Well, ya know what? Hope that 10% savings really helped you. Because between diminishing portions, diminishing quality, raised prices, and health issues from contaminated food over the years, I’ve stopped going. Like, completely. Used to get it once a week or so. Now I haven’t had it since before the pandemic.

And I’m not the only one. My local chipotle in 2005 would have a line wrapped out the door, and down the plaza to 2 shops down. Just a continuous line, at all times, and you KNEW it’d be 45 minutes before you get your food.

Now most of the time when I walk by, I’ll glance inside and see no line at all. I could walk right in, and order. No waiting. I COULD do that…but still no.

I wonder how bad their financials are if the CEO is publicly speaking out about this problem.

Chipotle used to be my favorite restaurant, but the last time I ate there was probably 2019. It just stopped being worth the effort of trying to get a full bowl.

If it was just 10% of restaurants skimping a little, the effect would not be nearly enough to show up on quarterly financials. The fact that he addresses this at all, and the fact that it is big enough to show up on financials, shows that it is a significant company-wide issue. I also note the weasel word, over 10%. That could mean 100%. My guess is the vast majority if not all of their locations were skimping, because corporate told them to. And now suddenly they realize they lost customer good will, and a lot of people just stopped going. It probably shows up in focus groups, if enough people said I used to eat Chipotle but they started skipping on portions so I don’t go there anymore, they realized they lost people. And an announcement like this is necessary because those customers aren’t going back to the store and won’t see the larger portion.

There used to be a place in the town where I grew up that advertised “burritos as big as your head,” but they did not take large-headed people like myself into account. The burrito was smaller than my head.