On November 16th, Masud Ali posted a video to Twitter showing himself and his group of friends being denied service at a St. Paul, Minnesota Chipotle. In the video (that has since been viewed over 10 million times) an employee told Ali and his friends they must pay before they get served, “because you never have money when you come in here,” she said. Both employees on the line, one of whom was the location’s manager, continued to refuse the men service throughout four follow-up videos on Ali’s feed.
According to Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, Chipotle fired the manager shortly after the incident. However, after public outcry, the chain has offered to rehire her.
Ali told the Star Tribune on November 16th that the way the manager asked them to pay first, “sounded really racist — the way she said it was racist. She asked for proof of income as if I’m getting a loan.”
That same day, Chipotle worked with local police officers called to the scene and later released the following statement:
“The manager thought these gentlemen were the same customers from Tuesday night who weren’t able to pay for their meal. Regardless, this is not how we treat our customers and as a result, the manager has been terminated and the restaurant [staff] has been retrained to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
On Saturday, November 17th, Chipotle clarified, stating that staff should never make customers pay before their meal is made. “The manager should have made their food and withheld giving it to them until they paid for it,” the edited statement read per the Tribune.
Even though this seemed like a cut-and-dry case of racial profiling, many hopped on social media to defend the manager after previous tweets in which Ali bragged about “dining and dashing” were brought to the public’s attention.
Please check the news. They have been arrested for admitting to dining and dashing on multiple occasions. Including previously at this store. He even admits it on his Twitter. The manager was just offered her job back for refusing service to thieves.
— ANIMEniac (@ANIMEniacReview) November 20, 2018
On Monday, November 19th, Chipotle Chief Communications Officer Laurie Schalow told Fox News that the company has offered to rehire the manager in light of Ali’s checkered past. Schalow said in a statement:
“Based on our review, we have offered our manager her job back. While our normal protocol was not followed serving these customers, we publicly apologize to our manager for being put in this position. We will work to continue to ensure that we support a respectful workplace for our employees and our customers alike.”
She continued to state that Chipotle’s policy is to “treat our customers and employees fairly and with respect at all times and under any circumstances,” and that the company plans to work with locations on how to handle similar situations.
