CMG
CMG has detailed some of the new tech initiatives it uses to enhance its employee and guest experience.
In select Southern California restaurants, Chipotle is piloting a cook-to-needs kitchen management system that provides demand-based cooking and ingredient preparation forecasts to optimize throughput and freshness while minimizing food waste. CMG said the system uses AI and machine learning to monitor ingredient levels in real time and notifies the crew how much to prep, cook and when to start cooking while also automatically populating real-time production planning for each restaurant with a cost-saving goal in mind. Chipotle has been testing the autonomous cooking assistant (called Chippy) with tortilla chip production at its headquarters’ innovation hub in Irvine, California. The company is also piloting advanced location-based technology to enhance its app functionality and provide a more convenient experience for guests. For guests who opt-in, the program can engage with Chipotle App users upon arrival and utilizes real-time data to enhance their experience with order readiness messaging, wrong pick-up location detection, reminders to scan the Chipotle Rewards QR code at checkout, and more.
How much is pricing too much?
This was an interesting article in QSR Magazine on the impact on traffic from price increases.
"Traffic declines start at about 6 percent, indicating brands may lose customers before hitting the sweet spot of 13 percent. The key is a careful analysis by location either through RMS or internally.” In 3Q22, CMG is approaching 10-13%, although traffic is not declining according to Placer.AI, it is definitely slowing.
Florida Traffic Trends
Hurricane Ian, projected to be one of the costliest storms in US history, prompted mass evacuations, school shutdowns, and thousands of flight cancellations across the third-largest state. Obviously, not going to be a pleasant end to the quarter for many restaurant companies. After recovering from the lowes seen in July, traffic in September had begun to roll over before the storm.
