Moe’s Southwest Grill has unseated Chipotle as America’s favorite fast casual Mexican restaurant.
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Number two on the list is Taco Bell, followed by Qdoba in third, and Baja Fresh in fourth place.
Chipotle lost some steam this year after outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus in several of the chain’s locations.
Moe’s, with less than half of the amount of franchises as Chipotle, was named “Brand of the Year” in Harris’ fast-casual Mexican restaurant category. The craziest part of the poll’s results is that Chipotle, which has been named Brand of the Year for the past three years, didn’t even make the top four this year. The chain suffered from harsh impacts that cropped up from food-safety issues past year. Sales tanked, a rude awakening for a brand that had been wildly popularity for years. USA Today notes that Moe’s is especially known for the ample variety of ingredients used to create build-your-own tacos, burritos, and other fare. “In retrospect, I just don’t think they did enough to convince customers that Chipotle food was safe to eat”.
The Harris Poll surveyed more than 97,000 US consumers for their attitudes toward more than 3,800 brands. Well, to steal the tagline from their competition – “Welcome to Moe’s!”
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But Moe’s has looked to take advantage of Chipotle’s struggles. According to Placed Insights, an analytics firm that measures traffic trends, just 2.3% of the USA population visited a Moe’s last month, while almost 9.4% visited a Chipotle.
