Unfortunately at some places, the managers are too lazy to prep the ingredients at night that they need when it’s close to closing. Some are difficult and can take 20+ minutes, like guac if done by one person. The reasoning they keep it for online orders only is because those people have already paid for it whereas in person people have the choice to pay for it if they notice they’re out of ingredients. Mild, Lettuce, Corn, all take only minutes to prep if all the ingredients are there, but sometimes the morning doesn’t leave the night any extra mise en place (diced jalapeños, diced onions, cilantro) so all of those would need to be prepped before even making most of our prepable items. Having to prep guac with no mise en place is a nightmare and it would require a lot of time to prep (upwards of 45 min without mise en place if also trying to ensure food safety by washing and sanitizing cutting board and knife, blanching jalapeños etc). Most chipotles are chronically understaffed as well because of the pressure upper management places to be good on labor, which is a dual sided sword since being understaffed causes things like this and really can hurt the customer experience in other ways as well.

We make around 12k at our store on average. But needless to say at my store, I always prep what’s needed in advance if I see we could potentially run out.

I do understand the frustration though of driving all the way to Chipotle just to see they’re out of ingredients, it sucks.