Chipotle fans were so busy decrying the continuing carnitas shortage yesterday that they may have missed the good news: The chain is now offering delivery service in the 67 US cities where the delivery app Postmates operates.
While other third-party operators have tried to do Chipotle delivery in the past, the company didn’t support it and has actually tried to close down the attempts, said the company’s chief creative and development officer, Mark Crumpacker, during yesterday’s earnings call, Nation’s Restaurant News reported. “We weren’t sure whether the quality was going to be sufficient, or whether they were following our rules.”
Postmates is a delivery app that, like Uber, uses independent contractors with their own cars to make their deliveries. (Postmates is the same service that Starbucks is using for its delivery option, coming later this year.) Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann said the company had already delivered $500,000 worth of Chipotle orders, even before an official deal was set, Re/Code reported.
The service is available in cities including LA, New York, Chicago, and Denver.