Chipotle customer convinced employees are selling their own food

A Chipotle customer is convinced that employees at their local spot are selling their own food, sparking a storm of speculation and outrage among fans of the popular chain.

Chipotle is a popular fast-casual restaurant chain in the United States that serves up burritos, tacos, and burrito bowls all made according to customers’ specifications.

Despite Chipotle’s seemingly never-wavering popularity, the chain has come under public scrutiny lately due to its portion sizes… as well as a rash of food poisoning incidents that caused the company to pay out $25 million back in 2020.

Now, Chipotle is facing a different kind of criticism after a fan of the fast food spot said that employees at their local chain were selling their own food alongside other official options.

Chipotle fan reports restaurant after speculating employees sold their own food as “special”

On January 14, 2024, a Reddit user claimed that their local Chipotle was selling a selection of “mac and cheese, ribs, and mashed potatoes.”

Although they said these new items were “really good,” they worried that the employees were making this food at home to sell at the restaurant, and wondered if they shouldn’t report the incident.

“They said it was a ‘special’ and that that happens sometimes,” they explained. “I’ve never seen it before. I suspect the employees are selling their own food out of the Chipotle.”

After reaching out to Chipotle, a representative told the poster that the chain was trying out some new things at certain locations. The poster gave the rep the location’s information, but felt guilty for possibly putting the employees’ jobs at risk.

When they returned for more food at a later date, the poster asked a manager about the extra food on offer — and the manager “looked at me like I had two heads and said that ‘this is Chipotle.'”

It seemed like the manager wasn’t aware of the extra food being sold at their location, and after some prodding from Redditors, the poster eventually called their non-emergency line to report the restaurant.

“It sounds like I might actually be a victim of this Chipotle falsely selling food to me that they said is Chipotle. Figuring out what my legal options are. I don’t want this to become too big of a deal but it seems like this isn’t right and someone has to do something about it.”

While there’s no way to verify if the poster’s story is true, quite a few commenters think the entire thing was made up, while others speculated that the spot might double as a “ghost kitchen.”

This is just the latest Chipotle-related drama to go viral online after a woman was sentenced to work a fast-food job for two months as punishment for assaulting a Chipotle worker.