Chipotle has quietly raised its prices nationwide
- Chipotle has raised prices in all of its restaurants nationwide.
- Prices have gone up by about 5%.
- Chipotle has been crippled by food-poisoning scandals in the past several years.
Chipotle has a had a tumultuous year, but that hasn't stopped it from raising prices.
Today, the chain confirmed that it has finished its final round of price increases across its stores nationwide, CNBC reported.
The chain has been gradually implementing these changes over the course of the last year. In April 2017, 440 of Chipotle's more than 2,2000 restaurants were impacted. In November, another wave of its restaurants followed suit. The latest price hikes are affecting all 900 of the remaining restaurants, primarily in the Pacific, Northeast, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic areas.
Business Insider was told by a Chipotle spokesman in April that the price increases would be about 5%, which is equal to a $0.34 increase on a chicken burrito bowl in Washington, DC.
"We had been on record saying that we may raise prices in some of our restaurants, and we have done that," Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told Business Insider in April. "Even with the increase, Chipotle pricing remains very competitive within the category."
Chipotle is still recovering from a sales downturn triggered by an E. coli outbreak that affected its restaurants in 14 states three years ago.
In July 2017, the company's stock price plunged once more after several customers reported getting sick after eating at one of its restaurants in Sterling, Virginia. In December, several customers claimed they became ill from eating at one of its Los Angeles restaurants, which was investigated by public health professionals.
At the end of 2017, Steve Ells, who had been the face of the chain since he founded it nearly 25 years ago, said he would be stepping down from his post as CEO.