Chipotle: How Much Are BEANS and RICE Worth?

 

In 2025, Chipotle Mexican Grill finds itself at a crossroads. Once hailed as the disruptor of fast-casual dining, the burrito behemoth now risks becoming the very thing it once challenged: a legacy brand teetering on complacency according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. With soaring prices, increasingly hollow marketing, and a positioning strategy that feels more performative than purposeful, Chipotle’s current trajectory echoes the cautionary tales of Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, and Hooters—brands that failed to evolve and paid the price.

 

Pricing: Premium Without the Premium Experience

Chipotle’s pricing model in 2025 has shifted from “affordable quality” to “aspirational fast food.” A basic burrito bowl—beans, rice, protein, and a few toppings—now averages $12.75, with guacamole adding another $2.50. For a family of four, a casual dinner can easily top $60, placing Chipotle in direct competition with full-service restaurants.

Yet the experience hasn’t scaled with the price:

·       No table service

·       No ambiance

·       No customization beyond the basics

·       No loyalty perks that feel meaningful

As the Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson notes, “Consumers don’t care who makes the food—they care about accessibility, portability, and quality. Chipotle’s pricing is outpacing its value proposition”.

 

Marketing: From Cult Status to Corporate Static

Chipotle’s early success was built on authenticity—farm-to-table sourcing, sustainability, and bold storytelling. But in 2025, its marketing feels like a relic of its former self:

·       TikTok campaigns lack originality and rely on influencer gimmicks

·       Loyalty programs offer minimal rewards and confusing tiers

·       “Cultivate” events have dwindled in attendance and impact

Compare this to Sweetgreen’s habit-based personalization or H-E-B’s Meal Simple® bundles, which offer curated, tech-driven experiences that feel fresh and relevant. Chipotle’s marketing, by contrast, is stuck in a loop of recycled slogans and avocado worship.

 

Positioning: The Fast-Casual Identity Crisis

Chipotle’s positioning as a premium fast-casual brand is increasingly muddled. It’s not fast enough to compete with QSRs like Taco Bell, nor elevated enough to rival fast-casual innovators like CAVA or Dig. Its menu innovation has stalled, with limited-time offers that feel like afterthoughts rather than culinary events.

Meanwhile, grocerants—retailers offering fresh, ready-to-eat meals—are eating Chipotle’s lunch. As Johnson explains, “The grocerant niche is growing while chains like Chipotle stand still. Consumers want mix-and-match meal components, not rigid formats”.

 

Historical Context: The Legacy Brand Trap

Chipotle’s current trajectory mirrors the decline of other legacy chains:

·       Red Lobster: Failed to adapt to changing seafood preferences and pricing pressures

·       TGI Fridays: Lost relevance with younger diners and leaned too hard on nostalgia

·       Hooters: Ignored shifting cultural norms and failed to modernize its brand

Each of these brands clung to past success while ignoring consumer evolution. Chipotle risks the same fate if it continues to prioritize margin over meaning.

 

Incremental Marketing Data Points: What the Numbers Say

According to 2025 food marketing statistics:

·       Digital ordering has grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014

·       Food influencer marketing is up 42% since 2019

·       92% of consumers read reviews before choosing where to eat

Yet Chipotle’s digital experience remains clunky, its influencer strategy feels forced, and its Yelp ratings have stagnated. The brand is failing to capitalize on the very trends driving foodservice growth.

 

Think About This: Beans, Rice, and a Brand at Risk

Chipotle’s core offering—beans, rice, and protein—was once a symbol of simplicity and quality. Today, it’s a metaphor for a brand that’s lost its flavor. The pricing is bloated, the marketing is stale, and the positioning is confused.

If Chipotle wants to avoid becoming the next cautionary tale, it must:

·       Reinvest in menu innovation

·       Rethink its pricing strategy

·       Reignite its brand purpose

·       Embrace the grocerant model and consumer-driven customization

Because in 2025, the question isn’t “How much are beans and rice worth?”—it’s “How much longer will consumers pay for a brand that’s forgotten what made it special?”

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chides Parents Risks Kids Privacy

Bold marketing moves can garner positive results, however risking Children’s Online Privacy is not a bold marketing move it is a risky one according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

So when Chipotle announced that it is the first major restaurant brand to market itself on TikTok that is exactly what they have done according to Johnson. TikTok recently agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after allegations that the app knowingly and illegally stored the names, email addresses, and locations of users under the age of 13. The fine was $5.7 million fine for collecting personal information about its pre-teen users.

While today Chipotle is popular with Gen Z—and the chain is reaping high user engagement numbers from its efforts with TikTok while many parents are unaware of the FTC violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  The FTC continues to want more information on TikTok privacy usage.

TikTok, which started in China in 2017 and became the most downloaded app in the U.S. about a year ago, allows users to create and share short videos. It’s especially popular with those born between 1997 and 2012. Chipotle’s official presence on TikTok began after the chain noticed “organic” content about the brand frequently appearing on the app, said Tressie Lieberman, Chipotle’s vice president of digital marketing and off-premise.

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based chain first posted on the app last summer, when a Maryland Chipotle employee had a customer film a video of him flipping a lid from one of the fast-casual chain’s bowls. The video, which was originally posted to Instagram, has received more than 1 million views.

“We instantly knew from the reaction that this was the right content to start our first partnership with TikTok, inviting our customers to try the lid flip trick for themselves with a branded hashtag challenge,” Lieberman said.

So, is risking children’s customer privacy with Lieberman and Chipotle?  It would appear so.  Do you think that Chipotle should warn parents or the underage users of the risks of using TikTok? Is your brand prepared for the down side if TikTok were to continue gathering your kid’s app usage, interest, and online information for other purposes? Is this how you want to market to Kids?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Chipotle Mexican Grill Elevates Educates Edifies Customers

In a proactive and unique partnership Chipotle Mexican Grill announced its participation at the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee with its very own spelling bee: Chipotle Bee, For Real. Elevating and edifying your brand message is a key drive of future growth and create a platform for a new electricity within the brand according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

This unique proactive branded platform was hosted by Justin Howard, Chipotle Bee, For Real took place on a specially-created stage and featured Chipotle’s 51 ingredients. Chipotle invited spellers to tackle one complex ingredient found at other restaurants, and one simple, real ingredient found at Chipotle. The competitor list included words like carrageenan, dimethylpolysiloxane and lecithin. Chipotle’s list included avocado, beef and cheese.

Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer of Chipotle stated “Chipotle only uses real ingredients in its kitchens, and those ingredients tend to be simple to pronounce and easy to spell,” … “However, other restaurants frequently use artificial or processed ingredients and preservatives that are often much more difficult to spell and say, so we highlighted this difference in a unique way at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.”

Valerie Miller, Communications Manager for the Bee stated “Our spellers have voracious appetites for words and good food, and they were thrilled to have a chance on the Chipotle stage,” …“We are also passionate about Chipotle’s mission of cultivating a better world, which we aim to achieve through the pursuit of education.”

So, the Chipotle Bee, For Real incorporated 102 words which were complete with special pronunciation guidelines, definitions, origins and uses in a sentence. Spellers that were up for the challenge received prizes including exclusive Chipotle Bee pins, Chipotle Bee foil notebooks and Chipotle gift cards.

Chipotle’s presence at the Bee is consistent with it’ Behind the Foil campaign that launched this year. Behind the Foil focused on the transparency of Chipotle’s kitchens by featuring real employees cooking real food from real ingredients. This year’s national finalists can attest that eating real to cultivate a better world is as easy as it sounds.  Have you created a platform for new electricity?

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, plant based  foods,  sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

Food Sales, Service, Convenience Who Wins Fast Casual, Fast Food or C-Stores?

Consumers vote with there feet and wallet according to Tacoma, WA based Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson at Foodservice Solutions®. Year over year customer counts continue to plague many chain restaurants all the while foodservice within the C-store sector is projected to clime once again above 6% this year.

A new study by Alix Partners found that Consumers rate their experience in purchasing meals and beverages at convenience stores much better than fast-food or fast-casual restaurants in terms of speed of service and overall convenience. The majority also say that ready-to-go/serve-yourself foods, beverages and snacks are their preferred type of foodservice when they shop at a convenience store.

So, let’s see just what key findings were:

1.       Lower percentages of consumers rated c-stores ahead of fast-food and fast-casual restaurants in regards to healthy food/beverage choices and menu options. However, they did give c-stores the nod for better prices than fast-casual establishments. 

2.       Foodservice is the primary c-store purchase category (picked as tops by 28 percent of participants), but 40 percent of these shoppers view it primarily for snacking. 

3.       57 percent say ready-to-eat is the type of foodservice they most want from c-stores, with made-to-order far behind at only 29 percent. 

4.       Half of respondents (50 percent) said “better-for-you” options are important when choosing a c-store, up from 46.5 percent in last year’s survey. 

5.       A loyalty program is a very important c-store influencer (3.6 on a scale of 1 to 5), scoring higher than a drive-thru (rated 2.7). 

6.       Food quality, price, speed and menu variety are the most important factors when it comes to delivery from a c-store. Forty-four percent of consumers prefer to order directly from the store rather than a third-party service (12 percent). 

7.       For traditional c-store products, 36 percent of millennials and 20 percent of Gen X say they will shop more at Amazon instead in the year ahead. 

8.       89 percent of electric car owners say having charging stations is important for c-stores, with half (51 percent) saying it is “extremely important.”

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

At Taco Bell Value is Out ‘Craving Menu’ is In but will Pricing be a Problem

They call it fast food for a reason.  One of those reasons is given its limited menu most fast food retailers can realign, reset, customer relevance with a new slogan, menu or Limited Time Offer faster than other retail fresh food retailers according Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

It was not long ago that Taco Bell promised 20 new $1 menu items, a goal it reached with the Grilled Fiesta Potato Breakfast Burrito, Spicy Tostada and Chicken Mini Quesadilla. Clearly that was a sign to consumers that Price was it’s number one concern according to Johnson.

Now that the economy is humming along it clear that Taco Bell’s Global Chief Brand Officer Marisa Thalberg wants to realign, reset, adding incremental profit with relevance driven by marketing messaging according to Johnson.

Thalberg is going to introduce a new “Cravings Value Menu” with items ranging from $1 single items to $5 boxes resetting the Price, Value, Service equilibrium according to Johnson.  Starting on Dec. 27, the limited time offer consisting of its Grande Burrito for $1 in two varieties: Chicken Enchilada and Three Cheese Nacho.

This is an effort to move Taco Bell from a focus on price to one of product according to Johnson. Thalberg stated   “As a brand that likes to challenge industry norms, we have really sought to rethink what a value menu should be and the conventions of storytelling for it,”

The company plans to elevate its least expensive menu items with national ads featuring what it promises is “a world that is fantastical and surreal” that discusses “value beyond belief.” The ads will be televised nationally starting Dec. 27 and will also be featured on the chain’s social and digital platforms.

The Cravings menu will continue to have $1 items, including the Spicy Potato Soft Taco, Cheesy Bean & Rice Burrito, Beefy Fritos Burrito, Triple Layer Nachos, Cheesy Roll-Up, Spicy Tostada, Shredded Chicken Mini Quesadilla and Beefy Mini Quesadilla, along with other items.  It will also be rolling out more $5 boxes.

How well will it work with Christmas bills coming due in January and a looming trade war?  Well we will just have to wait and see.  I want to thank all of you who have asked about this promotion and it’s timing.

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

C-store Maverik’s Private Label BonFire Drives Sales

Brand messaging is very important and consistency in messaging not only edifies the customer to the brand it drives incremental value to new product introductions according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Rich Green, director of foodservice for Maverik understood that Maverik BonFire brand launched in 2009 alongside a revamp of Maverik's coffee program, BonFire tied Maverik's food items together under a single identity with an adventurous theme and color-coded labels based on the type of product, such as a red flame for high-traffic hot items and a green flame for fruit and salads.

Consumers were moving on buying Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food and the team at Maverik knew it was time elevate BonFire to the next level. Enter Maverik’s new BonFire Grill made-to-order program provided a platform to capture customers searching for fresh food.

Maverik’s, BonFire Grill concept, "That effort, particularly in new stores, definitely swung the pendulum more toward foodservice," Green.  Just as the team at Maverik’s had anticipated. Here are a few of the things Maverik did to build up its foodservice program:

1.        Experimenting with creative, "out of the box" limited-time offers (LTOs), some of which became mainstays on the menu, like the M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Burritos).

2.        Reexamining what went into its products and improving the quality to become a more ingredient-based operation

3.        Hiring a new corporate chef who brought a different perspective to the business. Chef Kyle Lore spent much of his career working in fine-dining restaurants.

4.        Creating a taste profile that is spicier and more flavorful — something that differs from its competitors, which include quick-service and fast-casual outlets, as well as other convenience stores.

So, just what is next Maverik may include a made-to-order beverage program, which the company is in the initial stages of exploring. Green acknowledges that such a program is a "tough one" for the company, describing how he's observed sudden beverage orders like a made-to-order milkshake disrupt the rhythm of the kitchen.

Then Delivery as Maverik is working with third-party delivery services, such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, is also something the company is exploring. However, the logistics are more complicated than they seem, particularly when taking into account the multiple delivery services customers use and the labor necessary to fulfill delivery orders during all dayparts, Green explained. Are you ready for grocerant niche fresh food?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Is Taco Bell Pricing-Out the Competition?

Fast Casual chains were the talk of the industry trade magazines back in the day.  It seemed as if every restaurant chain wanted to be a fast casual chain.  There is a little suggestion out there today that fast casual is still the platform for growth.  Taco Bell has even started its own fast casual concept.

Regular readers of this blog know that all the while Taco Bell was testing the waters with fast casual the ‘big data’ was point to growth and profit potential with its core fast food followers.  Part of it was the fact that 50% of US consumers over the age of 18 are single according to the US Census Bureau and single consumers continue to fuel drive thru visits.

At Taco Bell it’s continued top line growth can be traced back to 2017 in a bold brand positioning choice that Taco Bell’s Chief Brand Officer made.  That brand positioning was a commitment to cater to its base consumers expanding the number of $ 1 menu items that they offer for $ 1 or less. 

If year over year same sale numbers are an indication of success and the food industry says they are Taco Bell’s numbers prove out that positioning price as a key driver of growth works.  This past week Taco Bell innovative menu development team rolled out their latest addition of a Triple Melt Burrito and Triple Melt Nachos combine these two new items puts Taco Bell very close to having 20 items for only $ 1 or less.

Small meals, snacks,  late-nite snacking, or ‘forth meal’ customer traffic counts are  more important  brand building than sales increased that are a result of menu price increases according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Johnson continued building brand value requires evolving with your consumer and at times it requires leadership that can buck industry norms and reduce check averages to build customer frequency and that is just what Taco Bell has done.  Now they did that while simultaneously edifying flavor craveability, improving service times, and improving cleanliness. 

So just what is your New Electricity? Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us