Dozens of bowls, actually. A Wells Fargo economic analyst ordered 75 ‘identical’ Burrito Bowls at Chipotle locations in New York City and weighed them. He found, “the consistency of the portions varied widely.”
A Chicken al Pastor Chipotle Bowl: Depicted here in all it’s official
glory, in a company-supplied glossy advertising photo…
There’s been a lot of talk recently – all over the social media platforms – about how inconsistent serving sizes are from one Chipotle restaurat to another. One X (formerly Twitter) commenter complained the differences were ‘outrageous’.
Scientific approach
Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem, based in NYC, decided to put a lid on the controversy once and for all. He went out and ordered 75 ‘identical’ Burrito Bowls from 8 different Chipotle locations and weighed them. With disturbing results.
What he found
“The bowls weighed roughly the same for in-store orders and online orders [from the same location],” a CNN report reveals. “But some lo-cations served bowls that weighed 33 percent more than other locations. Some burrito bowls went to extremes, with one topping out at 27 ounces in one location, and [another at] a meager 14 ounces in another. The median weight was around 21.5 ounces.”
The company line
“The portions have not gotten smaller,” Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol told Fortune magazine. “We always want to give people big portions that get them excited about the food.”
Chipotle Corporate Affairs Director Laurie Schalow, told CNN that Chipotle’s bowl size may vary de-pending upon the number of ingredients a customer selects, or if they choose to make an ingredient ‘extra’ or ‘go light’. She insisted the company has not changed its portion sizes.
But Fadem ordered exactly the same bowl every time during his experiment: white rice, black beans, chicken, Pico de Gallo, cheese and lettuce.
The Chipotle Phone Method
That’s what some guerilla orderers have dubbed a tactic they developed to ensure they get their fair share of fillings – and sometimes more – when ordering at Chipotle’s.
They stand as close as possible to the employee building their bowl, recording the process on their smart phones. Such intimidation often results in employees piling on more food then they are supposed to, to avoid accusations of short-changing from customers. Employees say the video oversight is ‘dehumanizing’ and ‘stressful’.
Not a ‘standard’ shrink
There’s been a lot lot of chatter, in the past year especially, about ‘shrinkflation’. That’s the tendency for food product makers to reduce the amount of product in their packages, bit by bit, without telling consumers they’re doing it. Hoping we won’t notice. They stay legal by changing the weight numbers (usually in small print, at the bottom of the label) to match what’s actually in the package.
But the vast difference between ‘idential’ Burrito Bowls found at all those Chipoltle locations in the same city can’t be chalked up to shrinkflation.
Some observers blame the management at some restaurants, who may be telling their employees to cut down on the amount of food they serve per order – to bolster profits in a deteriorating economic environment.
Others suggest employees themselves may be skimping on the ‘official’ serving sizes, to curry favour with their employers…
Gaslighting?
Some online commenters say Chipotle is gaslighting consumers by recruiting online ‘influencers’ to post about their bowl experiences, boasting in videos about how much food they got in their orders.
Jeanine Amapola (@jeanineamapola) made a video talking about the ‘downfall of Chipotle’. “I feel like the quality is not there, the price has increased for literally a scoop of guacamole,” she told the camera. “I still think the food is decent, but […] I can’t go back.”
Another TikTokker, identifying herself as Candace (@candacce), proposed the ‘gaslighting’ theory. “Whoever made that ‘downfall of Chipotle’ video, I’m pretty sure Chipotle saw it,” she tells her view-ers. “Why is there all of a sudden a bunch of influencers showing off their burrito bowls, but they’re the size of this?” ‘This’ is an enlarged burrito bowl photo, superimposed on her video image.
My take
First – I want to note that Fadem neither ate all 75 Burrito Bowls himself, nor let any of them go to waste. He treated his office colleagues to lunch each day he gathered ‘samples’.
I also have to say that ‘bowl’ menu items at many different chains have declined in value, if not overall quality, in recent, post-COVID times. Wendy’s great salads have become bowls of lettuce with just enough toppings to cover the greenery. They used to be a much better value, with more protein and other (currently relatively expensive) ingredients. Now, well… They are what they are.
Every Fast Food chain is cutting food costs to the bone.
~ Maggie J.