Chipotle Doubling Down on Closing
In an unprecedented and perhaps face-saving move, Chipotle will be closing all their stores for a few hours on February 8th. If you haven’t been following the recent happenings with them, the fast food giant faced a PR spectacle after an E. coli outbreak that shutdown a few locations and separately, a norovirus contamination in Boston that infected over 140 people. What do they plan to do during this temporary close? They are holding a company-wide meeting to prevent future issues with food safety. I can only imagine they'll be showing some 1970s training videos from McDonalds. No matter their decision to close, have meetings, apologize (CEO Steve Ells has publicly accepted responsibility), I am all for what they are promising, i.e. giving out double the amount of free food. Double the steak amount for the same price? I’m there.
The only misstep I see here is Ells proudly stating, “We are all very confident that this E. coli outbreak would not happen again." Man, if that unfortunate day ever comes again, you should just eat an E. Coli-laden burrito on national TV.