Photo by Bing

The Backstory

Since having moved to New York City, it's rather hard to think of the last time I wasn't jonesing for a Chipotle steak burrito. But these burritos certainly aren't a bargain, especially in The Big Apple. While still a college student at Yale, I remember my willingness to pay whatever cost to soothe my hunger pains. And now as a working adult in Manhattan, my cravings for Chipotle still linger, but it seems like the prices climb higher and higher everywhere I move. I was fairly certain that not everyone was paying Manhattan prices for a burrito.

The Question

What is the geographic distribution of pricing for Chipotle products in the United States?

The Data and Conclusions

Despite being a non-franchise chain, Chipotle locations are still cropping up rapidly and operating enormously profitably. In 2013, the chain generated approximately $2.17 million per location (1,595 locations) which was good for 6th amongst Fast Food and Fast Casual restaurants [QSR Magazine]. First place Chick-Fil-A generated $2.85 million per location (1,775 locations). In terms of restaurant footprint, California ranks first amongst states, and Chicago ranks first amongst cities. Interestingly, multiple cities ...

Just wanted to drop in for a quick technical update. I've redeployed the blog onto a paid service so the server has been significantly more responsive than the previous Heroku free service. I'm using the DigitalOcean VPS which allows root access and lots of configurability. Once again, it took a bit of time to configure NGINX, postgres, and gunicorn to work with the server and Django but largely fewer idiosyncrasies than Heroku. I've also configured a Google Analytics package to keep tab on things. Currently waiting for the new DNS settings to propogate as I type this.

While the creation of the site was largely a technical learning experience in web development, I have some pretty cool projects to fill the page. I designed and coded the layout myself, including the mobile templates. I can assure that the next one is going to spark some intrigue for burrito lovers. Lastly, I also be adding random musings about a wide bunch of things that interest me. Can't wait to get things up and running. Stay tuned!