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Chipotle Closing Stores For a Few Hours on February 8
The brand will be closing most of its 2,000 stores for a few hours to address the E.coli outbreak.
In order to assess the damage created by the recent E.coli outbreak, Chipotle will be closing almost all of its 2,000 stores on Feb. 8, according to QSR Magazine. Burrito enthusiasts do not need to panic as stores will only be closed for a few hours to explain to staff what the brand will be doing to prevent occurrences like this from happening again.
The decision to close the stores is part of a marketing barrage the brand is undertaking to repair its image. Since the initial outbreak in October 2015, Chipotle has seen their stock dip, sales decline and is now dealing with a number of customer lawsuits.
Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ellis said at an ICR Conference on Wednesday that the brand is taking extra steps to ensure outbreaks won’t occur again. Investors gave Ellis and the brand a vote of confidence after his reassurance as shares for the Chipotle were up 5.9 percent on Wednesday. Matthew Wise, who is the lead for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team investigating the outbreak, said they are not close to calling it a solved case, but have seen some improvements from Chipotle.
“It’s true we’ve seen some positive movement in the right direction,” Ellis told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s been well over a month since we’ve seen any reports from ill people, we’re more cautious about closing it. It’s a conversation we’ll have over the coming weeks.”
CDC officials believe bad produce was the cause of the outbreak, but Ellis said this has been a difficult case to crack and they may never know the cause.
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