Could a juicy hamburger be Chipotle’s saving grace?
As Chipotle Mexican Grill struggles to rebound from E. coli and norovirus outbreaks—its same-store sales fell 26% in
February—the quick-service restaurant is considering getting into the burger business.
Chipotle filed a trademark application for the name Better Burger, Bloomberg reports.
“It’s a growth seed idea we are exploring,” Chris Arnold, a spokesperson for the Denver-based company, told the news source. “We have two non-Chipotle growth seeds open now—ShopHouse (a Southeast Asian fast-casual concept) and Pizzeria Locale—and have noted before that the Chipotle model could be applied to a wide variety of foods.”
And burgers could prove pro table. U.S. sales at limited-service burger chains—restaurants without wait staff—rose to $76.9 billion in 2014, vs. $19.7 billion for Mexican fare, according to Technomic Inc.
Chipotle is also planting a craft-beverage program “seed,” according to MarketWatch.
At a Denver location, the chain is testing alcohol beverages and soda, including frozen margaritas, organic sangria, a draft beer, watermelon agua fresca, Izze sodas and Evolution Fresh juices.
Yes, your new neighbors are as young as they appear.
Millennials are getting older, getting married and having children. Which means they need bigger houses in an area with better schools—that is, the suburbs.
According to the association’s annual study evaluating the generational differences of recent home buyers and sellers, millennials—at 35%—were the largest group of buyers in 2015. The median income of millennial homebuyers was $77,400, vs. $76,900 in 2014), and they typically bought a
1,720-square-foot home costing $187,400 (vs. $180,900 a year ago).
Cannabis sales forecasted to grow by $17 billion during the next four years.
The marijuana business is booming. Between adult recreational and medical use, it accrued $5.7 billion in sales last year (vs. $4.6 billion in 2014), with sales expected to reach nearly $23 billion by 2020, according to USA Today, which cited a report from ArcView Market Research and New Frontier, a cannabis-focused data-analysis firm.
Much of the increase from 2014 to 2015 is attributed to adult-use market sales, which hit $1.3 billion last year. In 2020, adult-use market sales are projected to total $12.1 billion.
Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have legalized adult recreational use. And if California voters decide to legalize marijuana for recreational use this fall, sales could flourish even more.
Indicators
Last year started out promising as consumers used tax refunds and bonuses to repay nearly $35 billion in credit-card debt. But Americans erased those gains with the largest second-, third- and fourth-quarter binges since 2009.
$71.0 billion - Net increase in credit-card debt from 2014 to 2015
$52.4 billion - Debt added during fourth-quarter 2015—the largest fourth-quarter buildup since the great recession
$917.7 billion - Outstanding credit-card debt in 2015
$7,879 - Credit-card debt owed by the average U.S. household
Source: CardHub 2015 Credit Card Debt Study
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