Thanks to inflation, Chipotle’s customers are paying extra for more than just guacamole, but most apparently don't care, as the fast-casual chain said in its earnings report that price hikes helped boost profits in its most recent quarter, which sent the stock surging today. Curt Garner, chief technology officer of Chipotle, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss how Chipotle is embracing new technologies like artificial intelligence, the metaverse, Roblox — and cryptocurrency. “We do accept crypto through a partnership with Flexa, in our restaurants and our digital channels,” Garner said. It’s a partnership that we're excited about. … We had a lot of customers that were asking for a crypto option as payment within our restaurants, and we're proud to put this partnership together and deliver that.” 


Closing Bell

Chipotle Looks to the Future with Crypto, AI and Roblox Following Earnings Report

Welcome back to Cheddar news is closing bell. Everyone, let's take a look at the stock market continuing to surge in today's session after the Fed did raise rates by 75 basis points. Federal jerome Powell saying he does not think the U. S. Economy is in a recession and that the Fed can still see a soft landing avoiding our recession as it does continue to embark on aggressive rate rises in an effort to bring down inflation still running at its hottest level in 40 years. Well, here's a live look at NASDAQ leading the way of 4.3% at a session high, the S. And P. F. 2.9% and the dow up 1.7% to a very strong day down here on Wall Street. Well, because of inflation, guacamole is not the only thing that customers at Chipotle have been paying extra for most customers don't seem to care that at least for now. As the fast casual chain said in its latest earnings report out yesterday that price hikes did help boost profits In this most recent quarter. Take a look at the stock today, up a whopping 16%. Well, outperforming the broader market in what is broadly a positive day down here on Wall Street. But joining me now is kurt Gardner, chief technology officer at Chipotle kurt, it's great to have you on the show from a technology standpoint what worked for Chipotle in this latest quarter. Well, certainly our digital business continues to be a growth engine for the company, but I think really importantly in this quarter, we also saw a big return to in restaurant dining I think our in restaurant dining channel was up 36%, so dramatic increase in guests returning to the in restaurant experience at the same time, our digital business continued to grow And stay steady at 39% of sales. Do you anticipate kurt that the digital business can grow from here even as Chipotle is planning more price hikes as announced in this latest earnings report come august. Yeah, absolutely. We opened 42 restaurants in the quarter, 32 of them included chipotle lanes and our chipotle restaurants trend higher in terms of digital sales, we only have a few 100 of those locations open so as we continue to grow and double our restaurant count, we expect our digital business to continue to grow at the same time. So for anyone who isn't familiar explain what the Chipotle ain is. I know those have been successful for you after some recent rollouts. Every Chipotle has a dedicated digital kitchen. So when a guest orders through our digital channels, they don't interrupt the flow of the restaurant within the line and nor do the end restaurant customers interrupt the flow of digital. A Chipotle lane is a restaurant that has a handoff window where you can drive up in your car and retrieve your order that you place digitally, it's about a 12 2nd dwell time at the window. So a very quick convenient access channel for us and the company clearly still in growth mode kurt despite an economic slowdown that we've seen but again your results better than expected here in this latest quarter and so continued investments on the technology side of the business, What can customers expect in these final six months of the year? We're going to continue to invest in great culinary uh into the infrastructure of our restaurants. We're replacing all of our point of sale systems. We just made a big investment in a new immersive learning platform as well as a very sophisticated labor deployment and scheduling platform. All aimed at improving the experience that our employees have in our restaurants which has a direct impact on the guest experience, great culinary, great speed, great customization and great access. You know one thing I'm interested to hear more about kurt is this recent partnership with roadblocks. I know that company obviously betting on technologies of the future as the chief technology officer, I know you two obviously are looking at technologies of the future as well. How is this partnership going to help grow your business Well, roadblocks and the metaverse offer our guests an opportunity to be more immersed in brand and we've got 29 million people now in our rewards program. We have a lot of super fans of people that love to have the experience of seeing what it's like to roll a burrito and to customize their own own meal and importantly were the first brand that's taken that metaverse experience and allowed you to have a physical experience in our restaurant afterwards and you know that great food and culinary experience is what we're all about. So connecting those things has been a lot of fun for us. Cryptocurrency, something that your company has embraced as well, kurt we've seen Cryptocurrency weakened obviously a bit of late but still a very popular sector. What are the latest updates on the Cryptocurrency front for customers? Well we do accept crypto through a partnership with Alexa in our restaurants and our digital channels. Um it's a partnership that we're excited about, it's frankly listening to our guests and we had a lot of customers that we're asking for a crypto option as payment within our restaurants. And we're proud to put this partnership together and deliver that. You've also made some big investments. We're going to run through some of these companies to here last year investing in neuro that's the autonomous delivery company I'm assuming to try to help with orders. That's what's in it for Chipotle but then also just last week and two other startups. One is called hyphen that automates kitchen operations and then also testing a robot. Right that makes tortilla chips called Chippy. Why did these companies and their innovations seem attractive to you, it's about spending a lot of time in our restaurants with our restaurant crews and looking for the task that they find to be repetitive, mundane and figuring out ways that technology can close those gaps and allow them to focus on culinary and guests. So hyphen has the ability to pre serve some of the components of our meals. So you could think about helping to build a bowl as it goes down the line, why our crew member is rolling burritos on the top and certainly neuro as a very ecologically friendly autonomous delivery vehicle is something that we're excited about as well, giving us some guaranteed capacity as it relates to fulfilling digital orders for its holding, even though prices are set to rise again in august kurt when it comes to Chipotle products. Are you optimistic that over time technology, some of these investments that you are making as a chief technology Officer can bring down prices for customers? Well, certainly as we grow more efficient, there's the opportunity to do that. I think importantly the price action that we've taken as a company has been in response to ingredient price pressures. Uh So as we look to bring more automation to the supply chain and work towards even more locally produced sustainable food. I think there's opportunities there. Mhm. Well, I'm just wondering in terms of these Chipotle lanes, I know hundreds of stores set to open even before the end of the year and the company continuing to successfully open those, are you planning to put Chipotle at each location. What's the rollout plan um for those locations? About 80% of our new restaurants, art support lanes. They do require very specific real estate characteristics to be able to afford. Uh the, the avenue for the cars to come to the window. So not every restaurant fits that profile and if we find a great location with a lot of customer demand, I just can't physically accommodate its rippling well, absolutely open a restaurant in those communities as well. What about any app innovations? I know digital sales continue to be very important and lucrative for the company even as people do return to the in store dining experience, but are there more app updates on the way that are going to make the user experience more friendly? Absolutely. I think there's a, there's a huge flywheel that we've created in our digital ecosystem where as guests interact with our technology, we're learning more about them and collecting data and I believe there's a rich future in terms of personalization that we're going to be able to afford our guests and I think about that personalization as an example, Somebody that's new to Chipotle may need a different ordering experience that somebody who's been here many, many times and knows exactly what they want, that kind of combination of the digital asset and the data, it's something we're very excited about and it's a huge focus of our investments right now. Alright, curt garner, Chief technology officer for Chipotle kurt thanks so much for coming on the show and congrats on a very good earnings report.