Following the E. coli, salmonella, and norovirus outbreak at Chipotle outlets in ten states across America, Chipotle is planning to close its doors to the public by Feb. However, in the hopes of saving customers and redeeming a name for themselves, the food chain is planning to offer food - on the house.
At the ICR conference, Co-CEO Monty Moran stated that the food chain has doubled the amount of food they plan to give away for customers. Would this be enough to push old and potentially new customers to rush to Chipotle? As for the dates when Chipotle plans to give away food, the food chain declined to give an exact date.
"The exact giveaways will be up to each store's discretion, allowing managers to create their own campaigns," stated an exclusive report by Yahoo.
Chipotle lovers would of course have to wait for a few more weeks before they can get their hands on the free burrito. On Feb. 8, around 2,000 Chipotle chains would shut down for a food safety meeting. This campaign is geared towards proper food handling following the incident in 2015 wherein more than 500 people had been sickened by cases of E. coli, salmonella, and norovirus.
"We are hosting a national team meeting to thank our employees for their hard work through this difficult time, discuss some of the food safety changes we are implementing, and answer questions from employees," stated Chris Arnold, a spokesperson for Chipotle spokesman, in an email to The New York Times.
Apart from the free food and food safety changes, Chipotle is set to work on a new marketing campaign as stated by CEO Steve Ells. This campaign involves traditional ads as well as direct mail, in hopes of clearing up all that has happened at the food chain.
Ells is nothing but confident that Chipotle would recover from their losses. Once at $750, Chipotle has dropped to $428 a share. This is a 42 percent drop. While Ells is assured the food chain would pull through, reports state some are still skeptical given the number of legal issues.
"Earlier this month, the company said it was served with a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation tied to a norovirus outbreak this summer at one of its restaurants in California that sickened 80 customers and 13 employees," reported CBS Business.
Would the free burrito bowl be enough to convince you to head back to Chipotle?
