SOME customers aren’t confident in Chipotle’s recent portion size promise.
The fast food chain was accused of telling employees to give customers less in burrito bowls earlier this year.
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Rumors about reduced portion sizes caused an uproar among Chipotle’s customer base, resulting in a viral TikTok trend of filming staff as they filled bowls and burritos to ensure enough food was provided.
The trend has been dubbed several different names, including the Chipotle “cell phone rule.”
Chipotle has repeatedly denied claims of reducing portions while keeping costs the same — also known as reducing inflation.
The network has poked fun at the trend on its TikTok account before.
CEO Brian Niccol provided a detailed response to accusations of lower inflation on an earnings call in July, assuring customers there would be a focus on “generous” portions moving forward.
“There has never been a directive to provide less to our customers,” Niccol said.
“Generous portions [are] a core brand value of Chipotle.”
Niccol continued to emphasize that generous portions “have always been” and “always will be” one of the brand’s most respected values.
“That said, receiving the feedback has made us look back on our system-wide execution with the intention of always serving our guests…personalized burritos and bowls with generous portions,” he added.
CHANGE IS COMING
Chipotle will now actively make changes to deliver on the portion size promise.
Niccol said this includes retraining staff in at least 10% of its 3,500 locations due to the results of some consumer surveys.
“We are re-emphasizing training and coaching to ensure we are making bowls and burritos consistently and correctly,” he noted.
CFO Jack Hartung also noted that investments were being made at Chipotle that would ensure the installment’s promise was realized.
“We already have a number of initiatives underway; some are operational, some are supply chain efficiencies,” Hartung said during the July earnings call.
What is Chipotle’s “cell phone rule”?
Videos of Chipotle customers filming workers placing their orders have been flooding social media.
Chipotle reportedly sent a memo to employees telling them to fill burrito bowls to the brim when a customer was filming while placing an order, according to business and investing influencer Alex Friedman in Xformerly known as Twitter.
Videos were shared across platforms of customers filming their orders as staff piled their bowls with their chosen options.
There were some Edge cases where customers brought camera, lighting and sound equipment to film the workers and get the most food in their bowl.
Niccol said the investments were already yielding positive results, with improved consumer scores in Chipotle surveys.
The company’s net sales also increased by about 18% in the second quarter of 2022, for Press release.
LACK OF CONFIDENCE
Still, some customers still don’t trust the chain’s promise about portions.
“Chipotle is not going to solve the problem,” someone criticized in a recent wire on Reddit.
“They’re going to make the bowls smaller,” echoed another.
“The bowls will be charged more, but the portions will be even smaller!” a third was angry.
Similar complaints have been going on for months.
Some customers took a close look at the Chipotle portion size guide and claimed that “math isn’t math.”
Employees have also tried to clarify portions at the places they work.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
