Chipotle hikes prices to cover the cost of raising wages
cnbc.com
cnbc.com
I'd be happy to have the cost of a $7 burrito increased by $.28 to think that the people involved in giving it to me aren't going hungry themselves.
I don't for a minute think that it's really "covering the cost of raising wages". It doesn't work that way. They set their prices to extract what they think they can get. They weren't losing money on a $7 burrito. They set that price because they were afraid if they charged more I'd go to Burger King next door.
They're raising prices because they now think they can get an extra quarter out of people. Which they probably can. If that happens to coincide with them giving raises to workers, great. Especially if that raise is a lot more than 4%.
Weren't we expecting that executives would generously decide to take take a pay cut and shareholder dividends would be reduced so that line workers could be paid more?
(https://ir.chipotle.com/2020-02-04-Chipotle-Announces-Fourth...)
Labor costs have gone up, if by enough, then this is simply maintaining margins.