Chipotle (CMG) just shot an arrow through a “hack” on TikTok that was gaining traction amongst its customers.
After a video of a customer walking out of a Chipotle store after accusing an employee of “skimping on ingredients” while filling up his food order went viral on TikTok earlier this month, some customers began alleging that filming workers while they fill up their orders would get them larger proportions of food.
@jimenezzz._ testing the chipotle hack with the chipotle contreversy #chipotle
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The hack stemmed from alleged Chipotle workers who took to social media to claim that they were being instructed by management to give customers larger proportions of food if they were being recorded by customers. The alleged instructions come after the company began to face an increasing amount of heat on social media over its small food proportions and hiked prices.
Chipotle has now shut down speculation of the alleged "hack" while speaking to Forbes in a new report by claiming that it “did not issue instructions regarding filming.”
The company also posted a TikTok on May 25 poking fun at the “hack” by showing a sea of customers filming Chipotle workers via phone cameras.
“POV u work at Chipotle rn,” reads the text over Chipotle’s TikTok.
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Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs and food safety officer at Chipotle, also told Forbes that “there have been no changes in our portion sizes, and we have reinforced proper portioning with our employees.”
Chipotle employees have recently taken to Reddit to also deny the viral TikTok “hack” and even expressed frustration with customers recording them while doing their jobs.
“Let me make this very clear. If you put a phone in me or my crew's face, I will not hesitate even a second to kick you out of my store,” wrote a Chipotle employee in a Reddit post. “We are told by Chipotle to give exact portion sizes or risk losing our jobs for low performance. It is not fair to stick a phone in our faces and film us and make us uncomfortable while we are working when we are doing our jobs. Take it to corporate for shrinking portion sizes, the stores cannot change anything.”
Chipotle has recently been hiking its menu prices. Last year in October, the company confirmed its fourth price hike since 2021.
“For the first time in over a year, we will be taking a modest price increase to offset inflation,” said Schalow in a statement to Today on Oct. 12.
The price hikes appear to have had a positive impact on the company’s earnings. In Chipotle's first-quarter earnings report for 2024, the company revealed that its financial revenue increased by 14% year-over-year. Its restaurant sales also increased by 7%.
It's operating margin, which measures how much a company makes from sales after direct costs, also increased by 15.5% compared to the same time period last year.
Chipotle is one of the many fast-food restaurants that have been gradually increasing its menu prices. A recent report from the Roosevelt Institute revealed that fast-food prices have increased by almost 47% over the past decade compared to 28.7% inflation overall during the same period.
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