Update (November 20, 2018): Chipotle fired the manager of one of its stores in St. Paul, Minnesota, following her appearance in a viral video; that manager has now received an apology and has been offered her job back.
Masaud Ali posted a video to Twitter that showed the manager in question, Dominique Moran, denying him food and telling him he had to prepay before ordering. The manager said this was necessary because he'd tried to eat without paying previously.
While social media users initially said Moran was racist, some began to reverse their positions when tweets surfaced suggesting Ali, who is Black, might have a history of dining and dashing.
“I was obviously trying to do the right thing,” Moran told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I told Chipotle to tell the boys I say sorry. … I didn’t think I would lose my job; I thought I did something good by standing up for my people.”
Chipotle investigated the incident and decided to reverse its decision to fire the manager.
“Based on our review, we have offered our manager her job back. While our normal protocol was not followed serving these customers, we publicly apologize to our manager for being put in this position,” Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief communications officer, wrote in a statement to The Washington Post.
The fast-casual chain also promised it would do better in the future.
“We will work with all our restaurant teams to ensure they are prepared to handle situations of this kind and know they have our full support," Schalow wrote on behalf of the company. "We are committed to doing the right thing and acting in a manner consistent with a thoughtful, fact-driven approach.”
Moran has not yet decided whether she will return to her job, according to HuffPost.
Original: A Chipotle manager was fired after a viral video showed employees refusing to serve five Black men and asking them to prove they had the money to pay for their meals before placing their orders.
In a video posted Twitter on Saturday by Masaud Ali, the 21-year-old claims he and his friends were hungry after a workout session, so they stopped by their local Chipotle to order a meal.
Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session. @ChipotleTweets ?? pic.twitter.com/Sj8RaeINj6
— Masud Ali ???? (@Masudaliii) November 16, 2018
In the video, the manager of the St. Paul restaurant told the young men to pay beforehand.
"You gotta pay because you’ve never had money when you come in here," the worker said. Another employee added, "We're not gonna make food unless you guys actually have money."
Speaking with the Minnesota Star Tribune on Friday, Ali compared the manager's actions to someone asking if he were applying for a loan.
"It sounded really racist — the way she said it was racist," Ali said. "She asked for proof of income as if I’m getting a loan."
In a statement released after the incident, Chipotle said it conducted a "thorough investigation," communicating with officers who were called to the scene as well as employees.
"Regarding what happened at the St. Paul restaurant, the manager thought these gentlemen were the same customers from Tuesday night who weren’t able to pay for their meal. Regardless, this is not how we treat our customers, and as a result, the manager has been terminated, and the restaurant [staff] has been retrained to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again," the statement said.
The chain also confirmed the manager's termination via a response to Ali's original tweet.
@masudali what happened here is not how our employees should treat our customers. We are committed to treating all of our guests fairly and with respect. The manager has been terminated and the restaurant has been retrained so this doesn’t happen again. We'll be back in touch.
— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) November 17, 2018
On Saturday, Chipotle clarified its policy and explained why it fired the manager.
"We don’t ask customers to pay for their meals prior to making them in our restaurants," the statement read. The manager should have made their food and withheld giving it to them until they paid for it."
However, it appears Ali has been a previous offender of visiting the St. Paul Chipotle and other nearby restaurants to order food without paying. In now-deleted tweets dated between 2014 and 2016, Ali joked about dining and dashing.
According to the Miami Herald, Ali is on probation for theft.
After Twitter users informed Chipotle about Ali's past tweets, the company issued a follow-up statement.
Let’s not forget these dudes are KNOWN for dine & dash before y’all go racial about this…. pic.twitter.com/HeL8uwE6JT
— 24/7 HipHop News (@BenjaminEnfield) November 18, 2018
In response to Chipotle, another Twitter user called the company out on being unaware of Ali's dining and dashing record and provided an email with proof of their known information.
Let’s not forget these dudes are KNOWN for dine & dash before y’all go racial about this…. pic.twitter.com/HeL8uwE6JT
— 24/7 HipHop News (@BenjaminEnfield) November 18, 2018
With the men's history of dining and dashing having come to light, some folks are demanding the manager be rehired.
This is not the first time this year Chipotle has been involved in a public relations crisis. Earlier this year, a former employee was awarded nearly $8 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit after being falsely accused of stealing from the company.
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