Chipotle COO Scott Boatwright discusses the growth outlook for 2024 and the impact of food inflation on “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill has faced criticism online after social media users accused the restaurant of using fewer ingredients in its popular burrito bowls — and therefore, serving reduced portion sizes of the menu item.
The phrase “Chipotle small portion size” has at least 58 million videos on TikTok focused on the size of the restaurant’s burrito bowls.
In an effort to fight the reduction in portion sizes, social media users have gone on record to show that workers would get an extra amount of rice, beans and chicken at no extra cost.
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“Like others in the fast casual industry, our fully customizable meals can have variability in their size or weight depending on the number of ingredients a guest chooses or whether they choose to make an extra or light ingredient when order from our list of real ingredients. in person or digitally,” said Laurie Schalow, head of corporate affairs with Chipotle, in a statement via email to FOX Business.
Chipotle has been under scrutiny recently after social media users called out the restaurant chain for reducing portion sizes. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“There has been no change in our portion sizes and we aim to provide a great guest experience every time,” she also said.
In a video posted on TikTok by Fortune, with more than 15.3 million views, Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol denied any kind of miserly proportions and said the portion sizes of the company’s burritos and bowls have not gotten any smaller.
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He went on to say that if customers want a little more of something in their order, they just have to give the clerk a little nudge — and the server will add a little more.
Wells Fargo analysts put the weight reduction to the test by ordering 75 burrito bowls “like-for-like” and weighing each one to see if portion sizes were actually shrinking. (Wells Fargo Securities/Fox News)
This response received a negative response from viewers, with many finding the video tone-deaf.
“I don’t think he’s been to a Chipotle as a regular customer,” one user commented on the TikTok video.
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“I can tell he’s the CEO, no one else would approve of that statement,” wrote another TikTok user.
Many former employees also commented on the video, saying that over the years they have witnessed a decrease in portion sizes.
To counter the reduction, people started making videos or pretending to make videos of their orders in an attempt to get more ingredients in each scoop. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The notion of reducing portion sizes was put to the test by Zachary Fedam, a Wells Fargo analyst, who began recording data from various Chipotle orders.
Finance professionals, led by Fedam, ordered and then weighed “75 burrito-like bowls at 8 locations in NYC,” the data report said.
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They also tested the difference between online and in-store orders.
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Based on recorded research, the smallest bowl ordered weighed 13.8 oz. and the largest measured in at 26.8 oz.
The biggest variable factor in each order was location. Eight different locations throughout New York were used in the recording process. (Wells Fargo Securities/Fox News)
The different ordering methods, digital or in-store, didn’t turn out to make much of a difference—the average store order weighed 21.4 oz. and the average digital order weighed 21.6 oz.
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To get the most accurate reading, the bowls consisted of rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce, according to entrepreneur.com.
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The factor having the biggest impact on the data was the location in which the bowl was ordered.
| TICKER | Safety | The last | AmENdmENT | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMG | CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL INC. | 61.58 | +0.18 | +0.29% |
“That said, consistency varied widely, with some locations serving bowls weighing ~33% more than other locations (with equivalent orders); and the heaviest digital/in-store bowls weighing 87%/47% more against the lighter ones.” the report said.
Chipotle’s CEO has said there have been no reductions in portion sizes, but the data seems to suggest otherwise. (Getty Images/Getty Images)
Despite the positive and negative media coverage, Chipotle had a positive total revenue increase of 14.1%, compared to the first quarter of last year, to $2.7 billion, it reported on its website in April.