Chipotle has long been known for its multitude of burrito options, but it’s now taken one of those options away, and some customers aren’t happy. Business Insider’s Hayley Peterson wrote last month that the chain was considering removing chorizo to make room for its new queso dip and other entries, and now it appears that they’ve done it. The old chipotle.com/chorizo page returns a 404 error (cached version here, screenshot seen above), and the fillings page has it absent:
Chipotle’s Twitter account (yes, the people who work there mostly spend all day replying to customers complaining about one thing or another, which sounds like a terrible job) also sent out some replies apologizing to those who wanted chorizo and were disappointed:
Sorry! Chorizo is no longer available. -James
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) September 14, 2017
Sorry man. The chorizo had fans but was ultimately not the best fit for us. -James
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) September 14, 2017
Sorry man. The chorizo did not perform as well as we hoped, though it had many fans. -James
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) September 14, 2017
Sorry man. Chorizo didn't perform as well as we hoped. -James
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) September 14, 2017
.@ChipotleTweets why oh why did you take away our chorizo?
— shanebsantiago (@shanebsantiago) September 14, 2017
@shanebsantiago It didn't perform as well as we'd hoped. We're very sorry to take it away from its fans. -James
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) September 14, 2017
Oh, that poor underperforming chorizo. How decidedly unelite of it; just couldn’t come through in the clutch, and got benched as a result. But instead of saying “it needs no introduction,” maybe they should have given it an introduction? As Peterson noted last month, though, chorizo was only introduced nationally 2016, and BTIG analyst Peter Saleh said it didn’t make up a large part of the chain’s sales:
The spicy chicken-and-pork sausage blend, which Chipotle rolled out nationwide last year, is customers’ least favorite protein, accounting for just 3% of total entree sales, Saleh said following a meeting this week with Chipotle investor relations head Mark Alexee.
Chipotle is considering cutting chorizo and other weak-selling menu items to make room for new additions such as queso dip, which the company started testing last month in hundreds of restaurants, Saleh said.
The chain has already cut chorizo from the menu in Colorado at restaurants where queso was added.
As with many other good things, though, those who like chorizo, like it a lot. So there may be some more complaints rolling in for Chipotle’s social managers, and they’ll have to find other creative ways to say it underperformed. May we suggest “It Scott Tolziened“?
