The Denver chain made its first big push with freebies on Feb. 8 when it closed its stores nationwide so employees could participate in a food safety meeting after an E. Coli outbreak and other incidents sent sales plunging.
"That was our first test to see how much people really wanted to come back to Chipotle," said Mark Crumpacker, chief creative and development ******r, speaking Wednesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Consumer and Retail Tech Conference.
The company has since also started mailing people coupons for a free entree. Crumpacker said there are about 6 to 10 million such offers in circulation already, out of the 21 million the company has planned. Those all expire around May 15, he said. Read more...