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The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

brianstorms.com

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Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#41

Post by nilkn »

I think this article exaggerates and I hate the smug tone of it all, but overall I do agree that the Subway/Chipotle model can be annoying at times as a customer. The problem is just that they intertwine ordering and preparing the order. I think this caught on because, as a customer, it's cool to see them make the food in front of you. But overall it causes a few problems:

(1) You can feel pressured sometimes to make really quick decisions because of a line behind you.

(2) It can be pretty confusing ordering multiple items.

(3) It's not actually that efficient. They'd be better off having one person take your order and different people, in a different area, preparing the orders. This would solve all three of these problems.

To make up for the "novelty" (which has died off big time at this point) of watching them prepare the food in front of you, some places just style the building interior in a more lively and fun way. For instance, one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants follows the above model, and the interior is designed to make it look like you're ordering from a taco cart on a Mexican street--even though you're actually in a strip center which is extremely generic looking on the outside.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#42

Post by brianstorms »

andrewflnr wrote: post #33
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #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 ea…

The article is generally mocking, but I think you're taking that quoted statement a little harder than it was meant to be taken. I think by "pleasant" and "clean" he means sanitized and slightly boring. It later becomes clear that the author does go to Chipotle, seemingly on a regular basis.

This. I go prolly once a week. The Chipotle is in the first floor of my office building. But the experience is always the same.

I have nothing but respect for the employees. I feel like it's the corporate level that dehumanizes them and doesn't let them really be empowered, which would mean make sure the customer's happy and their order isn't screwed up. Maybe it's a San Diego thing, but at my Chipotle, the order is destined for screwup unless you watch the folks like a hawk.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#43

Post by brianstorms »

unethical_ban wrote: post #32
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #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 ea…

I kind of stopped when he suggested that every employer of low-wage workers was a soul-sucking evil-doer. > "our unique people culture" (translated: hire feeling, thinking, living, breathing human beings with lives and dreams and aspirations and hopes of their own, and turn them into low-wage Crew members striving to reach the top of the daily and weekly and monthly and quarterly and annual performance reports)

No I'm suggesting that the company sort of sucks the humanity out of 'em, turns 'em into bots while claiming they're empowered and happy.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#44

Post by brianstorms »

dangrossman wrote: post #39
Stratoscope wrote: post #38

> The moment the fingers of one of your hands touch the door handle of the Chipotle store and pull to swing open said door. It is at that very moment, allowing just enough nanoseconds for the mere tip of one toe on one of your feet to enter the restaurant, that the Chipotle Customer Experience begins. That's all it takes. For you have entered more than a doorway. Much, much more. You have passed through the Chipotle…

You've just repeated his thesis. This is exactly what he described. "The customer is really the boss here."

Exactly.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#45

Post by jdmichal »

fiatmoney wrote: post #18

There's no reason to couple the order-taking and the order-fulfilment. At fast-food Mexican restaurants which take the order at the counter, give you a ticket, and hand off your finished product sometime later (I'm thinking of District Taco in DC or Pancho Villa in the bay area) throughput is noticeably higher, particularly because they can make more orders at the same time. The one downside is limited backpressure o…

If you have to go up to the counter to pick it up, maybe. If they bring it to you? All that walking around probably eliminates any throughput gains from back-end efficiency.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#46

Post by brianstorms »

pistle wrote: post #29
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #6

I'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…

Not really. I'm OP and I go to Chipotle all the time. It just has this suboptimal experience that drives me crazy.

Speaking of McDonald's, I'll never forget when this Chipotle opened, and a huge 18-wheeler McDonalds truck pulled in in the alley out back, and unloaded food supplies into the Chipotle. I had no idea . . .

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#47

Post by brianstorms »

mikeash wrote: post #37

Are there two chains called Chipotle and I've only ever been to one of them? Because this is clearly not talking about the one I've been to.

Maybe it's a San Diego thing. This is what my Chipotle is like. Every time. I go frequently.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#48

Post by w1ntermute »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #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 ea…

> Oh, and then why don't you follow up by implying that "pleasant" and "clean" are anathema to authentic Mexican cuisine and culture.

To be fair, based on my experiences at various taquerias in the Bay Area, I'd have to say that that's not an entirely incorrectly assessment.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#49

Post by calbear81 »

If a $17B market cap and continued growth is recipe for disappointment, then keep on disappointing more and more customers (https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:CMG).

I'm a happy Chipotle customer. Fast, efficient, and clean. I like watching them make my burrito. I like telling them that they're putting too much of something or to load up more on the corn salsa. I also like that they cook the steak to a medium.

Re: The Chipotle Emphasis on "Throughput" Is A Recipe for Continued Disappointment

#50

Post by joezydeco »

akerl_ wrote: post #35
joezydeco wrote: post #20

The author hasn't even begun to describe the mental juggling that you endure when trying to order for multiple people, especially when you're going off-menu or asking for omits/adds. Half your order crosses the boundary to server B and you're still trying to make sure server A has everything down. With practice (and telling my kids they're locked into their favorite order for the next 10 years), I've managed to hit 8…

Custom... mods...? This is a fast food joint, not a from-parts computer you're building off Newegg. If you're expecting to rove off-menu, good luck. Ordering from Chipotle for you? Obey the One Rule: tell each person only what they care about. Being as Chipotle is pretty much always moderately busy, you've got 5-10 people ahead of you, spend 3 seconds and notice who's doing what. That way you don't have to repeat you…

Show me where on the online form I can order:

1) a side of white rice with a side of cheese on top (this is not a bowl with everything else omitted)

2) a chicken quesadilla (yes, this is a thing)

...and the comments/instruction box is just plain useless.

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