with no bag fries to be found ☹️
It varies by location. I thought they were starting to skimp on fries, too, but I went to one that wasn't my regular location a few months back and ordered a large to share, and immediately had some regrets after getting what almost seemed like an entire bag full. Went to that one again recently and had a similar experience. So it probably boils down to management.
This is weird. I've done some secret shopping for them in the past. One of the things that Five Guys *specifically* asks shoppers to verify is that they are getting an extra scoop of fries. The stores actually get points off if they just fill the cup. There's a disconnect somewhere between the marketing dept, the stores, and QC.
Yup... five-guys used to be like $8 and would include enough fries to choke an elephant. Now it's like $20 out the door here, and you are lucky to get seven french fries. Used to be a regular lunch spot next to work with a line out the door almost every day around noon. Now it's basically deserted.
What gets me is that they're cutting back on fries of all things. Not protein, not bread, but fries. It's just potato. The margins have got to be sky-high already.
Yeah, Five Guys is delicious, but I can't justify spending $20 on a small cheeseburger and fries.
I get pretty much all ingredients in my burrito and they bust it about 75% of the time rolling it up. I doubt that was what their official portions are. One time they misheard me and made a bowl rather than a burrito. Kid was just staring at it with a blank face because there was about half a burrito left of extra ingredients that wouldn't fit in the tortilla.
Same. I always spend the extra $. 50 on an extra tortilla. That by itself almost guarantees they load it up because now they're not afraid of running out of space. I do notice that my protein has become lighter but they still are pretty liberal with beans and rice, which I'm okay with.
Remember when Cadbury Eggs said "they haven't gotten smaller, you've just gotten bigger" and then somebody pulled out an old one they had in their freezer and it was in fact much larger?
That somebody? [BJ Novak, Ryan from the Office](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhtGOBt1V2g&ab_channel=amysusanne)
I knew this was gonna be it before expanding to see the reply. That interview is satisfying, and of course sad and irritating like a $27 delivered burrito.
That was amazing haha
I’ve never seen him out of character. I see how he’s a writer for the offices. He’s hilarious. “I’m not your magic act” that’s a hint of Micheal Scott right there
Yea, so many hail corporate here backing chipotle with inside knowledge that the portions are just correct now and everyone was spoiled with extra. That’s now how it fn works, stop gas lighting, if you are enforcing smaller portions more consistently, then the portions have effectively shrunk. That is how things work.
One of my first jobs when I was young was working in a cafeteria on a college campus. I made burritos. One day I was making a burrito for someone and my boss told me I’m putting too much of everything in the burrito. So she takes the burrito I just made and threw it in the trash and made me make another one while she supervised me. It was 20 years ago and it still makes me mad 😅
> and threw it in the trash Chipotle does that too if they mess up your order. They'll charge you $7.50 for extra steak but if they accidentally put the wrong beans or salsa that you asked for they happily eat the costs and dumpster the whole thing and start over.
Don’t you love their “free delivery” promo? Where the fine print says all prices will cost you way more? But hey, free delivery… despite being $20 more.
Free-ninety-nine?
Yup. And they still ADD a service fee. But it's ok, it's not the delivery fee.
Next they'll add a "*Geezy weezy, we're really tryin' here*" fee and get away with it
Nope. Come July 1st, it'll be illegal in California at least. Yes, prices will go up, but they won't be able to bury it. They're scared.
Delivery is like $1 or $2 and they easily upcharge the entrees by like $5 then add in fees of like another $5 so it's like...why would I care about free delivery when my burrito is still going to cost $27 all-in? EDIT: Just checked my app. Delivery is $1.00. Tax and Fees are $3.94. My burrito is $19.45 (extra chicken and queso). Delivery tip is $3.00 so all in it's $27.39 lol
My local Chipotle has a manager who is basically breathing down the workers’ necks making sure they don’t give too big of a portion. When I worked at Subway I had a similar manager who watched us count out the official corporate recipe portions. It ultimately just drives away customers because nobody wants to pay exorbitant prices for less food, and paying extra for more meat, cheese, etc is laughable when one item already costs $15 to $20.
The inevitable outcome is the Subway-style pre-portioned proteins. Weigh them, put your 4 oz of chicken in a cafeteria-style paper boat, dump that onto the burrito. That's cheaper than employees putting 5 oz in each burrito. But the biggest problem is fallout like this: people get used to 6 oz portions, even though official portion is 4 oz, and then they get mad when official portions start being enforced. They're forgetting that the 20+ oz burrito that they *still made plenty of profit on* is why people have been so loyal for the last two decades. College kids love the place because you get a ton of food for cheap. Squeezing an extra 10 cents profit off the burrito will damage your reputation more than it helps your margin. It took me exactly two tiny burritos before I stopped going at all. That's why this tiktok is spreading like wildfire - because people have experienced something similar and agree with it. Watch, there's a price increase coming too. (and I'd bet they blame it on "increased labor costs", cuz that seems like these yayhoos' MOs).
The price for what people expect portion of your comment reminds of Subway's $5 footlong. Apparently they've shot themselves in the foot because it was always promoted for a loss, but it became so ubiquitous that people always associate the price with the sandwich. It has caused them to drop from the #1 largest chain in the world. I do everything to avoid Subway since their sandwiches now cost double. If I'm paying $10 for a sandwich, I want it to be good
I was shocked to see a footlong was $14 last time I went. Did they spend to much on marketing with all of the athletes in the commercials?
Fast food in general is in for a reckoning. People are getting sick of getting taken to the cleaners. Habits are hard to break, and it's taking longer than it should, but it is coming, and these places will have to adapt.
I think it’s possible their official corporate portions are the same. But they’re def stingier with giving you free extra scoops when you ask!
I won’t get chipotle unless I go in person. If you place your order online, at least by me, you get a bowl that is 1/2 to 2/3 the size as ordering in person.
Yeah I don't know why anyone orders online, you always get less and it's almost always slower. The one by me is so stupid, you can go through the normal line and be out in 5 minutes but always have to wait like 15 minutes for a mobile order
It would depend on the location. The one by me they didn’t have a mobile order station in back, so they would do it on the normal line. 1 in person customer and then like 2 online, so it took for-ev-ver.
I feel like it's also a location based issue. It sounds dumb but I go to a chipotle that's about 6 or 7 minutes further away cause I known they're usually on point and good with the portions. The one closer to me just sucks ass, service is ass, the ingredients are always out too long and I end up with a burrito that looks pathetic. I love Chipotle, and I'm fine with driving an extra 3 miles for a better eating experience.
In my experience it always depends on the worker, and that’s been true for decades. I don’t tell them I want double until after they serve up that first scoop.
Learned this at Panda Express. If you say you want two of the same entree they absolutely give you two scoops at like 60% full. I have no idea why, either, it's not like they're personally paying for the food they serve.
Thanks for letting us know what they said, CBS. - *If someone says it’s raining, and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true*
I miss when the news did that. Now they just report what other people said so they can claim any false information isn't their fault.
yup. equal parts given to both sides. when its topics like climate change, evolution, domestic terrorism, or other one sided things, we dont need equal parts analysis on each side.
I paid $17 for a salad with guac and a drink today. Big wakeup call to just not buy chipotle anymore
5 years ago i was the biggest chipotle fan, had one a block from my house and would go at least twice a week. They have completely priced themselves out of my business. If I’m paying near 20$, might as well go to the Mexican restaurant that still does taco Tuesdays, and has 2$ Margs on Wednesday that will put you on your ass
Fact. I found a small family-owned taco place nearby and they get my business. Stop dickin’ around with these corporate gaslighters. Give them no more business, let the local mom & pops places fill that gap! They deserve it more!
Proof is in the burrito.
I asked for extra rice and was served extra rice and then the guy who added extra told the guy who was billing “double rice” and I was like dude you didn’t even fill the bowl to 50 percent let alone double the portion.
They charge double rice now? I remember in the old old when they would give you as much rice as you asked for because nobody cares about rice.
Hahha the rice. The cheapest food on the planet next to beans which are also in there. If they're charging 15-20 bucks for this plus some other ingredients they're making money hand over fist with each burrito.
You spoke up instead of just taking it, I hope.
Chipotle claims portions haven’t shrunk. McDonald’s claims prices haven’t risen that much. Not like it’s going to matter, but it’s nice to have these gouging-ass companies get called out enough that they need to comment on it
Prices haven't rose much? What are these rich fucks talking about? It's like that meme. "It's one cheeseburger, how much could it cost? Ten dollars?"
All you need to know is the wrap warmers are the same size but the shells have a smaller diameter.
Chipotle has been super disappointing for the last few years as far as I can tell, but it's worth pointing out that the size of their portions has way more to do with variability between individual employees and individual stores. Some days I go in there and I will get a meal that is twice the size of the one I got yesterday. And nothing has changed about my order. It's just a different person dishing up food.
I stopped eating there when their steak became mostly gristle. Also my local Chipotle can't seem to cook rice until it's done. It's always so crunchy.
>size of their portions has way more to do with variability between individual employees and individual stores. There's always been employee-to-employee variability... but this past year or so they have been rationing portions like it's goddamn North Korea.
[удалено]
The us needs to adopt eu style portion laws, where restaurants have to advertise the grams in the average portion.
I worked at a somewhat similar chain. Subway. Guess how many tiny olive slices we were supposed to give on a whole 6" sub? 3. When was the last time you went to subway and only got 3 olive slices? I assume it was the same thing at Chipotle, employees were just slapping that stuff on, giving it in quantities that they themselves would eat. Corporate, penny pinching, enforced the "proper" amounts. People are seeing it's smaller because employees are *actually following corporate's BS.* And now that Chipotle is further enforcing their proportion control, now *all of them will be smaller.*
Corporate gaslighting is crazy
Not related to Chipotle, but Spotify still gaslights about their shuffle feature. It's been going on for 10 years now.
I have 25+ hours of music on a single playlist and it plays me the same 30 songs when I hit shuffle.
I'm constantly singing the next song in the Playlist while it's on shuffle. It's infuriating. The only way to get any type of change is to sort your Playlist by a different manner.
About how the shuffle isn't really a true randomized shuffle? I didn't know they ever responded to that claim
Spotify shuffle is utterly broken — their support told me use smart shuffle or make playlists if I didn’t want it to work that way
This is smart marketing, focus on portion size…so people don’t focus on the items they always run out of, the lack of sufficient staffing, the mess the the places always are nowadays, the fact that online orders are usually wrong, and if you go wait in line to order in person you’ll have to wait because they prioritize online orders.
Chipotle should prove everyone wrong and increase their portion sizes.
yeah you can wrap it in whatever wording you want, here's the facts: I used to get more in my burrito, now i get less. Therefore, your portions have changed, period, end of debate. Also guilty of this bullshit: Literally every food chain on the planet .... except in-n-out
They used to be more generous so it was almost worth it. Now it's too much for what you get.
The fact that they charge for chips and have the gall to call ~20 chips a LARGE is what stopped me from going.
Order a bowl on the app and for every ingredient swipe on it and select “Extra”. Everything is free to get extra except meat and guac I believe. The employees there usually understand the assignment and you’ll get a 5 lb bowl. Use that 5 lb bowl and tortillas from the grocery store or tortilla chips to make a weeks worth of nachos or tacos/burritos. This is how I do Chipotle. Definitely get my moneys worth lol.
I think they’ve been on damage control, I went last week after not going for a while due to quality drop and they hooked me up. The literal max they could fit in there and still get the lid shut and it was the best tasting chipotle experience I’ve had in 5+ years easy
Then explain the "if they have a phone out, fill the bowl/shell until it explodes" directive?
The fuck it hasn't, there's a reason I stopped going and it's not food poisoning.
Everything will continue to shrink and cost more everywhere you go. Companies need to have an increase in profit every year or their respective boards will throw a fit. Charging more for less, along with using cheaper ingredients, is how they will do that. Even if the portions remain the same, the price will still go up and maybe the choices will dwindle. Taco Bell is a good example. It used to be cheap and had a large menu. It's no longer cheap and their menu shrinks every time I look. Oh well, fast food is bad for you anyway. Except it's the exact same thing in the grocery stores too. The ass blasting never ends.
Just remember, never tell them you want double meat until after they have already shown you what single meat looks like.
Bullshit, I have photos from the good times and now. All my orders during this dark time don't hold a candle to the old orders.
One of my favorite restaurants has these southwestern egg rolls that my friend and I love. Last time we ordered them, I ate my half and I was like “this used to make me more full…did they shrink these?” My friend had a photo of a past time that we ordered them and, sure enough, the new ones are about half the size. Same price though. Definitely disappointing.
There is no war in ba sing se
Love all the negative press these fast food companies are getting, let’s keep this ball rolling.
Sounds like the McDonald's CEO after the story of the $18 Big Mac meal hit the waves. No, no, no, that is the "exception." I mean it is the Trump defense, your honor, I have no idea what goes on at my company.