The overhyped failure that is (was?) Chipotle

[musterion]

A typically smug Millennial coworker of mine just LOVES her some Chipotle and was shocked and even insulted when I began mentioning the widespread food poisoning news from over the past month or so -- she's not one to follow news a-tall. She actually took a degree of personal offense that someone would dare question her chain restaurant fad of choice. I said hey, just trying to help. Enjoy the joint while you can. When the lawsuits start you'll be back going to Taco Bell. And lo, the suits have begun.

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-chipotle-food-safety-crisis/

I ate at the place exactly once while in Ohio, back when the hype was still hot. The portion was a decent size but I was completely unimpressed with the flavor and the price and never went back.

 

[Grosnick Marowbe]

Perhaps she enjoys the taste of food poisoning?

 

[musterion]

If she's as stupid as she seems to be, she very well may. She proudly had it for lunch about 2 weeks ago. Playing the odds is her liberty.

 

[musterion]

John Knight, a restaurant consultant who worked with Chipotle from 2009 to 2011, describes these commissaries as high-end. “Chipotle uses the ones that do food for cruise ships and casinos,” he says. “They’re not making hospital, school or jail food.”

:think:

Quite an admission.

 

[annabenedetti]

I like Chipotle. I get the steak bowl, with brown rice, black beans, peppers and onions, salsa and corn. It's enough for two meals, which makes it very affordable. And while I can't say I ever speculated about the qualities of the other customers, I've always been pleased with the quality of the food.

 

[musterion]

Knock yourself out, Anna, and enjoy it while you can. They're already shifting more toward the despised automation system they falsely marketed themselves as The Answer to. They have to or they're dead. That will turn off much of their loyal fan base of Correctly Thinking Eco-People who aren't really buying the food but The Name. That will lead the company to either die outright or (more likely) have its market footprint considerably reduced when the sustainability BS is forever exposed as BS.

Either way, you're going to end up with exactly what Chipotle was sworn NOT to be, but in fact already was: pricey, slightly less processed Taco Bell.

 

[tetelestai]

I was completely unimpressed with the flavor and the price and never went back.

Could it be that you don't like Chipotle because its owner Steve Ells is openly homosexual, and has a "husband"?

Maybe it's because in addition to Chipotle being founded and run by an open homosexual, Chipotle aggressively supports the LBGT community, and participates and sponsors all the major Gay Pride parades?

Maybe it was when Chipotle employees wore “Homo estas?” t-shirts, or offered burritos wrapped in a rainbow?

Or maybe it was when Chipotle pulled its sponsorship from the Boy Scouts when they took a stance against openly homosexual members?

Cause if you ask me, I think their food taste great. In fact, if I have a choice between Chick-fil-A and Chipotle, it's a no-brainer, I'm going with Chipotle (especially on Sundays)

 

[musterion]

Could it be that you don't like Chipotle because its owner Steve Ells is openly homosexual, and has a "husband"?

I had no idea of that until you just told me.

Typical leftist fraud, I had you pegged a year ago.

 

[annabenedetti]

No company in the business of providing food wants something like this to happen, your schadenfreude notwithstanding. Not Chipotle, not Target, Costco, Jack in the Box, the list is formidable. And it goes without saying that no consumer should suffer the effects, some of which, in other outbreaks, have proved fatal. It's the cost of a very convenience food-driven American society, for one thing, and for another, a very centralized supply system. For example, in the 70s there were thousands of meat processing plants, today there are about 13. Food Inc. is a very good documentary on the subject, if you're interested.

But there's no guarantee that eating at home is any better than the quality of the food bought at the supermarket, what with listeria outbreaks, E. Coli, norovirus and who knows what lurking in that ground beef, poultry, dairy and produce. It's not a new thing either, I remember reading about a family in the homesteading days in Montana who died from botulism as the result of bad canning. But it's a free country, right? Customers can go to Chipotle or they can go to Chick-Fil-A, and take their chances.

 

[tetelestai]

Typical leftist fraud, I had you pegged a year ago.

So, you're suggesting that if someone likes Chipotle, and eats there, that makes them a "leftist"?

Does the opposite work for Chic-fil-A?

 

[musterion]

No company in the business of providing food wants something like this to happen, your schadenfreude notwithstanding. Not Chipotle, not Target, Costco, Jack in the Box, the list is formidable. And it goes without saying that no consumer should suffer the effects, some of which, in other outbreaks, have proved fatal. It's the cost of a very convenience food-driven American society, for one thing, and for another, a very centralized supply system. For example, in the 70s there were thousands of meat processing plants, today there are about 13. Food Inc. is a very good documentary on the subject, if you're interested.

But there's no guarantee that eating at home is any better than the quality of the food bought at the supermarket, what with listeria outbreaks, E. Coli, norovirus and who knows what lurking in that ground beef, poultry, dairy and produce. It's not a new thing either, I remember reading about a family in the homesteading days in Montana who died from botulism as the result of bad canning. But it's a free country, right? Customers can go to Chipotle or they can go to Chick-Fil-A, and take their chances.

I'll grant you, Anna, there is a ton of schadenfreude on my part, but it is ONLY because of Chipotle's liberal-hipster-all natural marketing image that has now been thoroughly exposed as a lie. Chipotle's food, by unintended design, is no safer than automated systems they built themselves up by saying were bad. If anything, it's LESS safe.

Chipotle has been trumpeted as superior in every possible way. Is it better tasting? Compared to TB, somewhat, sure (and I'm no fan of TB either, haven't eaten there in years). Is Chipotle safer? Better? Nope.

I absolutely LOVE to see supercilious marketing exposed as such. My schadenfreude extends no further than that.

If Chick Fil A was shown to be using false marketing I'd post just as strongly against it. But since they pretty much only use illiterate cows, there isn't much there to dispute.

 

[musterion]

So, you're suggesting that if someone likes Chipotle, and eats there, that makes them a "leftist"?

For eating at a particular restaurant? Of course not. That's stupid. It's for you being pro-homo and left-leaning, which some of us already picked up on from you.

 

[patrick jane]

Could it be that you don't like Chipotle because its owner Steve Ells is openly homosexual, and has a "husband"?

Maybe it's because in addition to Chipotle being founded and run by an open homosexual, Chipotle aggressively supports the LBGT community, and participates and sponsors all the major Gay Pride parades?

Maybe it was when Chipotle employees wore “Homo estas?” t-shirts, or offered burritos wrapped in a rainbow?

Or maybe it was when Chipotle pulled its sponsorship from the Boy Scouts when they took a stance against openly homosexual members?

Cause if you ask me, I think their food taste great. In fact, if I have a choice between Chick-fil-A and Chipotle, it's a no-brainer, I'm going with Chipotle (especially on Sundays)

you must be a gay leftist ?

 

[musterion]

What was your first clue.

 

[annabenedetti]

I'll grant you, Anna, there is a ton of schadenfreude on my part, but it is ONLY because of Chipotle's liberal-hipster-all natural marketing image that has now been thoroughly exposed as a lie. Chipotle's food, by unintended design, is no safer than automated systems they built themselves up by saying were bad. If anything, it's LESS safe.

Chipotle has been trumpeted as superior in every possible way. Is it better tasting? Compared to TB, somewhat, sure (and I'm no fan of TB either, haven't eaten there in years). Is Chipotle safer? Better? Nope.

I absolutely LOVE to see supercilious marketing exposed as such. My schadenfreude extends no further than that.

Chipotle's food handling system may be better than other chains, I don't know. I do know that any restaurant can be brought down by the suppliers it uses and by its employees. Chipotle's Boston College outbreak was caused by a norovirus transmitted by an employee. That can happen in any restaurant, anywhere. The other E. Coli infections are believed to be supplier-caused, but I don't know that all the investigations are completed.

As for being "trumpeted as superior," do you mean by Chipotle, or by its customers? I'd imagine you'd like to see businesses which employ thousands of people to do well in this county. Any businesses is going to seek to place itself as superior to its competitors, that's how you sell a product. Customers, if they enjoy a product, don't need to justify why they like it, do they? So while it's refreshing to see you admit to your schadenfreude, I don't understand it. For all the American dream of successful business ventures and free choices for consumers, to be satisfied at the bad fortune of some based on your view of it as "hipster-"driven, seems rather misplaced.

I'm not a hipster, and I like Chipotle's brown rice because I grew up on the brown rice served by a very health-conscious, extremely politically and religiously conservative mother. I don't identify healthy food as anything but healthy food, despite the hippy/hipster/lefty connotations.

 

[PureX]

A typically smug Millennial coworker of mine just LOVES her some Chipotle and was shocked and even insulted when I began mentioning the widespread food poisoning news from over the past month or so -- she's not one to follow news a-tall. She actually took a degree of personal offense that someone would dare question her chain restaurant fad of choice. I said hey, just trying to help. Enjoy the joint while you can. When the lawsuits start you'll be back going to Taco Bell. And lo, the suits have begun.

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-chipotle-food-safety-crisis/

I ate at the place exactly once while in Ohio, back when the hype was still hot. The portion was a decent size but I was completely unimpressed with the flavor and the price and never went back.

And you perceive that SHE'S the smug one! :chuckle:

 

[musterion]

As for being "trumpeted as superior," do you mean by Chipotle, or by its customers?

Both, but it has been perpetuated by the company's advertising. Just one of many:

That message is false. Read the article I linked and you'll see why.

 

[tetelestai]

you must be a gay leftist ?

Are you saying that if I chose to eat at Chipotle instead of Chic-fil-A that makes me a "gay leftist"?

 

[patrick jane]

Are you saying that if I chose to eat at Chipotle instead of Chic-fil-A that makes me a "gay leftist"?

No, all the pro homo things you have intimate knowledge of, like rainbow burritos and the support for gay pride and the boy scout info. You know too much about the gayness of chipotle's owners and their agenda

 

[patrick jane]

Personally, I may have eaten at chipotle once, not by my suggestion. I will never eat there in the future because of these problems. I decided that even before I knew of the hipster, homo, left wing connections, which further my resolve to not patronize the chain.