Guacamole dispute apparently prompts customer to shoot Chipotle employee: 'This is a first'



An employee of a Chipotle restaurant in Michigan is recovering from a gunshot wound he sustained after a disgruntled customer shot him, apparently over an issue with guacamole.

Around 7 p.m. on Friday, a violent scuffle erupted inside a busy Chipotle restaurant located in Southfield, Michigan, a city just outside Detroit. According to witnesses, a customer became so enraged about something that when the employee assisting him went into the back area of the restaurant for a moment, the customer walked behind the counter and began placing his food items into a bag.

The 21-year-old employee soon afterward returned to his station, and the two men apparently began fighting. The New York Post reported that the customer "flashed" a firearm as the employee grabbed his shirt. Moments later, a shot rang out.

Grainy, unsteady cellphone video, likely filmed by another patron, captured some of the altercation — as well as the sound of the gunshot:

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The victim was taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening wound to the leg. He is expected to recover, though whether he remains in the hospital is unclear.

Meanwhile, the suspect, identified only as a 32-year-old Detroit man, apparently had no sense of urgency about the incident. One witness even claimed the man lingered inside the restaurant for at least 30 seconds after the shot was fired. "I was in my car, and I saw him just walk out to his car, close the door, and just drive off — he didn’t speed off or anything," the witness said.

The suspect was later located in a nearby parking lot and arrested. He remains in custody.

A woman accompanied the suspect to the restaurant, but she is not currently facing any charges. Police also recovered the weapon used in the shooting.

Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer for Chipotle, issued a statement:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our team member who was injured by the senseless act of violence that occurred inside our Evergreen Road restaurant in Southfield, MI.

We are working cooperatively with the authorities handling this investigation and hope justice will be served for the individual responsible for this crime.

When asked about a possible motive for the shooting, police indicated that the men were arguing over guacamole.

Such a seemingly insignificant issue leading to such a violent outburst that endangered many lives left even seasoned reporters stunned. "You know, we've been covering the news for a long time," stated Camille Amiri of Fox 2 Detroit, "but this is a first: a shooting over a guacamole."

One day after the shooting, a prospective customer drove to the Chipotle location, only to find it still closed. "It’s guacamole," she later told WXYZ. "I love guacamole personally, but I would never shoot someone over it. I don’t know why someone would do that."

Whether the restaurant has yet reopened is unclear. A call made to the location late Monday afternoon resulted in an automated response claiming that the location was not currently accepting online or phone orders.

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Chipotle CFO admits $15 minimum wage means higher menu prices, predicts all restaurants would pass cost onto customers



Chipotle chief financial officer Jack Hartung admitted last week they would be forced to raise menu prices if the government mandates a $15 per hour minimum wage.

In fact, Hartung said most restaurants would not absorb the costs of forced increases wages, but pass them onto customers.

What are the details?

While speaking on a quarterly earnings call last Wednesday, Hartung said Chipotle executives would raise menu price to "offset" the costs the restaurant would incur if the federal government forced them to pay each of their nearly 90,000 employees at least $15 per hour.

"We're not that far off of like for example, a $15 number. But let's say, for example, that there's going to be an across-the-board 10% increase in our wages," Hartung said, Business Insider reported. "And that would, to offset that with menu pricing, that would take us 2% to 3% price increase."

Hartung said forced wage increases — amounting to an average of 15% overall — and increased menu prices would be "very manageable."

Business Insider reported, "For customers, this could mean about a 20¢ to 35¢ additional charge per meal, as the average person spends about $11 for a burrito or other meal at Chipotle."

What about other businesses?

Hartung predicted that Chipotle would not be the only restaurant to raise menu prices if the government forces an increased minimum wage.

"We think everybody in the restaurant industry is going to have to pass those costs along to the customer," he said. "We think we're in a much, much better position to do that, than other companies out there."

As Insider reported, Texas Roadhouse and the Cheesecake Factory are examples of two such restaurants that raised menu prices after being impacted by forced wage increases.

Raising menu prices is, at this point, a tried-and-true response to minimum wage regulation for many restaurant chains. Executives at Kura Sushi, The Cheesecake Factory, and Texas Roadhouse all said in recent calls with investors that, when states and cities raised minimum wage, the chains responded by raising menu prices.

"I would say there is a short-term shock," Texas Roadhouse CEO Wayne Taylor told investors in late October. "And then long term, there's an adjustment, both on our side and the guest side."

Democrats promised they would raise the minimum wage once they gained power of the White House and Congress.

They attempted to pass a federal minimum wage hike in President Joe Biden's COVID economic relief bill, but the effort ultimately failed.