Not saying they don't do stuff like that all the time, there's just more of a lag between a commodity price rising and a chains ability to raise the price of the end product.
These kinds of decisions are made over fairly long time frames. Someone will be studying the likely effect of each possible price, others are forecasting how long avocado prices might stay high. Lots of disagreements, oh Jim thinks it will stay this high for a year, Mary says another month. Those things have to get worked out before even the decision will be made.
It just takes time and it would have to hurt first (sounds like that day is here), but they will eventually raise the price.
Though simplicity and just doing the same thing well is really what Chipotle is or was, much like In-N-Out doesn't need gimmicks, just the same good food consistently with well paid employees so it is quality. Hopefully Chipotle doesn't add too many things.
A) Cheese is not usually expensive, like avocado, and so not usually considered worth paying extra for
2) Cheese is known not to be healthy, and part of the appeal of Chipotle is the illusion that you're eating healthy food
3) A different kind of cheese is already available for free, so that substitute good is bound to drive down demand for queso
I did notice that they recently cut corn tortillas and one (or two?) of the meat options, so they at least seem to be cognizant of the benefits of reducing decision fatigue by concentrating on their best-selling options
There are other, cheaper methods of obtaining protein. Some of which are locally available. In Africa, for example, insects are used as local source of protein. They have a low Co2 footprint for a variety of reasons:
* Because a lack of transportation (locally available). Especially when compared to trademark protected cheeses such as Gorgonzola.
* Barely any land is used and it can be stacked, allowing more space for other land usage (generally that could be forests, or at least not adding to deforestation).
* No methane enters the air which directly affects Co2 emissions (which cows, generally the main animal used for cheese, do produce a lot).
Compare insects and cheese to avocados: for Europeans avocados are not locally grown, and the deforestation is a "far from my bed" show.
It's all about branding.
What do you mean by illusion? "Healthy" vs "unhealthy" for starters isn't some sort of easy to define line, but curious why you'd make that comment.
4) Their queso is not very good.
I use to get queso on my burritos at Qdoba every single time, when that was still around. But their queso was actually good. Chipotle's is not.
I'm not the only person that thinks that. There's articles and memes and all sorts of things about it: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/18/everybody-hates-ch...
That said, I see guac thinned all the time with salsa (esp. tomatillo-based salsas).
"We think customers understand that it isn't made from avocado," said Claire Regan, Kraft Foods' vice president of corporate affairs. "All of the ingredients are listed on the label for consumers to reference."
Chipotle has been recovering from a food safety scandal [1]. So they have to tread very carefully. While raising prices might be trivial they can generate a lot of negative publicity.
[1]: https://qz.com/968286/chipotle-mexican-grill-cmg-burrito-cha...
Potentially because then price sensitive people to whom avocado is important to enjoyment of the Chipotle menu items compared to other meal alternatives will instead not eat at Chipotle, so Chiptle will lose more money.
> Chipotle, a Mexican-themed restaurant chain, said that “historically high avocado costs” were a big reason why it posted disappointing financial results last year.
That's not what they're claiming, they're saying that if ingredient prices rise (e.g. for avocados) Chipotle can raise menu costs to protect margins. Nowhere is it implied that guacamole was being sold below-cost.
I don't understand what the confusion is: the article says they do less well financially than they would have if their ingredients were cheaper. The original comment here says "but they can always raise their prices" but that cannot guarantee that they do well financially. If the article had claimed that their margins were too low or that the extreme that they were losing money from each sale, then the first comment would have made sense. But it doesn't.
>>Some restaurants were forced to add a surcharge on guacamole, or temporarily to scrap it from their menus altogether. Others swallowed the bill.
They could raise prices but they have chosen not to so far. They may have to in the future. That explains why their financials were not great.