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I'm not clear on what is broken. The reason Chipotle has become what it has is because it serves a particular market, and has been optimized for that market. Al

I'm not clear on what is broken. The reason Chipotle has become what it has is because it serves a particular market, and has been optimized for that market. All evidence points to that optimization being highly successful. A company can not grow as quickly and deliberately as Chipotle unless it is doing an awful lot of things right. And frankly, if you asked: What would McDonald's look like if they wanted to portray themselves as a healthy, eco-friendly, trend-setting fast food company? The answer would look a lot like Chipotle. So queuing theory aside, it works well enough to be a major success. So what if I have to repeat myself to the next server in line? The cost of repetition in this context is nearly zero.

pistle 13y ago
McDonald's became a big investor in Chipotle when Chipotle went from 20 to 500 stores. I'd likely argue that no small part of how they became big was due to that hand. Then, McD divests and CMG hits NYSE and they ascend from there. So, when you ask what would McD's look like if? Is that dancing around history or can I say, "What if I told you...?" OP got high, got dragged to Chipotle, got all malcontent, and wrote a blog post on how much better he could run the $13B company. Soooo HN.
- brianstorms 13y ago
  Not really. I'm OP and I go to Chipotle all the time. It just has this suboptimal experience that drives me crazy. Speaking of McDonald's, I'll never forget when this Chipotle opened, and a huge 18-wheeler McDonalds truck pulled in in the alley out back, and unloaded food supplies into the Chipotle. I had no idea . . .