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Chipotle to give away 21M burritos by May 15, may shift to B1G1 Free deals in Summer

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XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/chipotle-708440-people-free.html

Chipotle is giving away free burritos to combat the eeriness of empty stores and to convince people that its food is safe.

The Denver chain made its first big push with freebies on Feb. 8 when it closed its stores nationwide so employees could participate in a food safety meeting after an E. Coli outbreak and other incidents sent sales plunging.

The company said 5.3 million people tried to download the mobile offer for a free entree.

“That was our first test to see how much people really wanted to come back to Chipotle,” said Mark Crumpacker, chief creative and development officer, speaking Wednesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Consumer and Retail Tech Conference.

The company has since also started mailing people coupons for a free entree. Crumpacker said there are about 6 to 10 million such offers in circulation already, out of the 21 million the company has planned. Those all expire around May 15, he said.

Moving into the summer, he said Chipotle might shift to “Buy One, Get One” free offers, or do more targeted mobile offers for free meals in regions of the country where a recovery in sales is lagging.

It may seem like a desperate measure to get people back in stores, but Crumpacker said the expiration dates on free meal offers give people that extra nudge they might need to go into a Chipotle again. Executives are concerned about the perception customers may have when they see empty restaurants.

Chipotle had become a star on Wall Street, with its restaurants packed and its sales booming.

“It was kind of eerie – and we’d hear this from customers. They would walk by a restaurant and see, god that was always busy, and now there’s no line whatsoever,” said Jack Hartung, Chipotle’s chief financial officer.

He said it was important to let the chain’s 2,000 restaurants “look like Chipotle again.”

The strategy will cost Chipotle. The company said Tuesday it expects to report a loss of $1 per share or more for the January-to-March quarter. That would mark its first loss since going public in 2006.
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W

Wuthering_Heights

Banned
Got my free coupon in the mail a couple days ago.

Getting everyone I know to give me theirs, too.

It's going to be months before I have to pay for Chipotle. Mmm.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
MIMIC said:
If I'm needed, I will eat 50 of them
Click to expand...

1H1GCXY.png
 
JSoup

JSoup

Banned
Wasn't this already going on? I got a coupon in the mail a few weeks ago for free burritos.
 
G

Glass Shark

Banned
Did people really stop going because of the health stuff? In my group of friends that had zero impact on how much people go there.

Oh well, more burritos for me, I guess.
 
D

davidwhangchoi

Member
i got a coupon and tried it recently, omg it was like a ghost town in there. it was empty.

i think the stock is going to take a further nosedive after the next quarterly earnings report.
 
P

Persona7

Banned
The one I drive by used to have a big ass line out the door at lunch but not now. Some people did come back after they gave out coupons but then it immediately went back to being dead.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
I got the coupon in the mail. They didn't even go back to offering the Guac for free as one of the coupons! Fuck the salsa.
 
JSoup

JSoup

Banned
XiaNaphryz said:
Literally the second sentence of the article in the OP. :p
Click to expand...

"The Denver chain made its first big push with freebies on Feb. 8 when it closed its stores nationwide so employees could participate in a food safety meeting after an E. Coli outbreak and other incidents sent sales plunging."

Don't see it.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
I'm more concerned about the sodium levels than about food-borne diseases.
 
U

ugaboga232

Member
Dan said:
I'm more concerned about the sodium levels than about food-borne diseases.
Click to expand...

Sodium intake is generally thought of as not being a huge problem unless you have a condition/mutation that makes it one though going through my kidney lectures for my test tomorrow, there seems to be some research that excessive salt intake can help high blood pressure.

Tl;dr if you dont have high blood pressure its probably fine
 
R

Rokal

Member
A local Mexican place opened this week in MA after months of prep. I figured I'd be done with Chipotle after it opened, but after eating there a few times I came to appreciate the high quality of chipotle relative to most Mexican places outside of CA/the south. Bring on the free coupons of course , but I'll keep eating there either way.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
They said they would make up for this loss by raising prices next year. Lol fuck that.

Texas could not give a shit. We have several better options including Freebirds.

Rokal said:
A local Mexican place opened this week in MA after months of prep. I figured I'd be done with Chipotle after it opened, but after eating there a few times I came to appreciate the high quality of chipotle relative to most Mexican places outside of CA/the south. Bring on the free coupons of course , but I'll keep eating there either way.
Click to expand...

I am so sorry that there are places in the US where Chipotle is leagues better than other options in terms of Mexican food. Ugh, I love Tex-Mex.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
ugaboga232 said:
Sodium intake is generally thought of as not being a huge problem unless you have a condition/mutation that makes it one though going through my kidney lectures for my test tomorrow, there seems to be some research that excessive salt intake can help high blood pressure.

Tl;dr if you dont have high blood pressure its probably fine
Click to expand...
Hmm, I'm sure I'm not up on the latest science. Given my family background, I'm probably predisposed to having problems with high blood pressure sooner or later, so I try not to over indulge.
 
B

Beer Monkey

Member
YZT91oa.jpg


No sympathy. They spread fears about transgenesis, which does kind of important things like reduce our carbon footprint.

Food luddites can suck it. Claims without evidence should be illegal as deceptive marketing.
 
P

Patriotsbball5460

Member
I never stopped eating it, and the free burrito, and free chips and guac only helped me save some money. I don't worry about it due to sheer statistical relevance of getting sick when their issues were occurring.
 
S

StarCreator

Member
I might be OK with Chipotle again if they drop their anti-GMO stance. Heck, maybe their food safety problem might not have happened if they used a rational supply chain.
 
M

minx

Member
After trying a local Chipotle competitor I realized that Chipotle really needs to step their salsa game up.
 
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