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Chipotle has faced shortages on key menu items like black beans recently, and now there are mounting complaints that the company is not handling their online orders and holiday promotions well. In fact, things have gotten so bad that employees recently performed a walk out at one of their New York City locations. We know this has been an unprecedented year for the restaurant industry, but even this seems unusual.
Chipotle customers and workers alike complained of how the Mexican Grill handled this week’s Halloween “Boorito” promotion. Both groups allege that the promotion, like other recent promos of its kind, crashed the app, caused unusually long wait times and ultimately led the workers to walk out.
If you recall, Chipotle’s annual Halloween “Boorito” promotion offers customers one free entrée item for $5. The promotion was moved online this year, and customers quickly experienced the mobile app crashing and mounting tensions at pick-up when their orders were wrong or substitutions–such as chicken for steak–were made by employees.
“It’s like being ripped into two,” Patrick Rodriguez, an employee of a Manhattan location of the chain told MarketWatch of the pressures to take incoming app orders amid supply shortages. “The orders wouldn’t stop,” added fellow employee Albert Morales.
“People would just stare at us, angry,” Andrew Luettgen, a former employee of a Bloomington, Indiana location confirmed. “Orders were coming in faster than they could be made. We would frequently see orders of 75, 80, 90 items within a 15-minute time span.” Yikes–that is so stressful!
Workers had a similar experience in July when the TK-based company ran a BOGO deal day. According To Business Insider, that promotion left many stores without ingredients, short-staffed and with long lines of angry customers--even describing it as "pure chaos." This time, for the Halloween event, workers at a Bronx location are claiming that "Chipotle continues to put workers' livelihoods in danger by cutting hours haphazardly, overworking staff members, and failing to pay their workers their premiums, which workers receive for working clopenings and having their schedules changed abruptly," a local union release stated. "Their actions have made it difficult for many workers to sustain themselves, let alone their families, on these salaries." Yikes!
The company maintains that issues with these promotions and pressures on workers aren't widespread and are only isolated incidents.
"We saw intermittent issues on the app when the Boorito promotion first launched on the East Coast. The website was not impacted and the teams resolved the app issue and we were fully functioning shortly after. Out of nearly 3,000 restaurants, we had one location in NYC experience an issue with its workers," Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Laurie Schalow told Insider.
We'll see what happens next time they run a similar promotion!
