Chipotle. It was more than Mexican food. It was a bangin' buritto, a comfort food and a guilty pleasure. It was a brand that near reached the height of McDonald's, Starbucks or Chick-fil-A in popularity. Maybe that's an exaggeration; but what can I say, I'm just a common urban girl that really really likes her Chipotle burrito (with as much guac as they would let me have). After my fair share of visits to the chain, like many, I fell in love with the taste and convinced myself that these "fresh, locally grown, non-GMO ingredients" made Chipotle a way better choice for fast food than any other place I could have gone.
I would take my burrito home, take a bite and ask myself, "Gosh, this is so good, what do they put in here? Do they sprinkle cocaine in the rice? Why is it so addicting?" Turns out there's no secret amphetamine to keep you coming back but a cocktail of E.coli, norovirus, and salmonella is definitely something you don't want going into your system either.
It's known by now that Chipotle has been struggling with health code standards and that, unfortunately, a lot of people have gotten sick with food-borne illnesses. Multiple repercussions have followed such as lawsuits, their stock going down, losing customers, and damaging their brand. So what are they going to do to fix the problem?
How about free burritos? There's not a lot of details yet but basically one of the CEOs is doubling the amount of food each store is going to have in an attempt to encourage the creation of enticing promotions. Each store will make their own decision on how they want to bolster their sales but the idea is they will have a lot more food to give away in hopes of gaining their customers' trust back.
To show their diligence in rectifying their mistakes, Chipotle gave direct statements about what they actually plan to do to avoid serving contaminated food. Their new food preparation methods were reported on and Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesperson, gave specifics about the changes to take place.
Watch out on Feb. 8,, because that's when about over 2,000 stores will close nationwide for food-safety meetings to really drive home the changes they want to implement. But after that day, you might be seeing some serious advertising for Chipotle with prices that might seem too good to be true.
If you walk down the street and see that Chipotle is doing a buy-one-get-one-free deal or an all together free burrito promotion from 5 to 7 p.m. and find yourself wondering "Is this real life? Or is it fantasy?" Just know that it's Corporate Chipotle just trying to win back your love. You can be the one to decide ahead of time if it'll work.
