Pulse of the FFA - How big a mistake did Chipotle make here? (1 Viewer)

[Leroy Hoard]

They will make up for it by hiring a Hispanic actor or actress to do their future ads. My money is on George Lopez.

 

[Norman Paperman]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

 

[Fennis]

http://kdvr.com/2014/04/25/chipotle-criticized-over-huge-paychecks-for-top-executives/

DENVER — Does the leadership of Chipotle Mexican Grill deserve to be paid more than some of the most elite executive teams in the world?

That’s the question some shareholders and customers are asking after a Denver Post report that the top five execs at the Denver company took home $67.3 million last year – 42 percent more than the leadership of Coca-Cola and nearly as much as the top brass at General Electric.

The news comes amid reports that the restaurant chain is poised to raise prices across the menu.

"Chipotle is becoming a poster child for pay-for-performance failures,” Michael Pryce-Jones, a senior governance policy analyst with CtW Investment Group, told the Post.

CtW has launched a major effort urging shareholders to rein in the pay of Chipotle CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran, as well as three other executives. CtW claims that Ells and Moran are paid about $25 million apiece – roughly 10 times the median rate for similar CEOs. The men also receive allowances to cover their housing and vehicles.

For its part, Chipotle leadership points out, simply, that they are doing an incredible job of growing the company. Chipotle is booming, with shares up some 2,200 percent since 2006, according to the Post

 

[Da Guru]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

About the same amount that are on Harvard's Polo Squad.

 

[belljr]

Somebody somewhere is offended by this very post.

 

[Norman Paperman]

CEO/Founder - Steve Ells

Co-CEO - Montgomery Moran

Chief Marketing Officer - Mark Crumpacker

I am sensing a trend here.

 

[Norman Paperman]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

About the same amount that are on Harvard's Polo Squad.

Hard to tell, but looks like none

 

[D-Day]

Number of Latino/a authors and what response we would have:

0 = The company is racist and are excluding us

1 = Just a token author

2 = Just trying to appease us, but still just a token

3 = Just barely over 50%? The numbers should reflect way more than just over 50%

4 = What, you couldn't find just one more?

5 = What, you think ONLY Latinos eat at Chipotle? How racist.

Now this could be for just about any issue and/or race. Heck, Old White Guy would be upset if there were 0 white authors. This is just to illustrate that people will find a reason to be offended if they want to be offended.

 

[McGarnicle]

CEO/Founder - Steve Ells

Co-CEO - Montgomery Moran

Chief Marketing Officer - Mark Crumpacker

I am sensing a trend here.

There is a good 30-minute piece streaming on Netflix about Chipotle. I think it was originally on CNBC, so it's all about their branding, strategy, etc. Yeah, the founder and his partners are as white and dorky as you could imagine. The guy went to chef school and had an idea to start a fast-casual joint to eventually fund a fine dining restaurant.

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

Somebody somewhere is offended by this very post.

Doesn't get it.

 

[Jayrok]

http://kdvr.com/2014/04/25/chipotle-criticized-over-huge-paychecks-for-top-executives/

DENVER — Does the leadership of Chipotle Mexican Grill deserve to be paid more than some of the most elite executive teams in the world?

That’s the question some shareholders and customers are asking after a Denver Post report that the top five execs at the Denver company took home $67.3 million last year – 42 percent more than the leadership of Coca-Cola and nearly as much as the top brass at General Electric.

The news comes amid reports that the restaurant chain is poised to raise prices across the menu.

"Chipotle is becoming a poster child for pay-for-performance failures,” Michael Pryce-Jones, a senior governance policy analyst with CtW Investment Group, told the Post.

CtW has launched a major effort urging shareholders to rein in the pay of Chipotle CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran, as well as three other executives. CtW claims that Ells and Moran are paid about $25 million apiece – roughly 10 times the median rate for similar CEOs. The men also receive allowances to cover their housing and vehicles.

For its part, Chipotle leadership points out, simply, that they are doing an incredible job of growing the company. Chipotle is booming, with shares up some 2,200 percent since 2006, according to the Post

Sounds like sour grapes. I wish I could get paid $25m for making a fat tasty burrito.

 

[Jayrok]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

What difference does it make who is on the management team? The business is thriving so whoever is on there is doing something right.

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Their real mistake is seemingly always putting their least competent employee at the beginning of the line. The beginning of the line should have the second most competent employee after the cash register employee. Drives me crazy.

End of the line burrito roller is way more important than the person that steams the tortillas.

Not if the steamer ####s up the orders all the time.

 

[belljr]

Somebody somewhere is offended by this very post.

Doesn't get it.

doesn't care

 

[Norman Paperman]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

What difference does it make who is on the management team? The business is thriving so whoever is on there is doing something right.

nobody said otherwise - but this is not a latino business. It caters to white-america, and is run by white-americans. It should not be worried if latinos are offended - faux or otherwise.

 

[McGarnicle]

Somebody somewhere is offended by this very post.

Doesn't get it.

doesn't care

ffended:

 

[belljr]

My wife's favorite thing (read when she wants to murder me) when I say to make some authentic Puerto Rican food like tacos....

 

[ffldrew]

http://kdvr.com/2014/04/25/chipotle-criticized-over-huge-paychecks-for-top-executives/

DENVER — Does the leadership of Chipotle Mexican Grill deserve to be paid more than some of the most elite executive teams in the world?

That’s the question some shareholders and customers are asking after a Denver Post report that the top five execs at the Denver company took home $67.3 million last year – 42 percent more than the leadership of Coca-Cola and nearly as much as the top brass at General Electric.

The news comes amid reports that the restaurant chain is poised to raise prices across the menu.

"Chipotle is becoming a poster child for pay-for-performance failures,” Michael Pryce-Jones, a senior governance policy analyst with CtW Investment Group, told the Post.

CtW has launched a major effort urging shareholders to rein in the pay of Chipotle CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran, as well as three other executives. CtW claims that Ells and Moran are paid about $25 million apiece – roughly 10 times the median rate for similar CEOs. The men also receive allowances to cover their housing and vehicles.

For its part, Chipotle leadership points out, simply, that they are doing an incredible job of growing the company. Chipotle is booming, with shares up some 2,200 percent since 2006, according to the Post

Sounds like sour grapes. I wish I could get paid $25m for making a fat tasty burrito.

The pay issue is still up in the air - shareholders just rejected the package by a non-binding vote of 77% against- it is now up to the board to alter the pay packages.

 

[Jayrok]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

What difference does it make who is on the management team? The business is thriving so whoever is on there is doing something right.

nobody said otherwise - but this is not a latino business. It caters to white-america, and is run by white-americans. It should not be worried if latinos are offended - faux or otherwise.

Oh I agree and may have misread your previous post. If a local group in Panama opened an american style hamburger/fries/milkshake/coco-cola cafe they shouldn't be pressured into hiring white americans for their management team either.

 

[Josie Maran]

Their real mistake is seemingly always putting their least competent employee at the beginning of the line. The beginning of the line should have the second most competent employee after the cash register employee. Drives me crazy.

End of the line burrito roller is way more important than the person that steams the tortillas.

Not if the steamer ####s up the orders all the time.

How can the steamer #### up your order? They ask what you want at every step. Maybe you're just not a very good orderer.

 

[Fennis]

The biggest scam at Chipotle is if you order a vegetarian burrito, when you get to the guacamole station on the assembly line they don't put on guac, but ask "Anything else?" They always trying to rip you off on the guac that you have coming to you. Bastards.

 

[Sarnoff]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

About the same amount that are on Harvard's Polo Squad.

Hard to tell, but looks like none

Could be some white hispanics in there.

 

[pats3in4]

“Of course, we want Latino writers everywhere, always. But more importantly, we need writers of color everywhere,” says Brooklyn-based author Daniel José Older, who has long been an advocate of the diverse literary voices being given equal attention and promotion. But, adds Older, “as a Latino writer, I don't measure where my face should be seen based on some watered-down, corporate-marketing-scheme version of my culture.”

I think this is the money quote. Of all the places to take up this kind of cause, the offended pick Chipotle. Pick a better battle next time.

 

[Norman Paperman]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

About the same amount that are on Harvard's Polo Squad.

Hard to tell, but looks like none

Could be some white hispanics in there.

Hence, the "hard to tell"

 

[Bob Loblaw]

How many Latinos (%-wise) do you think are in the Chipotle management team? Or marketing department?

About the same amount that are on Harvard's Polo Squad.

Hard to tell, but looks like none

Is that Tommy Lee Jones?

And that pic of Terjinder in the personal bio!!! Wow

 

[jon_mx]

Chipotle has started getting really skimpy on the meat portions in their burritos. The last few times it seemed like I was just eating beans and rice in a tortilla.

I could care less what is on the cups.

How much less?

 

[St. Louis Bob]

Sounds like Chipotle tried to sneak this past the authorities.

 

[Gr00vus]

Also, I think one might be less insulted by more writers of "Toni Morrison" quality, and fewer in the "Sarah Silverman" vein.

That's why I chose slight mistake - Sarah Silverman? Bill Hader? Malcom Gladwell? I'd rather have blank food containers please.

 

[glock]

Slight Mistake: it's just amazing how little thinking the thinkers can think when including somebody of Latino heritage just makes sense...

 

[jon_mx]

Has Tim posted in this thread yet? If he is not offended, nobody will be.

 

[17seconds]

Slight mistake for PR reasons only

I don't think anyone believes Chipotle is a representative of Mexican culture

 

[Josie Maran]

Also, I think one might be less insulted by more writers of "Toni Morrison" quality, and fewer in the "Sarah Silverman" vein.

That's why I chose slight mistake - Sarah Silverman? Bill Hader? Malcom Gladwell? I'd rather have blank food containers please.

You don't like funny, smart, talented writers?

 

[Gr00vus]

Also, I think one might be less insulted by more writers of "Toni Morrison" quality, and fewer in the "Sarah Silverman" vein.

That's why I chose slight mistake - Sarah Silverman? Bill Hader? Malcom Gladwell? I'd rather have blank food containers please.

You don't like funny, smart, talented writers?

Sure. Let me know when they find some smart, funny, talented sell outs to put inane noodlings on the soda cups. Meanwhile enjoy the Sarah Silverman missives and celebrate your lousy "culture."

 

[Paulymaggs]

The headline from TakePart.com's social media feed was "Chipotle Just Made a Huge Diversity Mistake—But Isn't Making Any Apologies"

My question to you is how big a mistake do you think this is?

And I know this is sensitive. Please keep this super cool. But I'm interested in what you guys think and how folks feel about the TakePart article.

J

Starting Thursday, when you head to Chipotle for a burrito and a soda, your drink cup will look a little different. That’s because it’ll come printed with an original short story or essay from one of America’s most famous authors and cultural leaders. The cup series, which is called “Cultivating Thought,” features Toni Morrison, Sarah Silverman, Bill Hader, Malcolm Gladwell, and six others.

Sounds like a great way to get the public reading and thinking—except that at a chain that turns a tidy profit selling “Mexican” food, not one single “thought” from a Mexican, Mexican American, or Latino author or public intellectual is included. As Celtic Chicana author Anna Marie McLemore tweeted on Sunday, “Chipotle didn't see fit to include Latino/a writers in its literary campaign? Should I just head back to the kitchen then?”

Irvine Valley College English professor Lisa Alvarez voiced similar concerns. “I see this as an unfortunate pattern, an inability to recognize the contributions of Mexican Americans as public intellectuals equal to the ones chosen for this series,” Alvarez told the Orange County Weekly “We can inspire the food, create the food, plant the food, pick the food, serve the food, clear the food, clean up after it’s all over…but that’s about it.”

The literary cups are the brainchild of author Jonathan Safran Foer, who detailed on Friday to Vanity Fair how he was sitting in a Chipotle and had nothing to occupy his time while he ate a burrito. Foer sent CEO Steve Ells an email, in which he wrote, “‘Wouldn’t it be cool to just put some interesting stuff on it [Chipotle’s cups and bags]? Get really high-quality writers of different kinds, creating texts of different kinds that you just give to your customers as a service.’ ” Ells agreed, and the idea came to life, with Foer choosing which authors or cultural leaders to include.

As Gustavo Arellano also wrote in the OC Weekly, Foer and Chipotle didn’t see fit to include Pulitzer Prize–winning Junot Diaz or “the doña of Chicano literature, Sandra Cisneros. Not best-selling author Luis Alberto Urrea. Not Tex-Mex loco Dagoberto Gilb. Not any other number of Latino authors who could easily contribute a story or two that would be applicable [to] a Mexican-food chain. Judd Apatow made the list—but not one Latino.”

The same day that the Vanity Fair article on the creation of the "Cultivating Thought" project ran, a Facebook group, Cultivating Invisibility: Chipotle’s Missing Mexicans, was launched. Several members have posted the results of their emails to the company asking why a Mexican grill failed to include any Latinos in the campaign.

The same response from Chipotle’s customer service has been coming back to several of the group’s members. “We did not think of including individuals from specific ethnic backgrounds. We simply wanted individuals to Cultivate Thought,” replies each customer service consultant.

“Of course, we want Latino writers everywhere, always. But more importantly, we need writers of color everywhere,” says Brooklyn-based author Daniel José Older, who has long been an advocate of the diverse literary voices being given equal attention and promotion. But, adds Older, “as a Latino writer, I don't measure where my face should be seen based on some watered-down, corporate-marketing-scheme version of my culture.”

Chipotle’s customer service says that the company intends to expand "Cultivating Thought" to “anybody who would like to be a part of it,” and it'll “take note" of any concerns as it makes additional plans.

So now you go to Chipotle to get Mexican food, do ya, Joe?

 

[Josie Maran]

Also, I think one might be less insulted by more writers of "Toni Morrison" quality, and fewer in the "Sarah Silverman" vein.

That's why I chose slight mistake - Sarah Silverman? Bill Hader? Malcom Gladwell? I'd rather have blank food containers please.

You don't like funny, smart, talented writers?

Sure. Let me know when they find some smart, funny, talented sell outs to put inane noodlings on the soda cups. Meanwhile enjoy the Sarah Silverman missives and celebrate your lousy "culture."

I'll be sure to let you know when Sartre comes out of retirement.

 

[McGarnicle]

Hell, you can't even get Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant in this country. They slather everything in fatty sweet sauces because that's what tubby roundeye wants.

 

[Norman Paperman]

Has Tim posted in this thread yet? If he is not offended, nobody will be.

He used his Joe Bryant alias to start the thread.

 

[glumpy]

Of course they should have picked some Latino authors if only for CYA--but as others have posted Chipotle is hardly representative of Mexican cuisine.

 

[Arsenal of Doom]

Slight mistake. Whatever people think about the dust-up over this, it was predictable and easily avoidable.

 

[Fennis]

I don't understand the difference between "No Mistake" and "Absolutely No Mistake" options

 

[Joe T]

I don't understand the difference between "No Mistake" and "Absolutely No Mistake" options

Absolutely, ABSOLUTELY, No Mistake (and I mean it with this option)

 

[Joe T]

I'm failing to see the issue with this.

 

[Freelove]

Also, I think one might be less insulted by more writers of "Toni Morrison" quality, and fewer in the "Sarah Silverman" vein.

That's why I chose slight mistake - Sarah Silverman? Bill Hader? Malcom Gladwell? I'd rather have blank food containers please.

You don't like funny, smart, talented writers?

Sure. Let me know when they find some smart, funny, talented sell outs to put inane noodlings on the soda cups. Meanwhile enjoy the Sarah Silverman missives and celebrate your lousy "culture."

I'll be sure to let you know when Sartre comes out of retirement.

Sarah Silverman has her place.

But in a campaign designed to celebrate thought-provoking authors and cultural leaders isn't that place. I'd rather see the cups decked out with stuff by good standup performers. Might actually make me take a look. But when you're already insulting Latin Americans by omitting them from inclusion among the intellectual giants, it doesn't really help your case when you also set them below those trafficking in genital jokes.

 

[Rove!]

I'm failing to see the issue with this.

Chipotle demonstrating their utter lack of awareness of Latino culture....

 

[Spanky267]

I think its a slight mistake. Even if the restaurant doesnt serve actual mexican food, the perception amongst most of its patrons is that it does. How many Americans understand the distinction between Tex-Mex and Mexican food. That being said its kind of a stupid thing to be offended about but it was a blunder by the company to not include at least one "latino." I mean you have Sarah Silverman? couldnt they have reached out to Paul Rodriguez or Gabriel Iglesias for a fun quip or story?

I find it hilarious that Sarah Silverman is considered a cultural leader by Chipotle. I think I'd be more offended by that.

 

[Joe T]

I'm failing to see the issue with this.

Chipotle demonstrating their utter lack of awareness of Latino culture....

I'm still pretty shuked here, but thanks for trying to explain it to me.

 

[Joe T]

I find it hilarious that Sarah Silverman is considered a cultural leader by Chipotle. I think I'd be more offended by that.

Maybe I missed it, but did Chipotle say they consider Silverman a cultural leader? It seems like the press is trying to make this cultural. Chipotle was trying to put some 'interesting' thoughts or quotes on their cups.

 

[Joe T]

The headline from TakePart.com's social media feed was "Chipotle Just Made a Huge Diversity Mistake—But Isn't Making Any Apologies"

My question to you is how big a mistake do you think this is?

And I know this is sensitive. Please keep this super cool. But I'm interested in what you guys think and how folks feel about the TakePart article.

J

Starting Thursday, when you head to Chipotle for a burrito and a soda, your drink cup will look a little different. That’s because it’ll come printed with an original short story or essay from one of America’s most famous authors and cultural leaders.

I think the article got it wrong here trying to create an issue where there isn't one. It looks like the list of thought contributors is either writers or comedians. I don't get the cultural leaders part.

It's like we are living in a world of 12 year old girls where everyone is looking for a reason to be faux-outraged.

"OMG chipotle didn't include a mexican comedian on their cups. Thanks for setting racism back 50 years."

 

[Joe T]

List of people quoted and what they are famous for:

Toni Morrison - writer of novels

Malcolm Gladwell - writer of books like Freakonomics

Sarah Silverman - comedian

Jonathan Safran - writer of novels

Micheal Lewis - finance writer of books like Moneyball

Bill Hader - Comedian, Saturday Night Live

Judd Apatow - producer of movies like the Anchorman sequel

George Saunders - writer

Steven Pinker - experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature.

Sheri Fink - best selling author

Now I'm outraged that people are outraged over this.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I don't understand the difference between "No Mistake" and "Absolutely No Mistake" options

Sorry that wasn't clear.

First was "what's the big deal?"

2nd was "Any offense taken to this is being way too sensitive."

Pick whichever one is closest for you.

J