the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Paramus NJ, Chipotle (CMG) has begun accepting cryptocurrency payments through Flexa, a digital payments platform.
Customers can pay for their burritos and other Tex-Mex favorites using Flexa at any Chipotle restaurant across the U.S. The Flexa platform supports 98 digital currencies, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and Solana’s SOL. Customers must download the Gemini or SPEDN app, which store digital assets, to use Flexa for in-store purchases.
To celebrate its new payment options, Chipotle is giving 10% off to customers who make their next purchase with any digital currency in a Flexa-enabled app.
Last year, Chipotle announced it would give away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in bitcoin to celebrate National Burrito Day. This year, Chipotle launched its own in-experience currency, Burrito Bucks, on Roblox (RBLX) to accompany the launch of its Burrito Builder game on the same platform. Players could exchange Burrito Bucks for a free entrée code at participating Chipotle restaurants.
Chipotle joins a growing list of fast-food restaurants experimenting with cryptocurrency payments and promotions. In March, Shake Shack (SHAK) announced customers would receive 15% of their purchases back in the form of bitcoin on any Shake Shack purchase made with Block’s (SQ) Cash App debit card, Cash Card. Nearly a year earlier, sandwich shop Quiznos partnered with Bakkt App to launch a pilot program to accept payments in bitcoin at select Quiznos outlets in Denver.
I was at the one a few days ago in Ramsey, it was OK, but the place is kind of sloppy.
For the longest, this Chipotle location wouldn’t accept cash as payment for their food.
Mind you it was a brand new location with a spotless new dining room, laying there completely unused.
Their excuse was probably pandemic-related, but the cash payment refusal thing was over-the-top creepy.
You had to order through their website, then pay by card. Then, and only then, were you expected to approach the restaurant, not on foot mind you, but in or on a vehicle, to pick up your food, at which time you were forbidden from entering the restaurant, but had to go to some kind of makeshift, non-drive-thru window.
Oh, yeah. You also had to type in a valid email address. For some reason, the online ordering and payment system they had going wouldn’t work unless you gave them a valid email address. Zip code too maybe? Hard to remember now.
They’ve finally abandoned that foolishness. The impression given was one of apparent hatred and disgust of Human, 1.0. That or an attempt to nudge the date of a fully cashless society to the left. Control freaks.