In the course of editing Reeves Wiedeman’s latest feature for New York — about the surprisingly fascinating legal repercussions of a dissatisfied customer hurling a burrito bowl at a Chipotle employee in Parma, Ohio — I was alerted to the existence of the Reddit channel r/Chipotle. One of its most common complaints is about the allegedly small portions people have received via online delivery, which are accompanied by the warning “SKIMP ALERT” between flashing-siren emoji. As I scrolled through image after image of half-filled bowls smeared with sour cream, along with testimonials from people who had actually weighed their scoops of chicken and measured their tortillas to “prove” they had been skimped, I felt as if I were being presented with real-time evidence of the aspects of contemporary life Reeves so deftly explores in his article: ambient rage at shoddy customer service; online platforms that speed the delivery of goods and services while keeping human interaction to a minimum; and the invisibility of the people who made those unappetizing specimens on display. What Reeves’s investigation suggests is that, behind every malformed quesadilla and stumpy burrito, a story may just be waiting to be told. |
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