Chipotle’s Chief Restaurant Officer Calls for Nationwide Staff Support to Protect Chicken Supply

While America is blessed with an abundance of food and many of us are fortunate enough to not worry about finding our next meal, sometimes reality rears its head that our nation is also susceptible to shortages.

Earlier this month, Chipotle Chief Restaurant Officer Scott Boatwright sent an email to store managers informing them that free or discounted meals for employees should not include chicken.

Bloomberg reported, Boatwright wrote, “Due to its sustained strong sales we need your help to keep up with our guests’ demand for this popular protein option,” in an effort to get managers, employees and officer workers to stop ordering chicken.

Boatwright’s email came after the reintroduction of Chipotle’s chicken al pastor menu item in March, which has apparently created a surge in chicken sales.

Chipotle attributed both chicken al pastor and braised beef barbacoa to a 7 percent increase in first quarter comparable restaurant sales over last year.

Another email was sent out on Wednesday from Chipotle Corporate Affairs and Food Safety Officer Lauria Schalow to clarify that this was a request: “Due to the high demand for chicken in our restaurants and sustained success of our limited time offer Chicken al Pastor, we temporarily asked all of our employees at corporate and in-restaurants to select another protein option for their meals to preserve our supply. We expect this situation to be resolved within a week.”

Chipotle gave the OK to employees to resume ordering freely in a statement on Thursday. Despite how short-lived the affair was, employees were still upset.

Harper McNamara, a Chipotle employee in Michigan, said, “It’s disrespectful, just on a personal level.”

Bloomberg also reported that some branch managers went as far as throwing out employees’meals if they included chicken or threatening disciplinary actions.

In an interview with “Bloomberg TV”, Chipotle Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol said, “I think this is a story that’s looking for a headline,” in an effort to downplay the shortage.

He did provide an explanation in saying, “[T]he supply got really tight. We ask all our employees, including myself, to pitch in for a week to maybe try something else on our menu. The good news is we’re through that pinch. There’s no challenges on our chicken supply, actually. Our supply team’s done fabulous job of securing supply to what has been really tremendous demand.”

While Niccol can explain the issue away as a simple pinch in-the-moment with Chipotle trying to keep up with what costumers are ordering, we know some supply chain issues have plagued the economy as a whole lately.

Lets just take Niccol at his word.

There’s still something to be learned here. We often go to the grocery store or our favorite restaurant and take it as a given that food will be readily available. Food is just there for us to eat or take home to our families to enjoy.

However, America is not insulated. We often look at food shortages, or shortages of other necessities, and think its impossible for those things to happen here to us.

This is America after all!

Most don’t want to face the uncomfortable reality: We do not exist in a bubble. We are susceptible to economic fluctuations and shortages. It was only four years ago we were going to the grocery stores to find the shelves cleared out in the midst of COVID.

Whether its surging prices, shortages, or something worse — whimsically thinking these issues aren’t “American” could land us in a world of trouble.