America’s Favorite Mexican Food Chain Is… Not Chipotle. Not Even Close

Moe’s has accomplished the feat with around 650 restaurants compared to Chipotle’s more than 1,900 – and Chipotle’s sales, at stores open at least a year, fell by nearly 30 per cent, according to USA Today.

Months of food safety concerns seem to have rocked consumers’ faith in Chipotle. The ubiquitous Chipotle chain, with 1,900 locations compared to Moe’s Southwest Grill’s 600, topped the last three annual Harris polls, according to NY Post. Over the past year, the restaurant has faced E. coli outbreaks and consequential sales drops.

And it looks like Moe’s reaped some benefits from Chipotle’s misfortune.

Number two on the list is Taco Bell, followed by Qdoba in third, and Baja Fresh in fourth place. Chipotle has initiated attractive deals to lure customers offering free burritos and with “buy one, get one” offers.

An unchanging menu likely hasn’t helped Chipotle, either. “Brand perception is down”.

The poll’s ranking is based on more than 97,000 responses from US consumers, and the people say that Moe’s just has the mojo to be named this year’s victor. The poll measures how people feel about different restaurant brands. Moe’s opened 70 new restaurants previous year, when sales hit almost $640 million.

Moe’s showed the largest increase in brand equity (13 percent) among all restaurants measured, and demonstrates one of the largest equity increases across all brands assessed, which is significant given the tendency for equity to resist rapid movement.