Leave it to a Wells Fargo restaurant analyst to decisively settle the Chipotle burrito 鈥渨eight debate.鈥
On TikTok, some customers Chipotle of skimping on food portions. They started a trend of filming Chipotle employees as the workers built out their burritos order with chicken, guacamole and other add-ons in an effort to get larger scoops.
The trend, dubbed the 鈥淐hipotle phone method,鈥 went viral on social media, and some , saying customers filming them was 鈥渟tressful and dehumanizing.鈥
Chipotle鈥檚 CEO eventually addressed the issue.
鈥淭he portions have not gotten smaller,鈥 Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol recently . 鈥淲e always want to give people big portions that get them excited about the food.鈥 He said that if customers want a little more rice or another topping, they can ask an employee.
So Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem went out to Chipotle to do some investigative work.
Fadem and his team ordered and weighed 75 burrito bowls with white rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce across eight Chipotle locations in New York City. (They brought them back to the office for other Wells Fargo employees鈥 lunch.)
The analysts found that the consistency of the portions varied widely.
The bowls weighed roughly the same for in-store orders and online orders, but some locations served bowls that weigh 33 per cent more than other locations. Some burrito bowls went to extremes, with one topping out at 27 ounces in one location, and a meager 14 ounces in another. The median weight was around 21.5 ounces.
Laurie Schalow, Chipotle鈥檚 chief corporate affairs officer, told CNN that Chipotle鈥檚 bowl size may vary depending upon the number of ingredients a customer selects or if they choose to make an ingredient extra or light. She said the company has not changed its portion sizes.
Portion size consistency is important for restaurants because it helps them manage costs and prevent from running out of ingredients or having too much left over.
Customers go to restaurant chains for consistency, and if portion sizes are not standardized it could hurt a chain鈥檚 reputation, analysts say. Many brands have been criticized for shrinking their product sizes and charging the same or more, known as 鈥渟hrinkflation.鈥
This does not seem to be hurting Chipotle, however. Despite the social media complaints, Chipotle鈥檚 sales grew 7 per cent last quarter, and the company鈥檚 sales are outpacing rivals such as McDonald鈥檚.
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