Chipotle Among Most Hated Companies in America

Earlier this year, 24/7 Wall St. ran its annual America’s Most Hated Companies list. Among the large corporations on the list was Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG). Since the story ran, the situation at the fast casual chain has gotten worse.

One Chipotle location in Massachusetts has an employee who tested positive for norovirus. This brings the public’s attention back to the worse problems from a few months ago.

The 24/7 Wall St. summary about Chipotle from the America’s Most Hated Companies report:

Another company that has experienced a surprising turn of events is Chipotle. The restaurant, which has promoted its focus on food quality, now finds itself fighting a rising tide of evidence that it did not meet its own standards on safety. Serious foodborne illness outbreaks in 2015 were linked — in multiple incidents — to Chipotle locations across the country. These include a tomato-borne salmonella outbreak that sickened 64 people throughout Minnesota, and separate outbreaks of the norovirus in California and Boston, each afflicting dozens of patrons.

In addition, an E. coli outbreak has sickened more than 50 people in 12 states. The company faces several lawsuits, including one class action lawsuit brought on by investors, which claims the company made false statement about its safety standards following the outbreaks. The Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations has also launched a formal probe into the California norovirus incident, and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has subpoenaed the company as well. Same-store sales in Chipotle locations in the fourth quarter fell by nearly 15%, and shares of the company plunged by more than 40% in the past 12 months.

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Methodology: To identify the most hated companies in America, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed a variety of metrics on customer service, employee satisfaction and financial performance. We considered consumer surveys from a number of sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and a Zogby Analytics poll created in partnership with 24/7 Wall St. We also reviewed employee satisfaction based on worker opinion scores on Glassdoor — this is not a Glassdoor commissioned report. Finally, we reviewed management decisions and company policies that hurt a company’s public perception.