The year 2016 was hard for everyone, but it was particularly not a great year for Chipotle. According to Fortune, the restaurant chain's sales fell 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter, in part because the price of avocados was so unexpectedly high, and people really love piling guac inside their child-size burritos.
Besides the avocado situation, Chipotle did not see a profit boost from its decision to give out a bunch of free burritos as a peace offering to wary customers—and those free burritos came with guac. Furthermore, those customers were wary because of food safety problems resulting in e. coli and norovirus outbreaks in late 2015, which definitely didn't help. Besides essentially bribing its customers back in line, Chipotle also spent a whole lot of money on expensive marketing, cutting into its revenue.
On the bright side, Chipotle might be adding dessert—what kind remains a secret, but churros are not off the table—to the menu in 2017. So that's something not involving food-borne illness or bribery to look forward to. But, yeah, pour one out for the guac.
Follow Delish on Instagram.
