File: A chicken burrito, guacamole, bag of tortilla chips, and a drink are arranged for a photograph at a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurant in El Segundo, California, U.S., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Imag …
Burrito fans are all seeing inflation hit their wallets. The price of burritos was basically unchanged from January to February, but year over year, prices are up.
Friday, Chipotle fans can get a free burrito, but there's a catch.
Burrito prices up year-to-year
Big picture view:
Toast, the restaurant point-of-sale company, released their February Menu Price Monitor this week. The monthly report tracks the price of hamburgers, coffee, burritos, beer, and chicken wings.
February's report revealed that the median price of a burrito was $13.50 – down 0.1% since last month, but up 2.5% from last year.
Analysts at Toast suggested labor costs were at least partially to blame.
"While tortillas, rice, and beans are relatively cheap, there’s a lot of prep time involved for restaurants — from soaking beans to braising or slow-cooking proteins," Toast's Brian Koerber wrote.
The other items were all up slightly, with coffee seeing the biggest increases in price.
Friday's Chipotle deal
Dig deeper:
Chipotle's buy-one-get-one promotion draws its inspiration from popular memes about people being "tatted like a Chipotle bag." Guests with a tattoo — permanent ink, a temporary tattoo, or a drawn-on design — can get a free burrito at participating Chipotle restaurants in the U.S. and Canada from 3 to 4 p.m. local time on Friday.
The meme
Musician Adam Levine of Maroon 5 performing during halftime show of Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. in Atlanta, Feb. 3, 2019. (Photo by David E. Klutho /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
The backstory:
Chipotle says the phrase "tatted like a Chipotle bag" started during the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in Atlanta, when Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine went shirtless while singing "Moves Like Jagger". Social media posts compared his tattoo artwork to the artwork on Chipotle's to-go bags and even posted images of their own Chipotle-inspired tattoo.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by Toast, which monitors the price of key items in restaurants it works with, and Chipotle via PR Newswire. This story was reported from Orlando.