Trendy Chipotle burritos show how pricing power belongs to the hip

Reuters ^ | July 28, 2014 | Jeffrey Dastin

[C19fan]

Corporate America can learn a lot from a chicken burrito. As many companies struggle to boost prices without alienating consumers, they may want to study Mexican-food chain Chipotle, which has managed to do both.

Companies including Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG.N), Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and PepsiCo (PEP.N) have shown they're able to take advantage of quality, trendiness, and, in the case of Pepsi's snack foods, market dominance, to maintain high prices or even raise them faster than the inflation rate, now at about 2.1 percent in the U.S. Chipotle raised chicken-dish prices by 5 percent this year after leaving them untouched since 2011, and sales went up 29 percent last quarter.

[newnhdad]

I enjoy the trends. I love it when we go into larger areas and try to go to the hottest places to see whats up and coming in the food trucks.
I worked for a few years in the restaurant food/service industry and I know what goes into well prepared meals. Even simple meals (grilled cheese) can be improved on and experimented with or tweaked slightly and it becomes something special. Change the bread, go with a smoked cheese, add a heirloom tomato and some smoked maple glazed bacon and you got a $15 meal.
It was tested back in 2003-2005 that consumers are willing to pay the same or even more, for smaller portions with more flavor. The 1,500 carb and calorie filled belly bursting meals are going away. The current wave of flavor is filled with bright spicy and salty goodness which is why we now see a bacon revolution. It's an inexpensive way to add the salt, sweet and texture to a simple meal that will leave the diner more satiated.
Bland empty-calorie filled slop buckets like Golden Corral and other troughs are becoming a thing of the past. The money and future money desire flavor and it can be tested, tweaked and experimented with by the trucks a lot easier than in a corporate environment.

[CodeToad]

Worst steak ever. All gristle.

[dmz]

I don’t understand all the negative comments on this thread. You’d think most Freepers are shut-ins whose only dining out experience is some downscale all-you-can-eat buffet joint. And they want the rest of us to feel like we are being pretentious for wanting better for ourselves.

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The thing that makes me LOL about this is the suggestion by the one I’ve pinged is that somehow we are sheep being exploited by the dark forces of the Democratic party because we might choose on occasion to pay 8 dollars for a burger, when we can get one for 4 dollars at a fast food place. Or that we are mindlessly following whatever trend makes its way to Main Street.

It’s pretty simple economics to me. The value, flavor/portion size/freshness, is easily double that of a fast food burger.

[a fool in paradise]

I didn’t say $8 a burger. I said the trucks are getting $10 and up and the hip bloggers are putting them on the facebook, instagram, et al with “NOMNOMNOM” quotes, then getting picked up by the weekly Village ‘Vice’ alt-sex-weekly and touted as the best damn thing to eat in the whole frickin’ town.

And they plain aren’t.

Had a burger, shake, and onion rings today at Broiler Burger (what some hipsters will probably discover the year they finally announce their closing) and call it “retro” and “throwback dining” with “kitchy interior”.

TRENDY #### show how pricing power belongs to the HIP.

The headline said it all.