Food with integrity? I think not

Samantha Durham | Staff Writer

Raise your hand if you love Chipotle. I know I do, or I did anyway. However, as of recently I am not a huge fan of the Mexican grill.

To start, let me just tell you a little about Chipotle as a company. First, according to CNN Money, Chipotle’s revenue in 2015 was 2.5 billion dollars, which would amount to about 600 million burritos.

Chipotle also offers a “restaurateur program” that outlines a path to guide hourly wage employees to become a general manager, which means a $100,000 salary, according to Time Magazine. Time also reports that once a general manager is promoted to restaurateur, he or she receives a $10,000 bonus for each crew-member promoted to general manager. These are just a few facts to keep in mind as we continue.

Chipotle is having all sorts of issues behind the scenes however, such as the food safety crisis they faced, causing the market value of the company to drop by 11 billion dollars, according to CNN Money.

However, it does not look like the damage will be stopping there as Chipotle’s stock is estimated to drop by another 50 percent as it battles to come back from the damage inflicted by outbreaks of E. Coli, norovirus and salmonella. The outbreak sickened about 500 customers along with the entire men’s basketball team from Boston College, stated CNN Money.

The E. Coli, norovirus and salmonella breakout was just the beginning of Chipotle’s troubles, though, as the company now faces an investigation by the U.S Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations. A Federal Grand Jury subpoena landed in Chipotle’s lap in December of 2015 requiring that the company turn over all documents related to its restaurant in Simi Valley, California where the norovirus outbreak occurred, stated CNN Money. The subpoena is not only making Chipotle sweat legally, but financially as well as sales are expected to drop by 14.6 percent.

On top of all of the food safety issues and a continuing investigation, Chipotle is also facing class action lawsuits from workers that were forced to work off of the clock. Leah Turner stated that she worked hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours at Chipotle without getting paid, reported CNN Money.

According to Turner, her manager would tell her to punch out but continue working until all of the tasks she was assigned were completed, regardless of the amount of time it required. Turner told CNN Money, “I wanted to advance in the company, so I kind of just did it. We all did.”

Turner became one of the first to start the snowball effect of class action lawsuits that Chipotle now faces. She sued Chipotle in 2013 for unpaid labor. Now her case (Turner vs. Chipotle) is a class action lawsuit that has gained about 10,000 current and former workers.

They all claim that the company allegedly cheated them out of wages which is a violation of America’s Fair Labor Standards Act, reported CNN Money. However, Chipotle is denying the allegations stating that the case holds “no merit.”

Now the real question is, why do I bring all of this up? Because even after all of this, Bill Ackman still wants to buy a 9.9 percent stake in Chipotle, which confuses me beyond belief. I mean, if I was holding any sort of stock in Chipotle, I would be a little nervous right now.

The company is facing all sorts of issues like class action lawsuits, a serious investigation and a food safety problem. None of these issues are small problems, they are all huge problems!

Ackman is known for betting big on a bunch of different of companies and that does not always help him, especially since his fund has netted a 14.3 percent loss so far this year. However, it does appear that Ackman wants to have a big impact on Chipotle. He claims he wants to be involved in discussions about Chipotle’s governance and board composition, business, operations, cost structure, management and other aspects of the company, reported CNN Money.

I don’t really know if Chipotle can really bounce back from this, even with new people getting involved like Bill Ackman. They are battling some big monsters right now and it also comes to my attention that the leadership within the company could be better. For example, one of the company’s executives, Mark Crumpacker, was arrested on cocaine charges. Maybe Chipotle needs to rethink a lot of things, and one of those obviously needs to be leadership.

Why do I think leadership needs to change? Well, good leadership never makes your employees punch out and continue to work, nor do they take away the hours they have already worked.

From a consumer’s standpoint, I doubt I will ever eat at Chipotle ever again. Maybe I am just overly paranoid about food and having it be well-cooked, but after hearing about all of this I am really skeptical of eating at Chipotle ever again.

I am sure that there are plenty of people that feel like I do and I have to say I loved getting quesadillas at Chipotle. My hope is that Chipotle will be able to come back from this. But I really just have to laugh because Chipotle’s slogan is “Food with Integrity” and as of late the food and the company itself have seemed to lack that.