Jeff,

Thank you for writing us, and we certainly appreciate your loyalty to our food and restaurants. That is not debatable. And while you are most definitely not the first person either inside or outside our company to consider frequency programs and the like, that of course doesn’t mean that we don’t listen to this suggestion or consider it anew every time it is suggested.

However (and I know, I said “however”), frequency programs are essentially a fancy term for Discounts. And discounting is an evil thing. Restaurants that do it ultimately end up raising their prices across the board or cheapening their food quality or both to afford these sorts of programs. And therefore, the Discount is not really a Discount, if that makes sense. In the restaurant business, as in any business, you get what you pay for, and we are no different.

Yet, we would prefer to avoid the deceptive ploy of providing non-discount discounts to our customers, and we would rather keep on providing the same great food all the time for what we feel is a fair price to everybody. Does that make sense? Additionally, frequency programs don’t build loyalty to our or to any restaurant, they just build loyalty to the discount, and as soon as another restaurant comes along with a better discount, away goes the frequency-card person.

A great example of the error of frequency programs are the airlines. You get rewarded with frequent flyer miles for what? Sitting in cramped seats jammed up next to each other in twenty thousand year old airplanes where the airlines can’t even afford to serve you real peanuts anymore…. And of course, not all of the problems that airlines face are based on frequent flyer miles, but still…. Another case would be grocery stores. While they discount some items to make it seem like they are offering deals, they raise prices on everything else to compensate.
But as for Roseville, I am sure we will get there someday, and we appreciate that suggestion too. Do you have any locations there where you think we would do well?

Sincerely,
Joe Stupp
Manager, Duct Tape and Plungers
Chipotle