Fast Casual Chains—Chipotle, Cava, More—Sound Alarm On Drop-Off In Lower-Income Customers

Forbes ^ | 10/31/25 | Martina Castellanos,

[DallasBiff]

Younger consumers and households earning under $100,000 are cutting back on restaurant spending, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said this week, while noting a broader pullback across the industry, as shares of fast casual chains from Sweetgreen to Cava also continue to slide.

[Mr Rogers]

” It is also why a vast majority of the wealth in this country is concentrated in a minuscule minority of the people.”

Are you sure you are on the right website?

The very wealthy DO have much of the money and they pay taxes out of proportion to the wealth they make. What would you have them do?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I enjoy telling Grok what I ate for breakfast, portions, and my location I weigh everything anyway as part of calorie counting.

Grok looks up standard prices at markets in my area and calculates what my breakfast cost. Yesterday was 3 large eggs scrambled French style, a big slice of sourdough, butter, a glass of milk and two cups of excellent coffee from whole beans. Cost $4.05. Of course, I do the shopping, prep, cooking, cleanup and provide the real estate for my kitchen. I’ve got it all dialed in and can make that good breakfast in less than 15 minutes.

Compare that to $25 at my favorite local coffee shop. The days of grabbing breakfast at the coffee shop two or three times a week are long gone.

[meyer]

How are people using welfare at restaurants? That shouldn’t be legal. Basic necessities ONLY, and ONLY for US citizens, and ONLY those truly in need.

[BradyLS]

You’ll thank yourself if you do!

[nevadapatriot]

>I was paying at one cash register, and the pre-loaded tip options were for 20% - 25% - 30% - other. In a restaurant with no waitstaff, only runners.

That is why cash is still needed. If I have to pay standing up at a counter register to order, and/or have to go to the counter to get my food, there is no tip, ever.

[Sequoyah101]

Money is like manure. It does no good unless you spread it around.

It has nothing to do with your or my poitical proclivity and I know you don’t believe that. 2+2=5 Fine by me. Whatever.

Mr. Rogers was a nice guy but not especially sage on many things.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Proud to say I’ve never darkened the door of a Chipotle...

Heck, I can't even pronounce it.

[MayflowerMadam]

“You can scarcely get out of a restaurant these days for less than 25 bucks per person, beverage, tax and tip.”

While running errands last week we went into Outback to grab lunch. Yup. $50 for the two of us. I don’t even enjoy eating out with current prices. We can afford it, but knowing the cost puts a pall over the meal.

We’ve never eaten out more than once a week, but a lot of people do.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

If we want Tex-Mex fast casual we go to Moe’s over Chipotle. Never heard of anyone dying of e-coli at Moe’s. And it’s generally decent, though no longer inexpensive.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

For $20÷ you should

[OldMissileer]

Chipotle has a bad record for “cleanliness”.

I have never eaten at a Chipotle.

Many years ago my children loved to eat there. They were living at home and going to college. One day I decided to see how good they were, when my kids said they were boycotting Chipotle because it took longer to get their food than they had for their lunchtimes, so I never went. A few years later I decided to try again and the same day I decided to try them they had the first round of food poisonings. I waited a couple more years and then more folks bit the dust.

I stopped trying to go to Chipotle and can now say I will never darken one of their doors.

[Albion Wilde]

Given that prices have doubled, tripled, or sometimes even more since the plandemic and bidenflation, is anyone surprised?

[Albion Wilde]

Wages in this country are being compressed and more and more money is going to the corner office the Board Room and profits.

Then we have invisible taxes like escalating healthcare insurance plans, planned obsolescence in manufacturing including frequent upgrades of electronic devices, expensive rampant liberal criminality requiring limited-effect attempts to shield one's property like HOAs and home security systems; and with the rise of digital instead of analog television, you have to pay if you want to see the good stuff. Throw out your Edison lightbulbs from every fixture in every room. Biden/Harris wanted us to toss our gas appliances and gasoline cars, as well.

College tuitions have increased by a multiple of the actual inflation rate. Instead of cathedrals, we build hospitals that are far grander, and we pay billions not only for pharmaceutical R&D, but also for their massive advertising, lobbying and influence campaigns linked to health that is declining because of Frankenfoods.

When the MBA degree became a "big thing" since the late 70s, suddenly dentists were charging not by the filling, but by the number of tooth surfaces in the filling, and similar picayune billing enhancements in every business.

“They paved Paradise, put up a parking lot”—and it'll cost ya.

[Albion Wilde]

The very wealthy DO have much of the money and they pay taxes out of proportion to the wealth they make. What would you have them do?

I would have them pay a fair living wage and pay themselves less. There used to be a rule of thumb that the top exec's salary shouldn't exceed six to ten times the salary of the lowest-paid worker. Hah! That went out the window in the 1990s. Competition in executive compensation packages has been spiraling upward and has bled the middle class dry. And this chart is just to 2008—today The median total compensation for S&P 500 CEOs was $17.1 million in 2024:

Source: Executive compensation in the United States

So, one-tenth of that compensation for the lowest-paid worker would be $1.7 million for the janitor. One twentieth would be $855,000. Let's say the janitor makes $25,000 and has a couple of kids. The Big Boss makes 684 times as much.

[Mr Rogers]

“I would have them pay a fair living wage...”

We do not have slavery in the USA. If someone doesn’t want to work for X amount, they do not have to. If their job skills do not allow them to make more, they need to try to expand their job skills.

I’m not a communist. People should be paid based on the value they bring to their jobs. Increasingly, robots and touch screens are replacing people because the work many do simply isn’t worth the “minimum wage”.