In Defense of Chipotle

“I read the news today… oh boy”
– John Lennon

“Food Poison Journal alert: Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak spreads to 45 people in 6 states” — September 23, 2015

They say all press is good press. Not so much. The headlines plastered on websites and newspapers around the globe linking E. coli and my long-time competitor, Chipotle, are anything but good.

For over a decade, a not-so-small part of my job has been to “beat Chipotle”. People around me, to this day, assure me that it can be done. “Boloco is so different, so much better, has so many more options”, they preach to me. I appreciate that, I really do.

But I don’t think about beating Chipotle anymore. Boloco is blessed with a steady stream of loyal customers, despite our many flaws. We are playing our own game — and on some days we play well — but even when we do, we are very much buried in the minor leagues of the restaurant business.

Chipotle, on the other hand, is the kingpin of the major leagues. With the help of nearly $400 million from their one-time 80%+ owner McDonald’s from 1998 to 2006, they built a formidable brand and operational machine that serves on average nearly two times as many customers per location as the average Boloco does. Offering a limited menu has allowed them to focus on doing fewer things really, really well… and they’ve executed beautifully overall. There are Chipotle haters, like anything else, but most agree they are the envy of the higher-end fast food world. With nearly 2,000 locations now open, there are days when it feels like most of the country is having a love affair with Chipotle.

So, while little Boloco and countless other minor and major leaguers alike have never been able to “beat Chipotle”, a new force has been chipping away at its fortress for a number of years with increasing intensity. And it’s the one thing that all of us in the business fear, or should fear, more than anything else… food borne illness.

I read recently that over 50 million of us in the United States experience some form of food borne illness each year… much of it apparently undetected and/or unreported. The human system is strong and resilient, thank goodness — more than most of us who are scientifically and biologically challenged might realize. We feel like sh*t sometimes, but we usually recover pretty quickly.

Most nauseous human beings blame the last restaurant they visited as the obvious culprit for the gastrointestinal tsunamis that take over their bodies every so often. Ironically, its the average home kitchen where food safety practices are all but ignored. We don’t wash our hands properly, we aren’t aware of proper temperatures, we think of the Danger Zone as a term from the movie Top Gun, and when we cross contaminate we call it fusion cuisine. Regardless, it’s nearly impossible to confidently pinpoint where one falls ill, short of an immediate allergic-like reaction or heading to the ER to get stool samples taken.

As news of the expanded E. coli cases linked to Chipotle spread this past Friday afternoon, and Chipotle’s stock dropped an additional 10% on top of the 20% it had already lost in the prior few weeks, I couldn’t help but feel badly for Chipotle.

Here’s why. Chipotle has one of the best training programs in the history of the restaurant business — and that includes food sanitation practices. I’ve known countless former executives and managers and team members who would attest to that even as they left the company on less than amicable terms. Chipotle monitors and audits its food suppliers at a level that most of us wouldn’t know even existed. And they do these things because they actually really, deeply care about the food they feed their customers. Their “Food with Integrity” mantra is at least 15 years old and has driven some incredibly bold decisions, most of which have paid off handsomely. I’ve always been a big fan.

On Twitter and across media everywhere, thousands are vowing to stop visiting their nearest Chipotle. It’s a classically human reaction, but perhaps one of the most irrational proclamations out there. Given what’s taken place, perhaps none of it in Chipotle’s control (we’ll be lucky if we or they ever find out), their practices related to food safety will now be second to none. Chances of getting a serious food borne illness (very different than feeling a little gas, by the way) at Chipotle are about as likely as winning the lottery twice in a row.

What has happened in these seventeen Chipotle restaurants can happen in any restaurant — as well as in your neighbor’s kitchen. And your kitchen.

To provide perspective, less than 50 people have allegedly contracted E. coli while eating at Chipotle… and yet nearly 100,000 of us suffer from it in any given year. That’s a fraction of a fraction of a percent… like .05% or something crazy like that.

At Boloco, we’re going to use this whole episode as an excuse to recommit to even better practices in our restaurants. Nothing like a scare next door to put all of us on our toes.

One significant and specific commitment we are making starting in January is to provide ServSafe training and certification for every team member who has been with Boloco for more than one year. Health code requires that at least one manager is “ServSafe Certified”, but clearly that’s not good enough. Providing this level of eductaion will be good for guest safety, and great for team members’ ability to take on more responsibility, get promoted, find a better job, and earn more money due to newly attained and valuable skills.

Bottom-line. As much as a number of pundits and short sellers enjoy watching Chipotle get beaten up a bit, the truth is that there aren’t many safer places to eat.

For good measure, I’ll visit a Chipotle tomorrow and order a bowl with steak, black beans, guac and mild salsa. After all, I bought some shares of CMG stock early this morning and the increase in a few short hours earned me at least a year of burritos.