Robots could solve Chipotle's portion complaints, but being able to tweak an order through a frontline human employee is valuable, an analyst told BI.
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Chipotle is once again facing accusations of skimping out on portion sizes, and while robots may seem like the obvious answer for consistency, they may not be the best overall solution for the restaurant, an analyst told Business Insider.
For years, customers have griped about their portion sizes at the fast-food chain, and Chipotle has vigorously defended itself.
"There have been no changes in our portion sizes, and we have reinforced proper portioning with our employees," Laurie Schalow, Chipotle's chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, told Business Insider.
Still, investors appear apprehensive about these complaints, which are now proliferating on social media. Some activist customers are taking matters into their own hands by recording employees taking their orders in an attempt to get served bigger scoops.
Wells Fargo analysts tested this concern by ordering 75 burrito bowls and weighing them. The team found that the portions were widely inconsistent, with the heaviest bowl from an in-store order weighing 47% more than the lightest bowl, the analysts said in a note reported by Fortune.
"While throughput is improving, order consistency remains an opportunity," the analysts wrote, according to the report.
Chipotle's shares saw a small boost on Wednesday after beating analysts' expectations on revenue and earnings for its second quarter.
But overall, the fast-food chain's stock has fallen from its record peak in mid-June by 24.5% as of Wednesday.
While the company underwent a 50-for-1 stock split, there could be other technical reasons for the drop, Danilo Gargiulo, a senior analyst of restaurants at AllianceBernstein, told Business Insider that conversations around portion sizes likely don't help.
"Clearly the number of conversations that I had with investors on this topic seems to be suggesting that there is some apprehension on the relevance that this might have on the consumer's willingness to go towards Chipotle," Gargiulo said. "So the stock price being affected by that, I think there is some truth in it."
One possible solution to Chipotle's portion-size problem, which the restaurant adamantly says it doesn't have, could be a line of robots. They're quick, can save on human labor costs, and are consistent.
Chipotle is already working with San Jose, California-based robotics company Hyphen to streamline digital orders.
Hyphen's robots, The makeline, which BI had an exclusive look at in 2023, can pump out 180 burrito bowls per hour — about six times more than a human employee can make.
Daniel Fukuba, a Hyphen cofounder, previously told BI that the makeline has neat features such as dynamic portioning.
If a customer adds a few toppings, the robots will "scale up" each ingredient while reducing portion sizes if there are a lot of toppings to make sure everything fits in the bowl or burrito.
"So generally, across the board, we're always more accurate than a comparable person running at the same rate," Fukuba said. "It is more consistent and accurate than a person normally would be going at the same speed."
A Chipotle spokesperson declined to comment on this story but pointed to CEO Brian Niccol's comments in an earnings call on Wednesday referencing Hyphen and Autocado, a robot that helps cut prep time for Chipotle's guacamole in half.
"I am excited about each of these initiatives, and I strongly believe we will see some impactful back-of-house changes in the years to come that will help to improve consistency in our restaurants and drive a better overall experience for our teams and our guests," he said.
But replacing frontline human employees with robots takes away from a key customer experience that Chipotle employees have delivered, perhaps almost by accident, over the years — and it involves being able to ask workers: "Can I have a little more, please?"
"The in-store experience, you do not want to change because that's part of the secret sauce of Chipotle," Gargiulo, the restaurant analyst, told BI. "It's part of the experience of consumers to go there, check out what they have, and ask a person, 'Hey, can I have a little bit more, please?' Or mix up the ingredients as you wish. There are some people who also change the layers in which the Chipotle (item) is made."
Some of that unique Chipotle experience has sometimes been referred to by fans of the chain as Chipotle "hacks" — little moves or tweaks a customer can do to try to eke out bigger portions.
They include simple things like being nice to your server to get generous scoops, never asking for double anything until the first scoop has been added, or asking for half-and-half meat to get more chicken or steak for the price of a single scoop.
Even Niccol is privy to some of these so-called hacks, telling Fortune this year that the secret to bigger portions is giving workers a look.
He told the magazine that if customers "want a little more rice or you want a little more pico (de gallo)," then give them a little look, and "usually our guys and women give them a little more scoop."
During the Wednesday earnings call, Niccol didn't directly address a question from a shareholder who asked if the restaurant envisions putting Hyphen's makeline at the front of the counter rather than just digital orders. The CEO said that the restaurant is making a lot of modifications to the restaurant equipment that would make Chipotle more consistent
Gargiulo told BI the nuances of the in-person interaction may sound trivial, but it's an important part of the Chipotle experience.
"It may sound so silly, but customization is part of the DNA of Chipotle," he said. "Yes, you can have the same customization with a digital makeline, but you are more constrained in what you can do." ← with make-line here, are we referring to Makeline? the robot? technically the robot but i've seen the robot referenced broadly as a "digital makeline." so maybe both?
The analyst added that robots could be a solution for digital orders, which Chipotle has said it plans to do. But for in-store orders? Not anytime soon.
"Are we going to have fully automated stores? No, I don't think so," Gargiulo said.
