Chipotle Just Showed Its Pandemic Boost Is Going to Stick
When the pandemic first hit, restaurant stocks like Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) plunged.
Stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols were clearly a problem for the industry, which relies on customers eating together in close quarters. Chipotle, which gets a significant portion of its business from the lunchtime work crowd, figured to be a big loser, and its stock spiraled more than 50% during the market crash last March. Comparable sales plunged as well during the height of the crisis. Last March, comps tumbled 16% and fell another 24% in April, but as the lockdowns lifted, Chipotle customers began to come back with the help of the company's new digital platform.
By June, comparable sales growth had returned as customers simply shifted their ordering habits to the digital channel, taking their burritos home. Chipotle's first-quarter report makes clear that the pandemic has actually been a tailwind for the company as its business was well positioned for a boom in digital sales, but there are reasons to be excited about the economic reopening as well. Let's take a look at the first-quarter results first.
Source Fool.com
