Chipotle recently revealed a new December promotion featuring lots of free food, and for once, there aren’t a thousand hoops to jump through to get the deal.
The burrito chain is calling it the Unwrap Extra promo, and it includes BOGO free entrees — something that Chipotle doesn’t normally hand out without a fight. While it’s great for customers who need as much help with their budgets as they can get right now, Chipotle employees are less enthusiastic about what the freebies mean for their job.
How Do I Get BOGO Free Chipotle Burritos?
There are three days in December that you can get buy-one-get-one free entrees at Chipotle — that’s about three more than usual. Here are the dates, and what freebie you can get.
- Saturday, December 6: BOGO free three taco entree
- Saturday, December 13: BOGO free burritos
- Saturday, December 20: BOGO free any entree
The first two dates, Chipotle is just being nice for the sake of being nice. For December 20, the chain is tying the promo to “Extra Sweater Day” — more on that later.
What’s the Catch?
Sure, there are some catches, because everything has one nowadays. But compared to other deals Chipotle has offered in the past — like where you had to watch Twitter accounts for codes and text them before a million other people for a mere chance at getting something free — it’s not bad at all.
On all three Saturdays, the BOGO offer is only good from 4 p.m. local time until close. So no free lunch.
The other catch is that on December 20, you have to wear an “extra” sweater to get the BOGO deal. What does that mean? We have no idea, really, and the rules leave it up to restaurant discretion as to what that means as well. Just plan on layers that day or something.
Why Do Employees Hate It?
All this sounds great, unless you’re a Chipotle employee.
“DON’T COME FOR BOGO,” pleaded one purported Chipotle employee on Reddit, where many of the company’s employees seem to commiserate. “Please some of our stores are so understaffed and we’re gonna be out of everything by 7 pm just stay home and leave us alone.”
Other employees recanted their experience with a recent BOGO free burrito deal the night before Thanksgiving. “Customers lining up out the door,” said one Redditor in a thread titled ‘Remind me to never work on a day chipotle is doing BOGO.’ “Everybody is ordering 4 bowls so rice is running out extra fast. Every customer is getting angry at me like I can do something about it.”
Another employee chimed in with their experience. “We were not prepared AT ALL. Had to do prep all over again at 7pm. We ran out of Cilantro, chips, prepped steak, lettuce, cheese, mild, guac by 7pm!”
That does sound pretty hellish, and you just know that some customers were being jerks about the whole thing. If you’re planning on taking advantage of any of these December BOGO free nights, be patient. One Chipotle customer put it best: “Make sure to show kindness and gratitude to the workers because I know it’s crazy when they have promotions.”
More Fast Food on Cheapism
- How To Get Free Fast Food at 27 Chain Restaurants — Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch.
- Why Lower-Income Diners Are Choosing Chili’s Over Fast Food — The brand has figured out how to make people feel like they’re getting a deal, leading lower-income diners to flock to the sit-down chain.
- The Best-Selling Menu Item at Every Major Fast Food Chain — Whether it’s out of obsession or habit, these are the menu items Americans keep ordering the most.
