
Chipotle Taps Taco Bell CEO to Be Its New Head - fludlight
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/chipotle-taps-taco-bell-ceo-as-new-leader-in-major-culture-shift
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joezydeco
The article doesn't mention that Taco Bell's kitchen systems are designed to
eliminate many weak links in fast food preparation and handling. It doesn't
prevent the line worker from sneezing influenza on the burrito, but that's
also not how you get e.coli outbreaks.

If CMG is looking to get past their previous history of systemic food safety
issues, this was probably a good choice.

~~~
slg
The article also doesn't mention that Chipotle's first big period of expansion
was while it was owned by McDonalds. I have to imagine that McDonalds had an
expertise in this area that at least matched Taco Bell if not greatly exceeded
them.

~~~
joezydeco
McDonald's did indeed help Chipotle get their logistical systems in order. CMG
and MCD still share some common suppliers.

One area where Chipotle resisted McD's advice was in automating their kitchen
systems. One example was the steak. CMG believed hand-marinating and grilling
their steaks in-store was a core feature that couldn't be changed. It's also a
highly risky procedure when it comes to food safety and cross-contamination.

Other things, like the carnitas and barbacoa, were changed to be prepared
offsite and shipped to the stores for sous-vide rethermalizing and serving.
The steak was also changed to this method after the outbreaks (and long after
MCD divested).

~~~
jeffdubin
2019 = Order via speech recognition

2020 = Automated kitchen systems prepare ingredients

2021 = Burrito preparation via robotics

2021 = End-to-end order fulfillment without human involvement

Just a matter of time before raw ingredients are lab grown and harvested by
robots. Not too long ago, this was pure fantasy. Only now is it starting to
look inevitable, for better or for worse.

~~~
labster
I guess what I don't understand is why we don't have more human-free systems
for food payment. All of 15 years ago, I went in a company cafeteria in
Tsukuba, paid a vending machine, and took the ticket to the cook. If I had
been able to speak any Japanese back then, I probably could have customized my
order there. But here in the US we're still hiring fast food workers to take
standardized orders.

~~~
icebraining
They're starting to appear. McDonalds has now introduced it in multiple
European countries, plus isolated restaurants here and there (e.g. Burgerlich
in Hamburg, which has touchscreens embedded in the tables:
[https://goo.gl/oJAh9v](https://goo.gl/oJAh9v))

~~~
bane
Almost every McDonald's I've been to in Europe and Canada has a set of Kiosks
where you can order what you want (in English) and pay. You then take a number
from the kiosk and sit down and somebody brings your food out to you or
screens display your pickup number when it's time. Most ones in the U.S. have
stubbornly held on to the less efficient queue at the counter and talk to a
bored human system.

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benatkin
Like with Starbucks, it was the individual employees, their kindness, and
their appreciation for the product that made Chipotle special for me during
their non-mediocre years. I liked Starbucks the most in about 2006 and
Chipotle the most at around 2010. It's too bad they're mediocre now. They
still both feel magical occasionally, though. I'm not sure whether they
compromised the product or the culture first.

~~~
jrs95
The culture may have largely declined by their pay not rising as the pay in
fast food did. At least in my area, McDonald’s and Wendy’s pay as much if not
more than Chipotle for an entry level position.

Edit: I get that this was probably more about the corporate culture as a
whole, but working conditions and pay at the store level is equally as
important in terms of customer experience in my opinion. 5 years ago when I
went to a Chipotle, the workers there seemed happy. Now when I go, they
clearly aren’t.

~~~
Clubber
Absolutely. Whenever we go to fast food and it inevitably sucks, I always
quip, "they aren't paid enough to give a shit, and I don't blame them."

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neals
Slightly off-topic maybe, but I went to Taco Bell for the first time two weeks
ago while visiting the beautiful USA. And my god what a terrible food do they
make. Why would you go there more then once?

~~~
tauntz
Same question. I've heard so much about Taco Bell from pop culture/internet
that I just had to try it. Went to check it out during one of my trips to the
US and oh boy.. I was in for a culture shock.

I had some kind of a burrito. I don't think I have ever been served food
anywhere else that was more disgusting (sorry, I don't know of a more
appropriate word to use here). And I'm not picky at all! I'll eat basically
anything that you can throw at me - but this.. this was something else.

To be honest, I assumed and hoped it was a one-off occurrence because I
couldn't imagine anybody going there more than once in their lifetime and they
couldn't possibly be in the business if they'd constantly serve that kind of
fast food.

~~~
1123581321
Just about anything is better than their burritos. Stick to tacos and
quesadillas (and French fries, seriously.)

~~~
mrguyorama
I disagree. A carb wrapped tube of 50% meatlike product and salty, processed
cheese sauce, with various other fillings, that you can buy for a dollar, is
utterly amazing. I go to taco bell occasionally because $6 gets me an armload
of guilty pleasure

~~~
1123581321
I respect that. Is there a better burrito to get than the one that comes in
the $5 box, though? I might just not like refried beans as much as everyone
else. I like the little breakfast burritos at McDonalds, for reference.

~~~
mrguyorama
If you don't like re-fried beans, then you might be out of luck, since taco
bell commonly uses it as a cheap filler. Maybe the bacon-potato burrito
doesn't have it? I think you can ask for the burritos without the beans.

While I like taco bell, I _also_ like Chipotle's barbacoa burritos

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dillondoyle
From a comment below I just learned about the antibiotic free pork supply
shortage. That's insane to me there there isn't scale for one restaurant's
meat (and I guess Chipotle is by far biggest demand).

Chipotle should vertically integrate and grow their own pork without
compromising ethics. It's already a shit margin business, maybe going to zero
margin on the farming could help.

~~~
zamazingo
One grows a pig, not a pork. Once you kill the pig, its name is supposed to
change to pork, though why, I never understood quote well.

~~~
theandrewbailey
The reason is one of the byproducts of the Norman Conquest. The local English
people raised cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens, but the nobles (mostly, if not
entirely French) were the only ones who could afford to eat meat. They said
boeuf, porc, mouton, and pouletrie.

[https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/32560/why-are-
beef-a...](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/32560/why-are-beef-and-
pork-and-mutton-used-to-refer-to-the-meat-of-cows-and-pig)

~~~
1123581321
It's more that the Normans used French to make a class distinction. English
wanting to ingratiate themselves borrowed terms.

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kriffo
Because they're both burritos

~~~
tyingq
I'm sure the Taco Bell CEO gets the nuance, but if your expertise is slogging
low cost / low quality ingredients...it's not obvious you're the person to
solve an issue with a company struggling with high-end intentions, but low-
quality results. Ever been to a Chipotle? The warning about pork carnitas is
pretty off-putting. They basically say you're rolling the dice based on past
performance.

~~~
spike021
What warning about pork carnitas?

~~~
jey
This one:
[https://twitter.com/byjayroot/status/809485903051812864](https://twitter.com/byjayroot/status/809485903051812864)

~~~
tyingq
This is the warning I was talking about.

~~~
geofft
I'm not sure what you mean with rolling the dice - it sounds to me like
they're saying, the suppliers may have given antibiotics to the pigs as
specific medical care, but are not just blanket giving every pig antibiotics.
(The link says that permitting antibiotics for medical care is the one
difference between Chipotle UK and US standards, in fact.)

Do you expect either lower-quality meat or higher-health-risk meat as a result
of this? I don't think I do but maybe I just don't know enough here.

~~~
tyingq
The short version in the Twitter screenshot doesn't fully explain the
antibiotic issue. And it's the same one you see if you go to the restaurant
personally. Given their history with E-coli (bacteria)[1], they need to be
more explicit about what they mean. Making people sick nationally, with a
bacteria, coupled with short critical quips about antibiotics is confusing.

The short warning just read to me as "don't order the pork, you might get
sick". Not a great set-up for a good lunch experience. They seem to assume all
customers are already educated about their sourcing strategy.

[1]
[https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbrea...](https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm470410.htm)

 _" the CDC reports a total of 55 people infected with the outbreak strain of
STEC (Shiga toxin producing E. coli) O26 from a total of 11 states in the
larger outbreak"_

 _" Chipotle Mexican Grill closed 43 restaurants in Washington and Oregon in
early November 2015 in response to the initial outbreak."_

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agjacobson
Let’s see what he can do with a $10 lunch business model.

~~~
polalavik
It's really not that insane. Two garbage egg mcmuffins these days run for
$9.50ish which probably costs about 10 cents to make. I'll take the quality of
chipotle for $7-10 anyday over the insanely overpriced bullshit the others are
pumping out.

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smsm42
I wonder if that would have any influence on the kind and quality of food.
Chipotle seems to have decent fast food - nothing to write home about, but
qualifies in my book as an ok if not great meal to eat and get on with the
day. OTOH, I ate at Taco Bell exactly once in my life and it was the
absolutely worst meal I had anywhere in the US. I wouldn't want Chipotle go
there. But maybe borrowing CEO doesn't mean moving the food in the same
direction. Hopefully.

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vidoc
the guy must know a thing or two about tacos

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purplezooey
Another replacement of a founder with a body from the random CEO pool.
Knowledge between companies is almost 0% transferrable.

~~~
ecshafer
Taco Bell and Chipotle seem pretty similar. Not only are they massive chains
of physical locations that would have very similar issues. They are also
selling similar food. Mission burritos and Tex Mex (regardless of quality and
authenticity) are almost all the same ingredients.

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maxxxxx
I have been to Taco Bell only twice and I found the "food" they are selling
basically inedible. Definitely wouldn't hire that CEO.

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flossball
You can never tell how much it was him or the team under him, but Taco Bell
really is winning on novelty, new store design, and online ordering. Now that
they are linked with grubhub, they are at peak.

Maybe he can at least figure out how to keep the veggies from being a
petridish. Here is a hint - subway and most sandwich shops don't keep warm
meat next to the veg...

