Chipotle Faces No-Win Scenario as Crisis Taints Its Every Move

GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Chipotle Faces No-Win Scenario as Crisis Taints Its Every Move



Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. responded quickly when four of its workers called in sick last week with suspected cases of norovirus. The Boston-area restaurant was shuttered for cleaning, and no customers got ill.

The company’s management considers that a successful outcome -- a sign its updated health protocols are working. But customers, still wary of the chain after a string of outbreaks, didn’t see it that way.

Headlines about the Massachusetts restaurant closing once again sent Chipotle’s sales plunging. And while the company called that sales decrease a “blip” on its road to recovery, the incident illustrates just how difficult it will be for the chain to get its mojo back.

“It’s great that they caught it before anybody got sick, but how could it happen again?” said Christopher Muller, a restaurant and hospitality expert who teaches at Boston University. “They’re caught in a very bad cycle.”
 
Chris0nllyn

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
They just opened one in Prince Frederick.

Besides the fact that the people working have seemingly no clue what's going on (and somehow managed to give me the wrong burrito bowl), it's delicious.
 
Bann

Bann

Doris Day meets Lady Gaga
PREMO Member
I'm not going near that place with a ten foot pole. I like LaTolteca, (which is right across the street)way too much to waste my moolah on fast food Mexican.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Here's the problem:

Once one person gets "sick" and it becomes "news", now everyone who even drove past a Chipotle will claim they're sick too. It takes about 2 minutes and one social media post to ruin a business.

One would think, as many people eat at Chipotle on a daily basis, if the meat or employees or whatever was tainted there would be thousands, if not millions, of sick customers.

Clearly your odds of NOT getting sick by eating at Chipotle are far greater than the odds OF getting sick. To the point that the people who did get sick are statistically insignificant.

CONCLUSION: Curious who Chipotle pissed off or didn't pay their protection money to.
 
Chris0nllyn

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
Bann said:
I'm not going near that place with a ten foot pole. I like LaTolteca, (which is right across the street)way too much to waste my moolah on fast food Mexican.
Click to expand...

I like their 34oz. beers. Other than that, the food is the same as all the other "Mexican" restaurants. (Though that place next to Ledos is pretty good)
 
Tilted

Tilted

..
vraiblonde said:
Here's the problem:

Once one person gets "sick" and it becomes "news", now everyone who even drove past a Chipotle will claim they're sick too. It takes about 2 minutes and one social media post to ruin a business.

One would think, as many people eat at Chipotle on a daily basis, if the meat or employees or whatever was tainted there would be thousands, if not millions, of sick customers.

Clearly your odds of NOT getting sick by eating at Chipotle are far greater than the odds OF getting sick. To the point that the people who did get sick are statistically insignificant.

CONCLUSION: Curious who Chipotle pissed off or didn't pay their protection money to.
Click to expand...

There's some truth in what you're saying when it comes to situations in general.

But when it comes to Chipotle there are real issues (*) with how they source and prepare food that increase the risk of these kinds of health issues. They've acknowledged as much in their SEC filings, and that's going back to before the recent problems that have gotten widespread attention. They've made choices in favor of, e.g., freshness which create somewhat increased risks of these kinds of problems.

We're still talking about fairly uncommon occurrences where people actually get sick as a result, and the risk of that happening would have been present to some degree regardless - even if they had been handling food sourcing and preparation exactly as, e.g., McDonald's has. But this isn't just a made up thing with Chipotle and they themselves realize that, though the degree of risk and how widespread the problem has been has perhaps been overplayed.

And just to be clear: The way they do things makes it such that they might have a problem at a particular store or in a given region without having problems everywhere else. So we'd expect just what you're referring to - it isn't that they have a nationwide problem with one of their ingredients being contaminated such that large numbers of people across the country would be getting sick from it. Part of the problem (that increases the risk) is that their sourcing is more diffuse. They source more locally from more varied places rather than having the national supply of everything come from a single supplier under more uniform conditions. And they do more preparation at the store level rather than at central (or regional) locations where the process can be more focused and uniform and safety precautions are implemented more rigorously.

(*) Or there were issues, they've recently made changes hoping to mitigate some of the risks. I don't know how effective those changes will be.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
I think I'm going out for Caucasian takeout tonight.

What? We have Mexican takeout, Oriental takeout, Italian takeout..... why not Caucasian takeout?
 
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