I want to do these Chipotle shops. Signed up ages ago, and they never have any training anywhere near me, although there are several locations. Bummer.

I had been a shopper for them for about 6 years and then became an editor for them for about a year (before I decided being chained to my desk for 20 hours a week was not a good thing for me and it limited my time for other mystery shopping). At first, in addition to height, shirt color (they used to have both brown and black shirts) and whether or not they were wearing hats, they wanted hair color, style, and length for all crew members...but a few months after I became an editor they changed it, as they figured out that most Chipotle crew members have brown hair. They decided that it was only pertinent to state hair color and style/shirt color and style if it was the manager. And with crew members' hair colors, it's only left in the report if the hair color is unusual. Even "natural looking" blonde and red hair are considered a little unusual and bear mentioning as descriptors, since most of the other crew members have brown hair...and of course, blue hair, green hair, two-toned hair, etc. With hair style, it's pretty much the same thing...you can say that they had a mohawk, shaved head, design shaved into their hair, etc. and that's considered useful information. You won't know it as a shopper, but the editor just removes excess information that is no longer required and generally won't bother telling shoppers about it (delete delete delete). It's fine if you add it in I guess, but it's just extra work that you don't need to do.

Funny you mention gender...there were several times where I had to just say "the crew member" and give a description and their position, because the person in question had a very androgenous appearance and I couldn't tell whether they were male or female!

I still shop for them, by the way.

@DrSquash wrote:

...there is an editor saying you should not mention hair color?

Thankfully, he/she has never edited my shops. Okay, we can't mention apparent race or age. If you leave out hair color, that leaves gender, height, and then presence of tattoos, piercings, glasses, and earrings. Everything except gender or height I consider a lucky break (having done a good 20 of these shops by now).

I also agree the fee is due for a raise given the prices have gone up. The existing fee including reimbursement is still decent, though ($27, for me it's an average $13 tab, so I'm clearing about $14).

I have a love/hate relationships with this company- love the food, they are progressive and serve honest food. BUT The most frustrating part of this shop for me is the extreme information required when you go through the food line- they want a physical description of each crew member, what each crew member said, what greeting the Tortilla Station gave and the closing statement of the cashier, whether guac/chips or drink were upsold, how each crewmember scooped your food, if they scooped correctly and an assessment of each ingredient - down to the lettuce and salsa. And oh yeah, whether each person made eye contact and smiled and seemed "happy". And exact answers to any questions you ask. All this in the 2-3 minutes it takes to go through the line.

Got a memory that can handle that? I don't- I use electronics to help. I WISH THEY WOULD STOP THE NEED FOR SUCH EXCESSIVE AND REDUNDANT INFORMATION: sometimes when you ask for too much information- you get sloppy details. It is hard to get a physical description of each line worker since they change them out so often during the visit. A very maddening report- they could stand to simplify it.............and probably get better data that way. What they expect is a photographic memory when assessing the food line experience. I spend too much energy getting a physical description of each person in the shop (usually 7-10 people) when I could be observing more important details.

PS: On the upside- they have great schedulers, are very flexible when scheduling shops, reply promptly to quesions and treat me very well. Hopefully the shops will get easier in time for me.

Totally agree. Although I am blessed with an excellent memory (at times it is a curse) , there is a lot of detail and the redundancy is somewhat irritating.

Catlassy, I totally agree. There is an awful lot to remember while you're going down the line (which usually takes 1-2 minutes). My daughter loves Chipotle, and it's nice to have a second set of eyes and ears help me, but this makes the bill around $15-19 since she likes guac with the chips. Even if I ate by myself, I'd still be spending at least $10 with the bowl, chips and a drink. Thus, I'd get a $17 payment for writing a report that takes me 1.5 hours, in addition to making the phone call and responding to the editor's many questions. Ugh. This shop is simply not my cup of tea. They really need a way to streamline the report.

It is a challenge to look at the crew member and the food while going down the line. I made sure I knew who the crew was as I go down the line, but concentrate on the food. Once I'm seated, then I text notes on the crew descriptions. So far so good and I have never been asked for clarification.

Hey, you do not have to give comments on each ingredient, only the ones that don't look great. It's really not that hard to notice if the beans look dry or if there is pink on the pieces of steak. If the lettuce looks brown or wilted, or is wet, it's pretty obvious. I watch the crew members while standing in line to get physical descriptions and text them to myself or into my notes app, and I also do the line count/table count at that time into my phone. You could also walk in, take a look at the crew members on the way to the restroom, and use voice to text in your notes on your phone while in the restroom. But to each their own--you really have to love the food...and I do. I can get 2 or 3 meals out of one bowl. Copy and paste from the top of the report to the narrative makes for consistency in your comments and makes reporting time go much faster.

Oh also, if the crew member has brown hair, is not a manager, and has no tattoos or piercings, your physical descriptions might read like this:

The crew member at the warmer (female) smiled and offered a pleasant greeting before asking for my order.
I saw a crew member (male) cutting meat at the chef's table. Another crew member (male with small goatee and mustache) was washing vegetables.

Finally had a shop come back last month with notes along the lines of "it's not necessary to include the height when describing crew members." Works for me; on one hand I hate giving the exact same description for two or more crew members, but on the other it's less work for me to do. Also, I'm not sure how it helps management identify who was doing what at the time of my visit if two descriptions are exactly the same. I still try to include distinguishing features when I can find them.

Thanks to everyone for your insightful comments. Training is coming up in my area and I was debating whether to give this a try.

Give it a shot. Worse comes to worse, you don't have to keep doing it. The pay's generally good enough unless you get one with a 50 person line or something. Yes, that does happen.

Since I posted earlier in this thread about not being sure at first and wanting to see how it went after I got my feet wet, this might be a good time for an update.

I'm doing these shops all the time now. I've gotten the report time down to an hour, and since I like the food and would probably be eating there anyway, $27 is pretty reasonable even when you factor in the driving time. The scheduler is great, the editor isn't a jerk. They're giving me tons of shops, and I get a nice DD every month that pays for my car insurance, with plenty left over. I might even be the only person in the city doing them regularly, and they've just scheduled another training session to get some new blood. Maybe I should show up wearing an open-collar shirt with a bunch of gold chains, cracking my knuckles and making vaguely threatening comments about what happened to the last guy who tried to horn in on my action.

I really like these shops. They get easier the more you do. I can complete the report in about 45 minutes. The schedulers are great too.

@pinchers81 wrote:

...
I might even be the only person in the city doing them regularly, and they've just scheduled another training session to get some new blood. Maybe I should show up wearing an open-collar shirt with a bunch of gold chains, cracking my knuckles and making vaguely threatening comments about what happened to the last guy who tried to horn in on my action.

Or you could stand outside the location with a clipboard and hand everyone who approaches a flyer with the new address where the training has been moved to at the last minute.

I just got an email to with this MSC since they are offering training sessions in my area. With this post and the one by @pinchers81 on the timing of how long it takes to do the reports I'm not too interested. However, does this MSC have any other clients should I bother registering? Seems like most people are happy with the company and schedulers.

I like them so far... I'm happy with the company and the schedulers and editors. But I've just started and only done a couple of reports. In my area they do not have any other clients (or if they do, they've shielded them from a lowly newbie like me).

They have another restaurant chain they picked up maybe a year or so ago (not really sure of when). But I think it must be regional, and I don't even know the name of it. If this chain expands, maybe those of us outside the region will eventually start seeing assignments for it.

It takes a long time to do the reports, but the people are great and if you like the food, the pay is, when all is said and done, probably no worse than some we do. I don't do nearly as many in a month as I could; about two/month is all I can handle on a regular basis. I've done three in a month, but there are some shoppers who seem to do at least one per week. I don't know they do it....

@Phoebe70 wrote:

I've done 9 Chipotle reports, and have decided to stop doing these assignments.

Every single report I've submitted has come back needing either further clarification or nit-picking on employee descriptions (I've previously ranted about how one editor wants me to state the hair color, and another editor states that I should not mention hair color).

I recently submitted my last Chipotle report, and the editor wrote back stating that they needed further clarification on 11 items! I'm just not sure what they're looking for at this point. I am very detailed, and I review the guidelines several times before I do each shop.

I spend approximately 1 - 1.5 hours on each report, and then another 30 minutes answering the editor's questions. I spent $20 on my shop (took my daughter) and I get a flat $27 fee. So not worth it.

I simply don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I've been shopping for 5 years with over 100 companies. I've never had an issue with the other shops like I have with Chipotle. I read about all the other shoppers who have no issues with the Chipotle reports. It must be just me

I've decided that life is too short to deal with the stress involved with the Chipotle shops. I'd rather be a paying customer on my own dime than deal with their reports and editors.

HATE THEM PERIOD. THREE YRS AGO I did a job and never got paid for it. I live here in CO where they began and they are very nit picky.. If they don't like your report, they expect you to go and pay ANOTHER $25 or so dollars to redo.. no thanx, I've got better co's to deal with..

P on them!

amber

Hard to understand. I've done over 50 now and I have NEVER had a question from an editor. Maybe they are assigned regionally?
I just did one today - the report took 35 minutes. I don't comment on anything "great" unless it's required, and although the two narrative sections are a pain in the @ss, I can now whip them out fairly fast based on the notes I take while I eat.
My only complaint is the amount of driving I have to do, but scheduling is so flexible that I can usually combine with other shops. Bottom line: if there were more locations near me I'd do more!

Any Southern California Chipotle shoppers out there? Just wondering how the editors are for that area. I'm hoping I don't get picky ones. I have a training session this month.

How is that Chipotle food? Should I eat there? What's recommended?

@MDavisnowell wrote:

How is that Chipotle food? Should I eat there? What's recommended?

It's so damn good. I would recommend steak tacos or a steak burrito, and don't forget to try their chips and guac.

Thanks, I'm going to try it. Maybe tomorrow. I'm too old to shop there but fortunately I'm not too old to eat.

I like the chicken burrito bowls, with brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, tomatoes, med salsa, and corn salsa. No Cheese or Sour Cream on mine, please. And since I have to buy chips, I'll take a side of guac, too.

Mary, I think if you like Tex Mex, then you'll like Chipotle. If you don't, then you probably won't.

There are none in my area at this time

@MDavisnowell wrote:

Thanks, I'm going to try it. Maybe tomorrow. I'm too old to shop there but fortunately I'm not too old to eat.

There's an age limit for the Chipotle shops?

@AustinMom wrote:

There's an age limit for the Chipotle shops?

I saw a posting for it recently and the age limit was set to 99.

Yep. Think so.

@BirdyC wrote:

They have another restaurant chain they picked up maybe a year or so ago (not really sure of when). But I think it must be regional, and I don't even know the name of it. If this chain expands, maybe those of us outside the region will eventually start seeing assignments for it.

It takes a long time to do the reports, but the people are great and if you like the food, the pay is, when all is said and done, probably no worse than some we do. I don't do nearly as many in a month as I could; about two/month is all I can handle on a regular basis. I've done three in a month, but there are some shoppers who seem to do at least one per week. I don't know they do it....

Spare time and an appetite. I usually do 4-5 a week, depending on schedule.

FWIW the schedulers know about the issues with editors issuing contradictory feedback. I think they're trying to iron it out a bt.