There’S A Growing Conspiracy Theory Around Chipotle?

Chipotle manager here, had never seen or heard of your website but this specific article popped up in my recommended (while at work oddly enough) loved this article and you honestly highlighted issues that many of us are well aware of. Internally what the problem really comes down to is a combination of training and who’s running the specific store. GMs get two bonuses a year based on performance. Included as factors of this bonus is CI (critical inventory) and budget. Critical inventory is whatever costs the store money, proteins, cheese, queso and quac specifically. The better your numbers are and the more you stay within your budget the better your bonus is and there are a lot of GMs who have zero issues with making up numbers or instructing employees to skimp. Training however is definitely the bigger of the two issues. Chipotle training is horrible, everything you learn is from articles on an iPad and in the moment shadowing someone. It gets drilled into your head that a portion of cheese or lettuce is supposed to be a three-finger pinch, but there’s no real material on what other portions should look like, mainly because our spoon method is straight up dumb and is the perfect setup for inconsistency. People are thrown on to the line, shown an eye-balled amount of food on a spoon and are expected to deliver that every time, if they don’t they get reprimanded regardless on if they give too much or too little. I will definitely say that we try to give the more correct portions for online orders but again that inconsistent training makes that an issue.

chipotle worker here, one reason for the inconsistent burritos is because different workers have different perceptions of what a standard portion is even though they are all trained on the correct amount, they also have different skill levels at wrapping burritos which can severely influence how much they put on the burrito considering whether or not they are going to be able to easily wrap the burrito or not. difference in bowl portions is a little bit sketchier, in my experience bowls are always given much bigger portion sizes compared to every other item on the menu, often being given so much food that we have to compress the food down into the bowl when putting the lid on. also the difference in chip amounts and weights is quite interesting considering that we are trained to weigh the bags and make sure they are at 4 oz for regular bags and 6 oz for the large chip bags. also i definitely agree that one way to improve the portioning consistency would be to use measuring cups instead of the spoons we currently use.

Lived with a chipotle employee for a bit. He mentioned that even though yes there was incentivr to give smaller portions from management due to bottom line, he said the biggest reason for small portions was that the employee likely doesnt want to replace the tray when it gets empty. So if you see a tray with a smaller amount in it youre going to get less than if it were a brand new tray that was filled to the brim. So if you really want bang for your buck, wait and order when you see a new tray being brought in

i work at chipotle and the portions have to do with many factors. many of the cooks do not properly chop up the protein. when it is in bigger chunks, less of it fits on the spoon, leaving a seemingly skimpy portion. measuring cups would the be useless. As a matter of fact, we do have measuring cups, the plastic portion cups that we put guacamole and queso in. Either way, our managers are sometimes on the mobile order line and tell us to give less, much less than 4 ounces, also because the cook is behind or because the employee doesn’t call the food(meaning they don’t let the cook know they’re about to run our or that they need more etc.). the burritos are usually skimped out on because many chipotle employees do not know how to wrap big ass burritos so they simply put less than 4 ounces of things like the corn and hot sauces because then it’ll be so soggy it won’t close. the solution would just be to implement new management. orientation and all the tutorials on portions and other shit are simply some articles you watch on the work portal. many times you have no articles to watch and you just have to watch your coworkers do things that they don’t know how to do themselves. Our manager only corrects us about portions and how we make things when we give too much or when their boss is in town and inspecting the stores. managers also have a lot to do with cleanliness since they are the ones who need to tell the cashier to clean the lobby or the cook to clean the grill.

Perfect timing since I guess your Sheetz vid is getting lots of love from the algorithm. I finished that one yesterday and to have this new one immediately the next day is awesome. Also, I appreciate you sharing some of your hobbies and social activities with friends etc in these vids (as well as even dates in the last one) and just the random fun you have alone. It adds personality and relatability, not to mention it feels more well rounded + diversified than a lot of other similar vids I’ve watched. I get bored easily and it just doesn’t happen with your content.

when i worked at chipotle they were super strict on us about portion sizes and would often test us to see if we could serve the correct portions. the thing i always thought was ridiculous about it is the fact that we served food using a big flat spoon and were expected to have good control with that. if they just switched to a measuring cup with a fill line it would be so much more consistent and so much less strenuous on the employees.

Your findings at the end were pretty substantial. I’ve always assumed burritos were less food than bowls because they had to be wrapped, but it seems like it’s just up to preference. I wonder what the measurements would be like if you did get extra beans and rice, which at least at the locations around me, is no additional charge. It seems like if you get extras then even with an online order your bowl is pretty packed. Glad you tested this out, so that we all know the main moral of the story, which is order in person, and always go to the best rated chipotle you can access

Watched this whole thing and for science tonight I ordered your exact order on the app and in person while I picked it up (burrito) I did however ask for extra rice, beans, and cheese in the app and in person. Online burrito was 1.5lbs and my in person burrito was 2.2 lbs I seen people talking about online getting app points, but you scan your app in person orders and still get points

I worked at Chipotle in Clearwater Florida 14 years ago, that style of store for your first visit was first implemented at my store, it was built from the ground up and they called it their new modern industrial style. We were the first to test this out and it was a huge hit back then, we were busy from open to close everyday, guests loved the look back then.

As an ex-chipotle worker here’s my position on what it’s like. (I worked at two different locations in two different states. One was independently owned the other was “corporate owned”) I can say that there is a reason the portion sizes are inconsistent. We’re very understaffed, the cooks are overworked (there are supposed to be 2-3 at all times, but we usually only had 1) and we only have a limited amount of cold stuff. It’s also up to the ones making your bowls to get them from halfway across the store. Some stores have little freezers under the cold side, but not all of them. For the DML (online ordering) we’re put on a timer and the amount of time we get for orders is inconsistent, we can get anywhere from 30-5 minutes for an order of any size (the biggest I had to make was about 11 entrees and 11 sides in like 6-7 ish minutes) And we are always told to not use up all of the ingredients so that the front line is always stocked up. So yeah, don’t order online that’s a big gamble. And some employees are trained on how to properly portion and some are not. At the independently owned one, I was told to pray and do what feels right. Corporate was strict and also vague-ish, they told us (I was DML) one spoonful of protein, two spoonfuls of rice, and a spoonful of beans. If you ask for extra we’re told to do half a spoonful. Also it gets HOT behind the counter, and depending on how busy it is you may not get a sip of water for 2-3 hours. So fatigue is a big thing (I was sent home multiple times because it got so bad for me) And managers are ON YOUR ASS about clean counters.

I have been working for the company for over two years. Some people also don’t know how to order. I’ve seen cases where people order online thru DoorDash and Uber eats and select only the protein and cheese in their bowl or burrito and didn’t know they didn’t add rice and beans. Each online order has a sticker label which shows what you selected. Also I’ve never heard of management telling us to skimp on online order portions.

My Personal take: If Chipotle were to find some automated system to perfectly portion out each order, they wouldn’t receive much attention for the inconsistencies. I believe the inconsistencies might be their competitive advantage over other restaurants. The thrill that you may get a slightly over-proportioned meal than you can expect could be the unconscious decision driving a sale. Update, just finished the article and I acknowledge that he did address this. This was simply my take at the start of the article.

this is great INB4 internal chipotle emails reveals the original social chipotle disruption was a marketing psy op that came from bad pics and accelerated into an actual increase in portion sizes but smaller in vs price producing a social surcharge of in store purchases with more satisfaction to breed profits. Incredible article as always!!

Been eating chipotle everyday for a long time now, prolly 10 months. Went from 300 pounds to 180. It just depends on what you get. I only get brown rice, steak and pico in a bowl. It’s pretty low calories for a lot of food. 400-600. But everything chipotle offers for your bowl is healthy besides the queso really. What matters is what you get

Glad to see you’re still kicking (watched your Sheetz 30-day challenge) and did a challenge for Chipotle! I’ve noticed inconsistencies between two Chips I frequent with portions and quality, especially with online orders (between a college town and a big city), and had no clue of these conspiracies until now. Can’t wait to see what you do next–have a lit day!

I haven’t even watched this article yet, but when I was working there, I truly wanted to give everyone as big of portions as possible. The issue was just we didn’t have enough supply for the sheer amount of customers that come in and out of the door. Managers and people above me consistently irked us to make sure we had enough food left to get us through the night.

I lived in my car for a year and I ate Chipotle for many of those days. I swore by them. However, over the years and post-pandemic, I rarely eat it (a few times a year). And, when I do, I always go in person to order because you get soooooo much less food if you order for pick-up/delivery. I also always used to order a bowl and get a tortilla on the side because you obviously got more in a bowl than a burrito, but then they started charged for tortillas.

I used to work at chipotle and they would yell at us for using too much cheese. I remember my manger messaging our groupchat talking about how many pounds of cheese went missing and how this can’t happen. Also another time my boss’s old boss came in and fired everyone on staff that day (other than me for whatever reason) because he didn’t like them. Not a great place to work!

A big part of this is about TRAINING and TURNOVER (employees leaving), along with the psychology of direct human interaction. “Chipotle’s hourly turnover in 2022 was 193 percent (it was 194 percent the year before)”, I’m sure it is probably close to that now. That means the average employee on the line lasts 6 months. They have to continually retrain their workforce because it is constantly turning over. This is a HUGE problem in the fast food industry because pay is so low, forcing employees to continually search for even the smallest incremental increase in pay for their labor. There is no brand loyalty at the minimum wage. Getting new employees to do it right all the time is hard, especially if they’ll be gone in 6 months. On top of that Chipotle is very labor intensive – they actually cook and prepare most of the food on the premises, they aren’t just “rethermalizing” the food as with most fast food restaurants. That takes more training. Add to that the psychology of having to prepare someone’s meal while they’re standing in front of you rather than off of a printed out list and you can understand the inconsistency of sizes between online ordering and in-restaurant. They need to properly train their teams, and incentivize them enough to retain them as well. Full disclosure – I worked for Chipotle from 1999-2018 in Marketing (back when it was new and cool) so I know the inner workings and issues very well.

When you were about to hit the Chipotlane, I knew exactly what was about to happen XD. They skimp so hard for some reason on that. I think it’s because they have a separate burrito making line dedicated to it and they don’t want to refill it as often or make double food because they would have split it between the front of house. Maybe managers are limiting to try and not waste as much.

Havent been since pre covid but i always asked for double rice, and both beans then “a bit more pinto” no matter how much they did when done. Then i would get cheese on that and ask for more if needed. Cheese not queso. For meat i always went steak. The burrito or bowl would always be large and felt similar. And you can ask for more of everything for free except meat guac and queso unless that changed.

All this did is make me want Chipotle 😛 My order’s always the same: White rice, pinto beans, double chicken, medium salsa and spicy salsa. It turns out amazing every time… and I get the double meat as a way to help ensure my portion is to my standards. I’ve only ever really had one bad meal there in 10 years, and that was when the meat was really salty.

Going into this article, I didn’t really buy into any of the “conspiracies” but this is really eye opening. I will say, Chipotle, like many chain restaurants, franchises and while the idea behind a franchise is that you can get the same experience any where, that isn’t the case. Quality of taste, experience, even portions can very store to store just by the shear numbers of things and by the fact that they’re not owned, run, or staffed by the same people everywhere. So my takeaway is (mildly) disappointed but not surprised.

I’m 3 months behind, but just stumbled across this masterpiece. Your study was like a modern day “Supersize Me” documentary. Instead of showing how unhealthy chipotle is for us, you showed us how they skimp us. Should’ve named the documentary “Burrito or Bowl Me”. That fruit scene with the orange had me laughing my ass off when I seen what they give you. I thought to myself, “oh how cute, it even comes in a burrito bowl type packaging” 😂

My local chipotle is so terrible at wrapping burritos that I honestly would be willing to take smaller portions just to have one that isn’t falling to pieces the moment I open it. My usual order is smaller than Zacks, so it’s not like I’m ordering the biggest possible burrito. I once witnessed a wrapping so devastatingly bad that I very nearly asked if I could wrap it myself. I don’t think a single person at that store actually knows how to wrap a burrito. In the end, I don’t hold it against them too much because I know how shitty and thankless working in food service is, but it definitely lowers my personal experience.

What doesn’t even make sense is the online orders being smaller…..here’s what I would personally be able to UNDERSTAND….and yet this is not the case. I would understand if the in-person orders ended up being smaller because the person making your food does not know what you are going to end up getting. They don’t know when they are scooping rice that you want double protein. And all the kinds of salsa. They might want to “save space” in your burrito for other items down the line. On the other hand the online orders list out everything you want right there on the screen. WHY are they skimping?

The Last time I got food poisoning was a Chipotle in Delhi Ohio beef that was a little too rare. I was literally hanging out the window hurling in the middle of the night. Years later from the Boone Chipotle i nearly pooped myself driving and breaking traffic laws to get to the nearest Toilet. So i truly feel sorry for eating it all the time. I rarely eat out now. And no microwave Radiation food for me. Just REAL COOKING.

The problem is that employees are expect to perfectly portion food with a spoon that is very nearly flat. They’re also expect to pump customers through the line as fast as possible. Customers will complain about waiting too long to so can’t put that all on corporate. The reality is that chipotles portions sizes have been the same for over a decade at this point, but employees and managers are all set up to fail by a greedy corporation. And now those empolyees have to deal with entitled customers expecting them to be perfect about everything all the time and being recorded multiple times a day. While making slave wages. The answer to this isn’t to make a articles or tick tok complaining about it. The answer is to not go and to better yet go somewhere local where and promote them.

Noble effort. You only mentioned it but I think the only detail needing more data is rice as cheap stuffing. The %age of rice, which is heavy with water, is used to fill out burritos even in nice sit-down dining places. You might get gorgeous presentations and the base broth might be tasty but sometimes it’s +50% rice. Aside from that I discourage franchise chain places. Even if it takes a little more distance, there are plenty of hard working independent restaurants of different kinds that would appreciate your business instead of paying a corporation who pays the hired worker.

This article is why Qdoba is way better. There are still a few inconsistencies, but a lot less and the only one I really noticed was one time when I ordered online, and it was still edible. The rice was a little hard and there wasn’t a ton of food actually in the bowl compared to other orders, but other than that one time even the online orders are still great, even some of the best I’ve had from them has been an online order. The ingredients always taste the same, the chicken is generally a lot juicier and better spiced than chipotle, the beans are less grainy and mushy, the cheese is better, but the guac is more expensive if that is something you usually get, and they slice their veggies a bit too thick for me, but I hate vegetables so basically anything other than string thin is too much for me. A lot of the time they WILL also forget the double protein charges, which is great and a huge plus. All the problems with chipotle have been minimized with Qdoba, except for guac prices. But if you get extra chicken and they forget about it, that guac is basically free anyway.

Your store 3 still doesn’t come close to my local chipotle in upstate New York. Every single time I’ve been both burrito and bowls have been comically undermade and more often than not they underfill stale chips as well. It’s absolutely wild how terrible they are compared to the one that was next to my house back in Texas.

Of course portion sizes wont be consistent when the food is being served by 16-30 year old minimum wage employees that arent weighing the food when any given day is likely a busy day; but i have certainly gotten “influcencer size” bowls more often than i havent. People get so tribal about anything these days.

You know I often wonder where college degrees go, seeing how lots of articles I watch, include very specific data like yours, I now know where college degrees go because there’s no way an uneducated person would plan out things this far out and consider all variables like you did (not trying to be offensive but understand if you are)

The different between the two locations near me is night and day. I asked for grilled vegetables on my salad bowl and literally the guy put on two pieces of onion and one pieces of green pepper. That is bonkers for something that costs over $10. And they NEVER have dressing made. I literally learned how to make my own dressing in the blender and mostly make my own salads now because the location near my place is so terrible. But I got an amazing salad just the other day at the other location and it was really great in terms of quality. The system they have is good but it must depend on management.