I get lunch at Chipotle very often. It’s hard to beat the convenience, taste, price, and healthiness of a burrito bowl. Last week I was running an errand at lunch, and while on my way back to my office I stopped at a Chipotle a little further away than the one I normally patronize. I ordered my usual burrito bowl, but for some reason the person making my burrito didn’t quite get the meaning of ‘tiny’ amount of salsa, and lobbed on a ton of it. I get less salsa primarily because I prefer a lower ratio of salsa to non-salsa ingredients, but also because a lot of salsa can make the whole bowl quite soggy. I wasn’t too upset at the mess up, and figured I could always just scrape off the extra salsa when I sat down to eat it.
I started walking back to my office, which was about half a mile away. When I was about 2 blocks away all of a sudden I felt something drop. I look back and see my entire burrito bowl smashed on the ground - like it had been dropped from the top of a building. The juices from the extra salsa must have leaked from the bowl and eventually deteriorated the entire bottom of the bag, which was now a giant hole.
The site of my lunch splattered on the sidewalk was so sad that for a moment I thought I would just have to walk sullenly back to the office and forgo lunch.
But this brief bout of hopelessness soon gave way to an overwhelming feeling of hangryness. I was not about to let this bag failure prevent me from eating my lunch. An extra $13 and 15 minutes of my life isn’t really that big of a deal - certainly not enough to make me upset all afternoon. I scooped up the contents of my burrito bowl from the ground, and marched right back to Chipotle to get another. I made sure that they put very little salsa on it, and of course had them double bag it. After the first few bites I was happy just to eat, and soon realized how funny my dropped burrito bowl must have looked.
The moral of the story is twofold. First, Chipotle needs to improve the structural integrity of their bags. Second, don’t fret over dropped burrito bowls - laugh it off and just get another.