WLS-TV
Chipotle is apologizing to and offering to rehire a manager who asked a group of customers to pay in advance in a viral video that led to her firing.
In the video, the manager of the St. Paul restaurant tells the hungry customers “you gotta pay because you never have money when you come in here.”
The video was posted to Twitter on Thursday by a user named Masud Ali, who captioned it “can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session?”
After online backlash, the manager was fired and the company said it would have employees at the restaurant undergo additional training to prevent future incidents.
The restaurant chain released a statement at that time saying “We are committed to treating all of our customers fairly and with respect” and saying the manager mistook the customers for another group that had left without paying.
But after the tweet went viral, Twitter users began to post old tweets believed to be from Ali’s account that appear to show that he and his friends have eaten at restaurants without paying in the past.
Chipotle said it reviewed additional facts relating to the incident, including video, social media posts and conversations with store employees.
Based on the additional facts, the company said it would rehire the manager.
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It is not known yet whether the manager will decide to return to the job.