All deliveries uses a third party app, hell, even Pizza places now use delivery apps to fullfill their delivery. Menus on third party have always been inflated. Those apps charged the restaurant anywhere from 5% to 30% per order, so the restaurant just charges the same percentage of all their items.
So its not really useful for anyone beside those who actually want a delivery, and were already willing to pay the inflated prices.
They’re not the only company pulling this but at least they put up the disclaimer. I got a “free delivery offer” on another app a few weeks ago. Logged in, made my order, noticed it was higher than when I order pickup on my way home from work. Look closer, and sure enough, there’s no delivery fee but all the item prices were higher. It’s bait and switch and should be illegal.
Thats what Temu does with its gift and discount promos as well at global scale which is clearly illegal in many countries. People fall for this hard because their already invested and continue with the process - it’s a well known dark pattern. Thats why Agoda and all airlines do as many extra fees visible at the last step as possible.
I genuinely don’t know how chipotle has survived this long when excellent family run Mexican restaurants are a dime a dozen all over the country and are super cheap to boot. I’ve tried it a few times and just never understood what people liked about it that you can’t get at your local Mexican joint.
I don’t go to Chipotle when I want Mexican food. I go to Chipotle if I want something quick and vaguely Mexican-ish. Just like people don’t go to McDonald’s or Burger King looking for a good burger.
Honestly as a vegetarian Chipotle is just about the only chain that has an actual entree I like to eat. Not to mention all the Mexican places in my city I can think of are all more expensive sit down restaurants. (Nevermind even accounting if there’s a good veg option) So after work for some quick food or even on road trips Chipotle is really helpful for me, I would be devastated if they ever closed. I personally think it tastes pretty good too but could understand omnis with more options living in the south thinking otherwise.
It’s cheaper than Taco Bell and I like their rice and chicken. Also it’s fast.
Since when is chipotle cheaper than the Bell?
Right? Taco Bell is insanely expensive now.
I don’t understand how it’s so popular in border specifically. Like Taco Bell I understand, that’s not Mexican food, they don’t claim to be Mexican food, it’s gringo food, half the people I see at Taco Bell are Hispanic because that’s a specific type of food different from everything else… But there’s a Mexican place of some kind on nearly every corner in AZ. There’s no reason to ever even consider Chipotle.
A large part has to do with their speed, convenience, and specific ordering style. Being able to walk in, tell someone exactly what you want on your burrito, watch them make it, and then leave with it is something I’ve never seen a Mexican restaurant offer, but chipotle does.
I haven’t been to a chipotle, but it sounds from reading here that it offers the same thing Subway and Harveys do. No presumptions, no need to ask them to remove anything. You ask for exactly what you want, and as a bonus, you even get to watch it being made. For people that have allergies, sensitivities, and many of the various food related neurodivergencies, like super taster, hypersensory, ARFID… basically anything that makes you feel like a jerk ordering from other places, it’s refreshing that our order is easier rather than harder. Feel like less of a burden.
As a non-American, I associate it with extremely unhealthy synthetic shit. That shit even has a fucking South Park episode. That can only be harmful.
ChipotleawayUh…it’s not at all. In fact it’s definitely one of the healthier lunch options out there.
It’s just what I associate with it. I’m not saying that’s the case. To be able to do that, I’d have to find out first, but what’s the point since it doesn’t exist here anyway.
Familiarity, I’d imagine. You go to Chipotle in any part of any city, and you already know what’s on their menu, how much it’ll cost, and how it’ll taste. But smaller restaurants, even a local chain, can vary wildly from store to store, and most people probably don’t want to spend their limited lunch time experimenting with restaurants they’re unfamiliar with.
Yeah exactly, for me it is a childhood comfort and I’ve almost grown to like the ingredients for their specific taste, specifically the cheese, salsa’s, and chips as I find their meat often fatty or burnt. Better than a big mac I guess
Agreed. I grew up near the border and moved to Colorado and everyone here was obsessed with it when I first moved here. I could not understand it. It was the blandest, worst, not Mexican at all, food and there’s so much actual good Mexican food here that’s cheaper. Doesn’t even make sense.
I don’t understand how it’s so popular in border specifically. Like Taco Bell I understand, that’s not Mexican food, they don’t claim to be Mexican food, it’s gringo food, half the people I see at Taco Bell are Hispanic because that’s a specific type of food different from everything else… But there’s a Mexican place of some kind on nearly every corner in AZ. There’s no reason to ever even consider Chipotle.
Consistency is the reason.
Chipotle is great for kids and people who want the same flavor profile. My kids love Chipotle mostly because they don’t want strange foods or new flavors. Most kids (and some adults) eat a handful of foods and don’t want surprises. My eldest is starting to branch out to new foods now that he is firmly in his teens. But the youngest won’t touch anything new.
The independent Mom and Pop Mexican restaurant may have much better food, but it doesn’t taste the same. Which is great for people who have much more varied pallets, not so much for kids and adults who don’t.
bc some people just mindlessly trust the franchises. Kelly had a cartoon about this.
lol, cheap
There are some places where no restaurants are cheap. The taco carts are cheap. But if you want to sit down… Uh uh.
I’ll always remember the first time I went to Chipotle. I guess it must have still been a regional thing at the time because I had never heard of it or been to one, so I wasn’t familiar with how it worked. Someone I had just started dating brought me there.
There was a small menu on the wall in the area where you wait in line. It listed things like chicken burrito, bean burrito, etc, along with ingredients for each of those. So I thought, “Alright. Bean burrito sounds good.”
It’s my turn to order. I asked for the bean burrito. They stare at me and I stare at them.
“No, but what do you want on it?”
-“All the things for the bean burrito.”
“I need to know what you want on it.”
-“What? Just the regular. It’s on the sign there.”
I have returned to Chipotle only once because that same person I was dating at the time wanted to go. I didn’t want to deal with the burrito process, so I just ordered rice.
They didn’t specify that there was cilantro in the rice back then. I’ve got that cilantro equals soap gene.
I have never returned to a Chipotle.
Thank you for reading my mundane story.
I hate cilantro
I know it doesn’t matter but as much as I like their burritos I just had to stop buying. I couldn’t take their fuckery, and it’s absurd to me what they’re charging for a burrito that’s basically all beans and rice. I wouldn’t mind it if they paid their workers well, but we all know they don’t.
$20 for a burrito was my limit I can go down to the taqueria and get 2 burritos and a jarrito for that price
Where do you live where it’s 20 for a burrito? Is that for delivery or pickup?
That was ordering in store around 2022 north East
I’m boycotting because the new chicken is a gross honey thing instead of last year’s Al Pastor which I liked. If I wanted chicken drowned in sugar sauce I’d go to Panda Express.
Discount increased prices or increased discount prices?
It is cheaper if you were already planning on getting a delivery. This uses a third-party delivery app to fullfill the order, menu prices has always been inflated by 5-30%. The app charges the restaurent, and in turn, they charge the customer.
Yes.
