Queuing theory at it's finest! Bravo.
The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#22I short companies like chipotle. I invest in twitter and snapchat. that is where value is.
apparently my sarcasm is not appreciated. chitptle has a great business model. and for fast food they are pretty efficient. I've been a pleased customer for 8 years. on every transaction, I assume that they made a profit.
I laughed and upvoted.
Next time, poke fun at TSLA or NFLX.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#23Never seen any absurd greeting, and for those who havent been to chipotle, or those who want to complain about how they order there, follow this simple guide and you wont have to repeat yourself: tell the person manning the section what you need from them and nothing else. 1. You step to the first section, tell them whether you want a burrito or a bowl and potentially what type of rice/beans. 2. Next person, next ins…
The "absurd greeting" thing is a trend in the quick-serve restaurant business.
At first it was the "make the manager loop the dining room every 10 minutes" idea, then it transitioned into the "Hey, howzit goin'?" opening at the Taco Bell drive through[2], now it's the sushi-house irasshaimase! being screamed by everyone when the door opens.
[2] On a recent Ask Metafilter thread, someone was honestly asking if the new McDonald's drive-thru greeting ("Welcome Back!") was the result of face-tracking cameras and/or license plate storage being implemented at the store level. It took a lot of pages to try and convince the OP that this was just the corporation trying to be mushy/friendly/feely to the customer and nothing more. I still don't think he was convinced.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#24Yes it's ...one big First World Problem type of whining... Online ordering is the way to go. There is a huge variation in the size of the burritos from order to order, but it's not worth writing more than a sentence about.
Seems kind of silly that I would have to order online first, considering that the Chipotle I'm writing about is literally a quick walk down the stairs of my office building. It's literally right downstairs. I go there often. I always, always get the doge-speak "hai therez" and "welcomez" as I enter. It's kind of hilarious. But yeah, I prolly oughta try the online ordering... I'm just afraid they'll screw up and I won't find out until I'm back in my office. Oops, that's a First World Problem.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#25> The executives describe their business in a thick jargon of corporate culturespeak including "our unique food culture" (translated: take Mexican cuisine and remove all the rich vibrancy of actual Mexican culture and replace with a pleasant, clean, efficient retail ambience right out of the movie Her)
Oh, yes, why don't you start off the article by pointedly reminding us that you are far too smug to ever consider eating (gag) fast food.
Oh, and then why don't you follow up by implying that "pleasant" and "clean" are anathema to authentic Mexican cuisine and culture. I'm sure that'll go over real well.
The rest of the article may be packed with brilliant insights, but after that intro I'm really not interested in finding out.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#26Chipotles is such a hipster crap bucket. I can't believe people actually stand in long lines and pay good money to eat that wannabe faux texmex at a sterile no atmosphere cafeteria counter. If you are one of their many lost patrons, please do yourself a favor and go to a real texmex restaurant (or actual mexican for that matter) and discover what real food is like.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#27This author needs to visit a pharmacy, not a Mexican fast-food franchise.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#28When discussing suggestions for improvements, the author notes:
>When Subway and Quiznos work well, they work well because you, customer X, and employee A, stick with each other the whole way down the line.
To be honest, this hasn't been my case for any Subway or Quiznos I've visited. The ones I've visited has always had a manned section, with one employee responsible for that section (bread, meats, condiments, checkout, etc.)
The difference, I find, is that at Chipotles, they seem to rush you along between sections. I guess, similar to eating a restaurant where they're trying to turn tables over...if you're in that mindset (get in, get out), it works.
At Subway, things are bit slower. The employees work together, relaying the information amongst each other (if possible), or getting that information from the customer. There's more conversation, I find.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#29I'm not clear on what is broken. The reason Chipotle has become what it has is because it serves a particular market, and has been optimized for that market. All evidence points to that optimization being highly successful. A company can not grow as quickly and deliberately as Chipotle unless it is doing an awful lot of things right. And frankly, if you asked: What would McDonald's look like if they wanted to portray…
McDonald's became a big investor in Chipotle when Chipotle went from 20 to 500 stores. I'd likely argue that no small part of how they became big was due to that hand. Then, McD divests and CMG hits NYSE and they ascend from there.
So, when you ask what would McD's look like if? Is that dancing around history or can I say, "What if I told you...?"
OP got high, got dragged to Chipotle, got all malcontent, and wrote a blog post on how much better he could run the $13B company. Soooo HN.
Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment
#30Chipotles is such a hipster crap bucket. I can't believe people actually stand in long lines and pay good money to eat that wannabe faux texmex at a sterile no atmosphere cafeteria counter. If you are one of their many lost patrons, please do yourself a favor and go to a real texmex restaurant (or actual mexican for that matter) and discover what real food is like.
I like chipotle and I like real tex mex (I live in Texas). Chipotle is a better replacement for fast food; it doesn't compete in any way with tex mex restaurants in my mind.