Chipotle’s PR team is scrambling following manager’s termination over assumed racial bias.
On Friday, Twitter user Masud Ali tweeted a video and tagged Chipotle’s Twitter profile:
Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session. @ChipotleTweets ?? pic.twitter.com/Sj8RaeINj6
— Masud Ali 🍑 (@Masudaliii) November 16, 2018
The video shows the manager of the location requesting prepayment for the order and telling the group, “You [have] to pay because you never have money when you come in here.”
The exchange continues to escalate, and Ali and his friends question why a white customer didn’t have to prepay—or rather, pay at all.
The footage, which has been retweeted more than 52,000 times, showed the Chipotle employees in St. Paul. Minn., moving on to serve a white woman without asking her to show “proof of income.” When the camera zoomed in on her, an employee said the food would be on the house because of the incident surrounding her.
Subsequent videos tweeted in Ali’s Twitter thread show the group arguing with the manager and other employees over the decision.
Hours later, Chipotle’s social media team responded:
We’re concerned to hear this. Would you please share more here? https://t.co/nrhUDiEk7G -DJ
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) November 16, 2018
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Ali, who was one of the customers, told the Star Tribune that he thought the employees came off as racist because they were being accused of being customers from a previous night where a group had dined and dashed at the restaurant.“It sounded really racist ― the way she said it was racist,” Ali told the publication. “She asked for proof of income as if I’m getting a loan.”
In a previous statement to the Star Tribune, Chipotle said it had spoken with the officers who went to the restaurant and the employees.
“Regarding what happened at the St. Paul restaurant, the manager thought these gentlemen were the same customers from Tuesday night who weren’t able to pay for their meal,” the statement to the publication read. “Regardless, this is not how we treat our customers and as a result, the manager has been terminated and the restaurant [staff] has been retrained to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
Though Chipotle’s swift action to fire the manager was meant to avoid further backlash online, social media users soon started reposting several of Ali’s former tweets, in which he admits to taking food at restaurants—including Chipotle—without paying for it. The tweets have since been deleted.
A screenshot of a tweet from July 15, 2015, says, “Dine and dash is forever interesting.” A tweet from March 28, 2015, describes a plan to go to an Applebee’s and tip a server 20 cents. Another tweet from the same day says, “Not a dine and dash we’re just borrowing the food for a couple hours that’s all.” In January 2016, he tweeted, “Aye man I think Chipotle catching up to us fam … should we change locations…” A screenshot of a tweet from this July reads, “I caught myself taking the Chipotle Tabasco sauce the other day lol not because I needed it but because it felt so natural to me.”
As news of Ali’s former tweets made the rounds online, Twitter users lashed out at Chipotle’s termination decision:
You owe @Dom3Marie a public apology and reinstatement. When corporations don't have employees back, there is no company. This is how you lose money and customers.
— Matt Murdog (@mattmurdog) November 19, 2018
I hope your manager will receive an apology & be reinstated now multiple news outlets are reporting on the background & tactics these particular customers utilized to their selfish advantage *
— Caren (@CarenDeniseP) November 19, 2018
Congratulations @ChipotleTweets for terminating a hardworking employee! I sincerely hope one of your competitors snaps this person up and treats them as they deserve!
— arachne.fearbia (@AFearbia) November 19, 2018
When you have a great manager that thinks on her feet and the company sack her...WOW. As for re-train I think the manager has shown she's smarter to stop you potentially losing money with a past of dining and dash. How much investigating do you need to do as evidence is on social
— Simon (@KingstonSi) November 19, 2018
I'm not coming back until you apologize to the manager. I would walk right out the door of any Chipotle in Minnesota allowing those jerks to harass & disrespect the entire crew like that. It isn't good for business to entertain hooligans at the expense of patrons and employees.
— CHANELCOCOVBEAN (@Cocovanillabean) November 19, 2018
Chipotle then issued a statement and admitted it might walk back the decision to fire the manager involved.
The Washington Post reported:
“Our actions were based on the facts known to us immediately after the incident, including video footage, social media posts and conversations with the customer, manager, and our employees,” Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief communications officer, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “We now have additional information which needs to be investigated further. We want to do the right thing, so after further investigation we will re-train and re-hire if the facts warrant it.” Chipotle has not yet responded to an inquiry from The Washington Post about what the additional information entails.
The burrito chain’s social media team has tweeted Schalow’s statement in response to a critic on Twitter:
Our actions were based on the facts known to us immediately after the incident. We now have additional information which needs to be investigated further. We want to do the right thing, so after further investigation, we’ll re-train and re-hire if the facts warrant it.
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) November 19, 2018
Both Chipotle and Ali have declined to make any further comments.
Chipotle was trying to avoid a situation similar to Starbucks, which in May closed more than 8,000 stores for racial-bias training. The training stemmed from an incident at one of the coffee chain’s Philadelphia location, in which two black men were arrested. However, it’s now scrambling to address the backlash caused by the quick decision to terminate the manager.
What do you think of Chipotle’s statements and decision to fire its employee? How would you advise the burrito chain to rebuild trust?
from PR Daily News Feed https://ift.tt/2zku5mk
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