Students Say They’re Done Eating Chipotle After E.coli Flare-up

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Ngozi Aghanya

Chipotle Downtown Silver Spring, MD

Ngozi Aghanya, Staff Writer

The E. coli outbreak that plagued several Chipotle locations brought down the company’s sales along with its long waiting lines. According to the Health Department officials, Seattle, Washington, and Oregon were the main places that had a number of E. coli cases affecting over 50 people.

Executives from Chipotle Mexican Grill met to declare that the restaurant’s E. coli outbreak is over. According to CNN money, since the spread of  E. coli throughout the chain was announced, the fourth quarter sales of restaurants that have been open for over a year have decreased by 14.6%.

Many ERHS students were deterred by the E. coli outbreak and said they’d rather not eat at Chipotle again.

“Everyone can get sick and get the disease,” said sophomore Wonnae Briegeforth. Chipotle should end any further business because “I can get it too,” she added.

Sophomore Idamis Diaz said that she worries about her health and wouldn’t risk eating there. “It’s my health, I have to take care of it. If they fix the problem then I can go,” said Diaz.

Other students agreed that their well-being comes first before.

“I studied E. Coli in my class, it’s kind of nasty,” said senior Danielle Wolfe. “I would not eat Chipotle because their food isn’t worth the risk of getting E.coli and dying,” said junior Tony Phillips.

According to CNBC, the Mexican Grill will close all of its restaurants on February 8 for a national employee meeting to discuss food safety concerns and possible company changes. SFGATE noted that Chipotle has doubled the amount of free food employees can give away to customers. Chipotle is taking new steps to appeal to their customers in a way that will cost them greatly.

Students with a bit more optimism toward the future of the company offered ideas to increase clientele. Freshman Priscilla Nalubula said that she occasionally eats at Chipotle and that “I don’t think that the outbreak will prevent me from eating at Chipotle again.”

Only time will tell whether or not the Mexican Grill can win the hearts of their customers back, but if she had the opportunity to fix the problem, Nalubula said she “would inspect all of the Chipotles in the country because if they say that one state has an outbreak, I would fire all the people there and then bring the employees in and inspect everything myself.”

Senior, Jerome Jeffrey said getting “more meat would be a solution by coming up with a new product to start selling.