A number of restaurants saw a drop in sales last year, and Chipotle is one of them. 

The fast-casual restaurant chain, known for its made-to-order burritos, bowls, tacos, and salads, recently reported its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, disclosing a 2.5% year-over-year decline in comparable restaurant sales. 

According to its earnings release, its comparable restaurant sales for the full year also decreased by 1.7%, and operating margin dropped to 16.2% from 16.9%. 

To offset the recent sales decline and attract more customers, Chipotle shared a plan to relaunch its Chipotle Rewards loyalty program in the spring, with the goal of extending its reach and using artificial intelligence (AI) to design more personalized experiences. 

Chipotle key changes coming soon: 

• Easier checkout: The restaurant plans to “remove friction” at the register. This means making it faster and easier for you to scan your app or earn points without slowing down the line.
• More personalization: Chipotle will utilize AI to send you deals based on what you actually like to eat and how often you visit.
• Targeting “lapsed” customers: The idea is to use these personal offers to remind people who haven’t visited in a while to come back.
• Games and challenges: The program will keep using “gamification” (like challenges and badges) to make earning free food feel more like a game. Sources: Customer Experience Dive, Chipotle earnings call 

Chipotle also recently announced the offering of $1 million worth of free entrées on one of the biggest nights in American sports this year: the 2026 Super Bowl, reported TheStreet’s Patricia Battle.  

However, during the same earnings call on Feb. 3, Chipotle CEO made an unexpected comment about the restaurant’s customers. 

Chipotle’s CEO says high-income “users” drive the restaurant’s performance, sparking customer backlash.

Photo by Kevin Carter on Getty Images

Chipotle CEO says high-income customers drive chain’s performance

Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright talked about how the majority of its customers belong to the higher-income demographic. These insights provide the company with “confidence” to continue to adjust its offering. 

“I’ll tell you, after looking at the data last week, we learned that 60% of our core users are over $100,000 a year in income. That gives us confidence that we can lean into that group in a more meaningful way, whether it’s the solo occasion and or group occasions to really drive meaningful transaction performance in the year,” Boatwright said. 

While the earnings call took place on Feb. 3, the cut part of an audio where Boatwright talked about higher-income customers, more recently went viral, as consumers on social media and various outlets focused on the meaning behind confidence to “drive meaningful transaction performance.” 

Several outlets, including Benzinga and International Business Times UK, reported on it, sharing a viral video first posted by X user @WallStreeApes.

The reports suggested the CEO’s focus on wealthy customers is a sign that Chipotle will continue to raise prices, a move that aligns with the company’s recent history and the current economy.

Chipotle raised prices in 2024 to offset inflation 

At the end of 2024, Chipotle raised prices across the country by around 2% to help cover the rising costs of its business operations, reported Nation’s Restaurant News. 

This was the first national price increase the company had taken since October 2023. In California, however, the price grew 6%-7% earlier in 2024, to address the state’s new $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast-food employees. 

“For the first time in over a year, we have taken a modest price increase of approximately 2% nationally to offset inflation,” Chipotle chief corporate affairs officer Laurie Schalow confirmed in an email to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Reasons why Chipotle raised prices: 

• Expensive ingredients: Due to inflation, avocado prices increased a staggering 19% year over year in 2024, and beef prices were 1.9% higher than in 2023. 
• “Generous portions”: The company’s chief financial officer mentioned that costs are also higher because the company is using more food to ensure customers get “generous portions.”
• Labor inflation: Besides food, the cost of paying employees (wages) continued to rise, pressuring the company’s profits. Source: Nation’s Restaurant News

Chipotle may raise prices again 

While the CEO didn’t explicitly say the chain plans to raise prices this year, the possibility remains. After all, the economic situation that made the restaurant hike prices in late 2024 hasn’t quite improved. 

I reported in July 2025 about beef prices reaching record highs when they hit $6.12 a pound in June, which was 12% higher than in June 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Moreover, as experts predicted, beef prices continued to rise, reaching new record highs in Dec. 2025 of $6.69 per pound, the highest since tracking began in the 1980s, according to the White House. 

More Restaurants: 

• Coffee chain faces new problem as it shutters 27 stores
• Starbucks coffee-chain rival permanently closes dozens of locations 
• 127-year-old restaurant that invented legendary cocktail close 
• Beloved regional Mexican restaurant abruptly closes all locations

Although Chipotle reported a total revenue increase of 5.4% to $11.9 billion in 2025, the number of people actually eating there declined, as the number of transactions dropped by 3.2% compared to 2024. 

Placer.ai data also confirmed that Chipotle visits at same-store locations declined by 1% to 2% during the fourth quarter of 2025. 

Industry data confirm that many consumers are spending less on eating out, as they tighten their wallets to deal with inflation and high prices, according to an October YouGov survey. 

Approximately 37% of U.S. consumers said they are dining out less frequently than they used to a year ago. About 69% of these consumers said this is because eating out has become too expensive. 

Indeed, eating at a restaurant became 4.1% more expensive in December 2025 compared to 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Customers react to viral post about potential Chipotle price hikes 

The viral audio received many comments from consumers. Reactions were mixed, but the overall sentiment was largely negative. Some commenters across platforms claimed that even high-income customers are turning away from the brand due to declining quality and prices. 

“Chipotle is mediocre as hell anyways I haven’t been there in years. I don’t make 100k tho so they won’t miss me lol,” user Buckeyeknifeguy shared on Reddit. 

A number of commenters also mocked the CEO for calling them “users” instead of customers. 

“’Users’? It is not a tech company, it is a burrito chain lol. Clearly its app must be spying on its users via some terms of service clause nobody read,” wrote X user @Mental_Atrophy. 

Even customers who claimed to be in that higher-income range were frustrated with the news, slamming the chain. 

“As someone who makes that range, I won’t ever step food (sic) into a Chipotle again. Food taste like s**t now and the portions are terrible. I’d rather cook,” wrote user fulanoderock. 

Related: Fast-casual giant revamps loyalty program to win back customers