Chipotle Boss: Sorry for the Tiny Portions

At a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said that “generous” portion sizes were a core part of the Chipotle brand—but also said the fast casual Mexican chain would start retraining staff members at certain stores to emphasize that point. “Generous portion is a core brand equity of Chipotle. It always has been, and it always will be,” Niccol told investors on the call. “With that said, getting the feedback caused us to relook at our execution across our entire system with the intention to always serve our guests delicious, fresh, custom burritos, and bowls with generous portions.” Niccol said the company would identify individual restaurants with “outlier portion scores” on customer surveys, then “reemphasize training and coaching” for workers there. Niccol confirmed later on the call roughly 10 percent of Chipotle’s 3,500 restaurants were skimping on portions. Chipotle’s portion sizes first fell under scrutiny earlier this year after customers began filming themselves ordering from the restaurant—a “trick” some users on TikTok claim make Chipotle workers give customers larger portion sizes. Speaking to CNBC’s Jim Cramer shortly after the trend went viral, Niccol said the trend “really bums me out,” adding that “it’s a little rude to our team members.”

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