Chipotle Traffic Declines at Slower Pace In February, March compared to December, January

Since the Chipotle E. Coli scare began in October of 2015, the stock has fallen -35%. This decline has been driven by the chain-wide decrease in traffic that followed the initial reports and led to -15% YoY same-store sales for Q4 2015. Chipotle has attempted to reverse this trend through numerous promotions, but Orbital Insight data indicates that the chain has had minimal success when it comes to halting the slide. That being said, Orbital Insight’s data has shown a slight uptick in February and March versus December and January. While YoY traffic is still declining, Orbital Insight has observed a lower rate of decline over the last two months, compared to the December-January period. The graph below depicts the cumulative YoY percent change in Orbital Insight’s daily normalized car counts, which enables the visualization of trends.

For more information or to inquire about datasets, email sales@orbitalinsight.com