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

> 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.

Never 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 instruction, tell them your meat and possibly what salsa.

3. Final person (besides the register) tell them what types of additional fixings, hopefully in the order they would stack next to your burrito.

This is a simple strategy and the only time I have had to repeat myself at a chipotle is when they are playing the music too loud.

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 themselves as a healthy, eco-friendly, trend-setting fast food company? The answer would look a lot like Chipotle. So queuing theory aside, it works well enough to be a major success. So what if I have to repeat myself to the next server in line? The cost of repetition in this context is nearly zero.

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 on the order line, so you can end up with more people filing in than there are seats (or sometimes even space to wait for your order). Not as much of an issue for takeout-focused joints.

Yeah, I've been to Chipotle probably 30 times in the past 2 years and have never endured the greeting thing. If it weren't for the photos, I'd have assumed the author was writing about Moe's[1] and accidentally got them confused (which is easy, since they're basically the same restaurant, except Moe's DOES the horrendous annoying greeting thing every time somebody walks in.)

1: http://www.moes.com/

My real trouble with miscommunication at Chipotle is not that I have to repeat myself several times because I'm encountering new employees (Chipotle seems to have done a good job of training me as a customer to know exactly what I need to say at each section of the line), but that the glass partition is often so high that I have to repeat myself several times because my voice does not project over the glass. I'm 5'4", not abnormally short, and even on tip toe this happens. Having to shout my order is more annoying than repeating it, imo.

I go to numerous restaurants with the same model as Chipotle, and none of them seem as disorganized as Chipotle. In fact, my friends and I generally like to make fun of Chipotle for being ludicrously inefficient, in some parts due to the crazy passing around of people and order components mentioned in this article, and partly due to the employees not having any real experience rolling burritos. In comparison, there's a 24-hour burrito place called Freebirds nearby (related lineage, but yet entirely unrelated to other instances of Freebirds if you happen to have one near you: the one in Isla Vista is unique) who have almost an identical mechanic, and yet the staff, many of whom have been working there the entire 15 years I've lived in this area, are able to rapidly organize and serve lines of drunk people going out the door and down the street at 1-2am, and without the burritos falling apart as you attempt to pick them up. I guess to say: I don't think it is Chipotle optimizing for "throughput" that causes the problems described here, as these problems directly and negatively impact their throughput. (Also, for those who doubt the greeting thing ever happens anywhere: the Chipotle near me definitely has the "people jump to greet everyone that walks in the door" property.)

> 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 Greeting Membrane, and like the blue humming mist above the egg-pods in Alien, Chipotle has noticed.

> "Huhhhhlllllo," some team member, some member of the Chipotle Crew sings, from somewhere in the distance behind the counter far away, as if some little buzzer deep underneath their uniform just emitted a gentle Skinnerian electric shock against their body because a sensor tripped the moment you came through the door, and this particular type of shock was one they've been trained to recognize and which makes them mindlessly, instantly sing the word "huhhhhhllllooo," or an equivalent sweet nothing, without even looking up.

What a bunch of horseshit.

I visit Chipotle often, and yes, I visit much better Mexican restaurants often too. I do know the difference, but if I'm in the neighborhood of a Chipotle and I'm in the mood for a quick hearty Mexican-style salad, they've never disappointed me.

Part of it is I know what to do. Tell the first person "I'd like a salad to go with no dressing." (Their dressing is some awful sweet thing.) I wait a moment while they get the lettuce into the bowl. When they look up, I say "with brown rice, pinto beans, peppers, and chicken."

At this step and the next one, I pace the ingredient requests to match when they are adding them. It's easier and more reliable to watch and wait than it is to ask them to think ahead.

After the bowl is passed to the next person and they look up, I add, "I'd like pico de gallo, medium salsa, corn, and guacamole. I know the guacamole is extra." (That way they don't have to explain it.)

As the guac goes on, I mention one last thing: "And some lettuce on top so the the guacamole doesn't stick to the lid."

At this point they smile, knowing that I'm a real Chipotle Expert. (Much better when the guac doesn't stick to the lid!)

I'm in and out in less than five minutes (or less than ten if there's a long line) with a delicious salad - less than ten bucks and enough for two full meals.

Now that's throughput.

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 80% accuracy. Short of writing it down (and no, their fax-in form has no room for customs or mods), I'm not sure how to get it any better without slowing the line to a complete halt.

Yes 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.

Chipolte's system is focused on food consumers or food consuming consumers. Its employees don't care because they can't. Care is not allowed. It slows down the machine. The question "what's good today?" has no meaning because the brown cardboard boxes from which today's ingredients emerged are indistinguishable from the brown cardboard boxes from which yesterday's emerged or tomorrow's will.

The general model of taking orders as people enter and preparing the food in parallel with their progress toward the cashier is sound. Fortunato's Pizza in downtown St. Pete uses it and it works well - despite allowing employees to act dignified instead forcing them to act Disneyfied.

The reason? Fortunato's isn't a franchise and the head of the production line at its nexus with the customer line was the owner himself. The face of the restaurant was its most seasoned veteran. He wrote the order down, and if it was pizza slices dropped them into the machine with the conveyor belt and heat elements himself. His greeting meant something and more importantly his customers' greetings meant something to him. They were his customers afterall.

http://www.fortunatositalianmarket.com/

I short companies like chipotle. I invest in twitter and snapchat. that is where value is.

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.

When 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.

Or, you could realize how you're supposed to order at Chipotle based upon experiencing the fail, and do that next time. Don't tell the first person what meat you want, that's not their job. Know that you'll need to tell the cashier what your order is so they can ring you up. Don't order weird shit that's not made up of the basic stuff on the menu, keep it simple.

It's not complicated, the reason their business model works is because their food is pretty good and for the customer who adapts to understand their workflow they can get their food crazy fast. Its painless and I'd imagine this adaptation process where Chipotle regulars "know the drill" and get their food in like 30 seconds is part of the reason the company is doing so well.

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.

Actually, my experience at chipotle has been pleasant most of the time and I order out of script stuff("chicken bowl to go with the fajita(veggies) and the tortilla on the side")

Big orders do throw them off but that's because they are optimized for the 99% case of 1-2 orders/customer.

I went to Chipotle for lunch yesterday and felt really rushed, even though there weren't too many people behind me. I'd rather wait in line longer and have a more pleasant experience than to be another customer they just process through the line.

They have at least one branch in London now. I've been there. They didn't do the creepy greeting thing, probably because we'd look at them like they were crazy and walk right out again. Also they might not find any workers.

Sounds like this particular Chipotle we're talking about here is a just a shitty one. I've never had an issue with their assembly line process. It works quite well for me.

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.

Queuing theory at it's finest! Bravo.

Chipotles 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.

This author needs to visit a pharmacy, not a Mexican fast-food franchise.

I really don't care if I have to say "steak" twice. If it was 3 times I would probably not go there again, but twice is a not a big rock for my wagon.