Chipotle pilots carside pickup service

Chipotle keeps spicing up its efforts to streamline fulfillment of customer orders. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill is testing an offering it calls “Chipotle Carside” at 29 restaurants in California. When ordering from a participating store, customers can select "carside pickup" in the checkout section of the Chipotle app. After the order is confirmed, the app displays instructions to head to the restaurant, park in a spot as close as possible, and then open the Chipotle app and tap the "I'm Here" button. A store associate brings the customer’s order to their car. 

Customers can also select their vehicle type and color in the app, including typing in their car's make. Chipotle has been actively rolling out omnichannel ordering, payment, and customer service features in the past 12 months. These include a digital-only store prototype, a delivery partnership with Grubhub, digital order customization, and a concierge bot for the Facebook Messenger app called “Pepper.” 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in late winter 2020, Chipotle says one out of three new customers have tried Chipotle through digital ordering channels. In Q3 2020, Chipotle’s digital sales tripled year-over-year and accounted for almost 50% of sales for the quarter.

"As our digital business evolves, we are continuing to explore ways to remove friction and increase access to our real food," said Curt Garner, CTO, Chipotle. "Chipotle Carside unlocks a new, highly convenient pick up experience for guests from our restaurants' parking lots."

Chipotle had over 2,700 stores as of Sept. 30, 2020, in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Germany, and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants.