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Chipotle’s massive offers of free food won’t help speed up the long process of digging itself out of a sales slump, according to analysts.
Retail analyst Mark Kalinowski tells Business Insider he expects the chain’s same-store sales to keep falling until Q4, predicting a 19% drop in Q2, 14% in Q3, before a small 1% increase (finally) in Q4.
"All the free burrito giveaways in the world likely wouldn't change the chances of the chain’s declining sales," Kalinowski wrote in a recent note to clients.
The chain has redeemed 2.5 million free food offers to date and says traffic is up due to the offers, which it started to get customers back in stores after E. coli outbreaks at the chain scared them away. [BI]
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