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Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., often known simply as Chipotle, is an international chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos, and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. As of March 2023, Chipotle has 3,200 restaurants. Its name derives from chipotle, the Nahuatl name (from chilpoctli) for a smoked and dried jalapeño chili pepper.

Chipotle was one of the first chains of fast casual dining establishments. Founded by Steve Ells on July 13, 1993, Chipotle had 16 restaurants (all in Colorado) when McDonald's Corporation became a major investor in 1998. By the time McDonald's fully divested itself from Chipotle in 2006, the chain had grown to over 500 locations. With more than 2,000 locations, Chipotle had a net income of US$475.6 million and a staff of more than 45,000 employees in 2015.

In May 2018, Chipotle announced the relocation of their corporate headquarters to Newport Beach, California, in Southern California, leaving Denver after 25 years.

History

Steve Ells attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Afterward, he became a line cook for Jeremiah Tower at Stars in San Francisco. There, Ells observed the popularity of the taquerías and San Francisco burritos in the Mission District. In 1993, Ells took what he learned in San Francisco and opened the first Chipotle Mexican Grill in Denver, Colorado, in a former Dolly Madison Ice Cream store at 1644 East Evans Avenue, near the University of Denver campus, using an $85,000 loan from his father. Ells and his father calculated that the store would need to sell 107 burritos per day to be profitable. After one month, the original restaurant was selling over 1,000 burritos a day. The second store opened in 1995 using Chipotle's cash flow, and the third was opened using an SBA loan. To fund additional growth, Ells' father invested $1.5 million. Afterwards, Ells created a board of directors and business plan, raising an additional $1.8 million for the company. Ells had originally planned to use funds from the first Chipotle to open a fine-dining restaurant, but instead focused on Chipotle Mexican Grill when the restaurants saw success.

In 1998, the first restaurant outside of Colorado opened in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1998, McDonald's made an initial minority investment in the company. By 2001, McDonald's had grown to be Chipotle's largest investor. The investment from McDonald's allowed the firm to quickly expand, from 16 restaurants in 1998 to over 500 by 2005. On January 26, 2006, Chipotle made its initial public offering (IPO) after increasing the share price twice due to high pre-IPO demand. In its first day as a public company, the stock rose exactly 100%, resulting in the best U.S.-based IPO in six years, and the second-best IPO for a restaurant after Boston Market. The money from the offering was then used to fund new store growth.

In March 2005, Monty Moran was appointed president and chief operating officer of Chipotle while Ells remained chairman and CEO.

In October 2006, McDonald's fully divested from Chipotle. This was part of a larger initiative for McDonald's to divest all of its non-core business restaurants—Chipotle, Donatos Pizza, and Boston Market—so that it could focus on the main McDonald's chain. McDonald's had invested approximately $360 million into Chipotle, and took out $1.5 billion. McDonald's had attempted to get Chipotle to add drive-through windows and a breakfast menu, which Ells resisted. In 2008, Chipotle opened its first location outside of the United States in Toronto.

In January 2009, president and chief operating officer Monty Moran was promoted to co-CEO, a position that he would share with Ells, while Moran retained his president position.

In a list of fastest-growing restaurant chains in 2009, Chipotle was ranked eighth, based on increases in U.S. sales over the past year, and in 2010 Chipotle was ranked third. Consumer Reports ranked Chipotle as the best Mexican fast-food chain in 2011. The company serves approximately 750,000 customers per day.

In December 2010, Chipotle hired chef Nate Appleman to develop new cuisine. Appleman has won Rising Star Chef from the James Beard Foundation, was named "Best New Chef" by the Food & Wine magazine, and competed on The Next Iron Chef.

In 2010, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audited Chipotle's Minneapolis restaurants, and found that some employees had been hired using fraudulent documents. In December, Chipotle fired 450 employees from its Minneapolis restaurants as a result of the audit, resulting in protests by local groups. In February 2011, ICE expanded the audit to include 60 restaurants in Virginia and Washington, D.C. which resulted in 40 workers being fired. In April 2011, the criminal division of the attorney general's office in Washington, D.C., joined the case, and ICE agents began interviewing employees at 20 to 25 restaurants in other locations, such as Los Angeles and Atlanta. In response to the government investigations, Chipotle hired former director of ICE Julie Myers Wood and high-profile attorneys Robert Luskin and Gregory B. Craig.

In April 2014, Chipotle announced an increase in menu prices for the first time in nearly three years, due to increasing costs for steak, avocados, and cheese. The price increase was expected to be rolled out from the end of second quarter of 2014 through the end of the third quarter. In late 2015, Chipotle expanded its mobile strategy through delivery partnerships with tech startups like Tapingo, a delivery service that targets college campuses.

In December 2016, Chipotle announced that co-CEO Monty Moran has stepped down from his role effective immediately with Ells becoming the sole CEO. Eleven months later, Ells announced in November 2017 that he would be stepping down as CEO.

In December 2017, Chipotle announced it signed a 15-year lease and in late 2018 will move around 450 corporate employees—currently housed in multiple buildings around downtown Denver—into the new 1144 Fifteenth Tower and occupy around 126,000 square feet or 5 floors of the 40-story tower.

In February 2018, Chipotle announced that Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol would replace Ells as CEO starting on March 5 while Ells would retain his chairman position. Many industry analysts praised Niccol's appointment saying that Chipotle "needed new blood." Chipotle stock went up $30.27, or 12.04%, as a result of the announcement. However, other analysts criticized the announcement by saying that "the move goes against everything the burrito chain stands for."

In May 2018, Chipotle announced that it would relocate headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach, California, in Southern California. Corporate functions handled in their Denver and New York offices would move to Newport Beach or to an existing office in Columbus, Ohio. This move would impact 400 workers, some being offered relocation and retention packages.

In May 2018, Chipotle announced the "Chipotlane" and began testing it in the U.S.. The Chipotlane acts as a drive-thru, but it is for mobile order pickup only; customers are unable to order food at the handout window but are welcome to pick up their mobile orders through the Chipotlane or inside the restaurant. As of 2023, there are over 500+ locations which include the Chipotlane in order to make the restaurant run more efficiently.

In June 2018, the company announced the closing of 65 under-performing restaurants.

Ells broke all ties with the company in March 2020 by resigning as its chairman and departing from its board of directors.

In January 2023, the company announced plans to hire 15,000 workers and expand to 7,000 locations, up from a previous goal of 6,000. This would double its footprint. At the time of the announcement, it had more than 100,000 employees. An article in The Wall Street Journal in July noted the chain would focus on opening 700-800 new locations in small towns and cities as part of its plan to expand by nearly 3,800 locations, in territory traditionally dominated by chains like McDonald's and Applebee's.

Expansion attempts into other types of cuisines
In the 2010s, Ells tried to diversify the company by creating or acquiring several subsidiaries. These subsidiaries offered very different cuisines compared to their parent company. Examples include soul food (Soul Daddy), Asian cuisine (ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen), pizza (Pizzeria Locale), and burgers (Tasty Made). In 2023, Chipotle has also incorporated California inspired bowls into the Farmesa Fresh Eatery concept.

In 2011, Steve Ells was a judge for the TV show America's Next Great Restaurant and investor of ANGR Holdings, the company that will be running the winning concept's restaurants. Chipotle has agreed to purchase Ells' investment in ANGR at his cost, provide support for ANGR operations, and invest a total of $2.3 million in cash contributions. The winning concept, Soul Daddy, was quickly closed after operating for 8 weeks.

In September 2011, Chipotle opened an Asian fast-casual concept restaurant named ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen in Washington, D.C. The company has said the new restaurant "would follow the Chipotle service format and its focus on 'food with integrity' in ingredients." Chipotle's plan was to start with only one store, and see how the restaurant works out before expanding the concept.

On July 29, 2016, the company announced the opening of its first Tasty Made burger restaurant in the fall.

The newer restaurant concepts did not perform as well as expected, so ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and Tasty Made were closed in March 2017 and February 2018 respectively, leaving only Pizzeria Locale operating besides the parent company.

In February 2023, Chipotle opened their first Farmesa Fresh Eatery in Santa Monica, California, serving bowls containing customers' choice of a protein, a green or grain, two sides, a topping, and a selection of up to five sauces. Some of the choices included steak, salmon, whipped potatoes, sweet potato chips, beets, and cauliflower.

In July 2023, Chipotle exited the highly competitive pizza restaurant industry by announcing that they were closing all of their remaining Pizzeria Locale locations and would "dissolve the business".

International
According to an article in The Motley Fool, Chipotle had 17 locations outside of the United States by October 2014 with the majority in Canada, and the UK was in the process of opening more locations. The rate of overseas expansion was slower than expected. Many of the press reviewers thought that the food was overpriced for their area.

As of 2018 there are 33 locations outside of the United States with 19 locations in Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Markham, Vaughan, Mississauga, Oakville, Vancouver), 6 locations in the United Kingdom (London), 6 in France (with 1 in Lyon, and the rest in Paris), and 2 in Germany (Frankfurt).

In July 2023, the company announced it would partner with the Kuwait-based Alshaya Group in its first-ever franchise deal to expand into the Middle East.

Canada
In August 2008, Chipotle opened its first location outside of the United States in Toronto, Canada. A second Toronto store opened in 2010. The first Canadian location outside Toronto opened in Vancouver in December 2012. Chipotle has six locations in the Vancouver-area, including Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Port Coquitlam, Langley and Surrey. In 2023, Chipotle announced that seventh store would open up in the Vancouver region. The first location in the country's Capital opened in February 2017 at the Rideau Centre. There is also a store that opened in Calgary, Alberta in 2023.

United Kingdom
Chipotle expanded to Europe with the first European restaurant opening in May 2010 in London. A second location opened in London in September 2011. The following year, three additional locations quickly opened in the London area. After this growth spurt, the rate of further expansion in London slowed greatly with the sixth location appearing in 2013 and the seventh in June 2015. Although Chipotle blames the slow growth in the United Kingdom on the British unfamiliarity with Mexican foods, several locally owned burrito chains had opened locations across the United Kingdom during the same interval. , there were 19 UK locations, of which 17 were in London.

France
The first location in France opened in Paris in May 2012. Expansion in France was much slower than that in the United Kingdom or Canada, with a second location in Paris opening in 2013 and a third location in 2014. At the time of its opening in 2014, the restaurant at La Défense was the largest Chipotle location in the world at 7000 sqft, while a typical Chipotle restaurant is usually between 2200 sqft and 2500 sqft. A fourth Parisian location was opened in Levallois-Perret in 2015 followed by a fifth Parisian location in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 2016. The company opened its seventh location in France and its first location outside the Paris region, inside Lyon's La Part-Dieu shopping mall in 2021.

Germany
The first location in Germany opened up in Frankfurt's Skyline Plaza shopping mall in August 2013. A second location opened in Frankfurt's MyZeil shopping mall in April 2019.

Corporate management
Chipotle's team includes a residing corporate office of managers and its board of directors. Members of both teams are appointed to serve on committees: audit, compensation, and nominating and corporate governance.

The top management team consisted of the chief executive officer, Steve Ells; the chief financial officer, Jack R. Hartung; the chief marketing and development officer, Mark Crumpacker. The current board of directors consists of: Ells, Patrick Flynn, Albert Baldocchi, Neil Flanzraich, Darlene Friedman, Stephen Gillet, Kimbal Musk and John Charlesworth. On March 14, 2018, it was reported that Mark Crumpacker, who had previously been charged in a 2016 cocaine ring indictment, would be leaving the company.

Ells served as chairman of the company, and served as chief executive officer until November 2017. He has a 1.25% stake in the company. The labor-market research firm Glassdoor reported that Ells earned $29 million in 2014, versus a median of $19,000 for Chipotle's workers, making the CEO-to-worker pay ratio 1522:1.

On February 13, 2018, Chipotle announced that Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol would replace Ells as CEO starting on March 5 while Ells would retain his chairman position.

On March 6, 2020, Ells resigned as chairman and left the board of directors, breaking his final ties to the company. At the same time, Niccol was appointed chairman and the size of the board was reduced from 10 to 7 directors.

Operation and distribution
All of Chipotle's restaurants are company-owned, rather than franchised. , 1430 restaurants have since opened throughout the United States and Canada, with locations in 43 states, Ontario, British Columbia, and the District of Columbia.

The field team are the employees who work closely with but not directly within specific restaurants. The field support system includes apprentice team leaders (step up from restaurateurs), team leaders or area managers, team directors and regional directors (not atypical for them to oversee more than fifty locations). Because Chipotle does not franchise, all restaurants are owned and operated directly by the corporation itself. Thus, whenever Chipotle is in the process of launching a new location, the field team hires a new general manager and trains them at a current location so that they will be ready for the new location when it opens for business. The corporate office takes care of finding and funding new locations as well.

In July 2023, the company announced it was testing a robot developed to cut the time to prepare avocados for guacamole in half amid an ongoing labor shortage. It was one of multiple chains incorporating automation into its operations at the time.

Menu
Chipotle's menu consists of five items: burritos, bowls, tacos, quesadillas, and salads. The price of each item is based on the choice of chicken, pork carnitas, barbacoa, steak, tofu-based "sofritas", or vegetarian (with guacamole or queso, which would be at an extra charge otherwise). Additional optional toppings are offered free of charge, including: rice, beans, four types of salsa, fajita vegetables, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce. When asked in 2007 about expanding the menu, Steve Ells said, "[I]t's important to keep the menu focused, because if you just do a few things, you can ensure that you do them better than anybody else." Chipotle also offers a children's menu. Most restaurants sell beer and margaritas in addition to soft drinks and fruit drinks.

The majority of food is prepared in each restaurant. Some exceptions are the beans and carnitas, which are prepared at a central kitchen in Chicago, Illinois. None of the restaurants have freezers, microwave ovens, or can openers.

The chain experimented with breakfast foods at two airports in the Washington (D.C.) metropolitan area but decided against expanding the menu in that direction. Starting in 2009, selected restaurants had offered a pozole soup, which has since been discontinued. Starting in 2009, Chipotle tested a vegan chicken product (made by Gardein) called "Garden Blend" in various cities but discontinued it in 2010.

In 2013, Chipotle began testing the tofu-based "sofritas" option (made by Hodo Soy) in Northern California restaurants; following its successful trial, it was rolled out nation-wide in 2014. In June 2015, Chipotle began test marketing a pork and chicken chorizo-type sausage as a new protein option at selected locations in the Kansas City area. Some food writers have expressed their health related concerns over the protein's relatively high sodium content since a 4-ounce serving contains 293 calories and 803 milligrams of sodium while the American Heart Association’s recommended daily amount is less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium. In contrast, the protein options with next highest sodium contents are Barbacoa with 530 milligrams and sofritas with 555 milligrams. An earlier version of the Mexican sausage was tested in Denver and New York City in 2011, but that test was terminated when that version of the sausage was perceived as looking too greasy. Chorizo was discontinued in September 2017 but was returned to the menu in the following year for a limited time.

In July 2020, Chipotle began test marketing a cauliflower rice option at 55 locations in Colorado and Wisconsin. As of 2021 the cauliflower rice has since been discontinued.

In August 2021, Chipotle began testing a company-made vegan chorizo made with pea protein. The vegan chorizo (now called plant-based chorizo) was subsequently released nation-wide as a limited-time only item on January 3, 2022 before being removed on March 4, 2022.

Chipotle accepts fax orders, and in 2005 the company added the ability to order online from their website. For both online and fax orders, customers proceed to the front of the line to pay for pre-ordered food. In 2009, Chipotle released an app for the iPhone that allows users to find nearby Chipotle locations, place an order, and prepay with a credit card. In 2013, Chipotle released an Android app that allows users to locate nearby Chipotle locations, place an order, prepay with a credit or gift card, and access favorites and recent orders.

In late 2021, the company added a non-food item to the menu - cilantro soap. According to published reports, the soap sold out the day after its release. The soap was produced after an August 2021 Instagram post of what was thought to be a mock photo of the product. It was an effort to engage fans and haters of the herb that, "plays into a larger trend of turning digital moments into real life experiences," according to Chris Brandt, Chipotle's Chief Marketing Officer.

Nutrition
In 2003, a Center for Science in the Public Interest report stated that Chipotle's burritos contain over 1,000 calories, which is nearly equivalent to two meals' worth of food. MSNBC Health.com placed the burritos on their list of the "20 Worst Foods in America" because of their high caloric content and high sodium. When a burrito with carnitas, rice, vegetables, cheese, guacamole, and salsa was compared with a typical Big Mac, the burrito had more fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, and sodium than the Big Mac, but it also had more protein and fiber. The restaurant has also received praise—Health.com included the restaurant in its list of the "Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants".

Chipotle's vegetarian options include rice, black beans, fajita vegetables (onions and bell peppers), salsa, guacamole, queso and cheese. All items other than the meats, cheese, sour cream, and honey vinaigrette dressing are vegan. As of late 2013, Chipotle developed a new cooking strategy for the pinto beans, eliminating the bacon and making them vegetarian and vegan-friendly. The cheese is processed with vegetable-based rennet in order to be suitable for vegetarians. In April 2010, Chipotle began testing a vegan "Garden Blend" option, which is a plant-based meat alternative marinated in chipotle adobo, at six locations in the U.S. The flour tortillas used for the burritos and soft tacos are the only items that contain gluten.

Portion size irregularities
Some customers took to the social media platform TikTok accusing Chipotle of reducing portion sizes. In June 2024, a Wells Fargo analyst and his team set investigated the matter and ordered 75 identically configured items from 8 different Chipotle locations in New York City. The team weighed each bowl and reported that portion sizes varied widely. The samples they ranged from 14oz to 27oz with a median weight of 21.5oz

Food sourcing
In 1999, while looking for ways to improve the taste of the carnitas, founder Steve Ells was prompted by an article written by Edward Behr to visit Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Ells found the CAFOs "horrific", and began sourcing from open-range pork suppliers. This caused an increase in both the price and the sales of the carnitas burritos.

In 2001, Chipotle released a mission statement called Food With Integrity, which highlighted Chipotle's efforts to increase their use of naturally raised meat, organic produce, and dairy without added hormones. Chipotle only uses the leg and thigh meat from its chickens; at least one location sells the breast meat to Panera Bread.

Ells testified before the United States Congress in support of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which was aimed to reduce the amount of antibiotics given to farm animals.

From 2006 to 2012, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Floridian farmworker organization, protested Chipotle's refusal to sign a Fair Food agreement, which would commit the restaurant chain to pay a penny-per-pound premium on its Florida tomatoes to boost tomato harvesters' wages, and to only buy Florida tomatoes from growers who comply with the Fair Food Code of Conduct. In 2009, the creators of the documentary film Food, Inc. (along with 31 other leaders in the sustainable food movement) signed an open letter of support for the CIW's campaign, stating that, "If Chipotle is sincere in its wishes to reform its supply chain, the time has come to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as a true partner in the protection of farmworkers rights." In September 2009, Chipotle announced that it would sidestep partnership with the CIW and instead work directly with East Coast Growers and Packers to increase wages for its tomato pickers. Ells framed the dispute as a fundamental issue of control, stating that, "the CIW wants us to sign a contract that would let them control Chipotle's decisions regarding food in the future." In October 2012, Chipotle signed an agreement with the CIW and became the 11th company to join the organization's Fair Food Program.

In January 2015, Chipotle pulled carnitas from its menu in a third of its restaurants; company officials cited animal welfare problems at one of the suppliers, found during a regular audit, as the reason. Subsequently, a false rumor spread online claiming it was done to appease Muslims who consider pork to be unclean, leading to some protests on social media. The company still uses antibiotic-free and hormone-free steak in its restaurants, despite being briefly forced to "serve beef that is not naturally raised" during the summer of 2013, posting an in-store notice each time that occurred. Roberto Ferdman of The Washington Post opined that Chipotle's stated mission to sell "food with integrity" may be "untenable" if meat producers continue to breach Chipotle's ethical standards.

Also in 2015, Chipotle stopped using genetically modified corn and soy beans in their foods, claiming to be the first nationwide restaurant to cook completely GMO free. However, in 2019, Chipotle paid $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit where the plaintiffs claimed that the company's food "may have been sourced from livestock that consumed GMO animal feed."

Food safety
Since 2008, a former Kansas State University food safety professor has accused Chipotle of confusing the public by using such terms as "naturally raised meats", "organic ingredients", and "locally sourced" and trying to equate those terms with food safety. In rebuttal, a Chipotle spokesperson told The Daily Beast that "all of our practices have always been very much within industry norms. It's important to note that restaurant practices are regulated by health codes, and restaurants are routinely inspected by health officials. Everything we have done in our supply chain and in our restaurants has been within industry norms." Yet, FiveThirtyEight pointed out that the 2015 norovirus outbreak appears to be unusual and others are criticizing their food sourcing or handling practices. MarketWatch wrote that the result of all of these outbreaks will be to force Chipotle to obtain their produce from larger corporate farms that can afford the more extensive microbial food-safety testing programs and to process vegetables at centralized locations instead of at the individual stores, both of which are industry-standard practices that the company had previously criticized. The New York Times implied that the company's insistence on maintaining its long standing rhetoric about "food integrity" seemed to be quite opposite with the realities of recent current events and made it appear that the management was just ignoring their current problems. It also has been pointed out that Chipotle's current record-keeping system is actually hindering the health authorities' investigation in locating the sources of the various infections.

A writer for the magazine Popular Science pointed out that Chipotle had publicly acknowledged that they "may be at a higher risk for food-borne illness outbreaks than some competitors due to our use of fresh produce and meats rather than frozen, and our reliance on employees cooking with traditional methods rather than automation." Other observers have argued that the variety of pathogens implicated in different incidents (Salmonella, E. coli, and norovirus) points towards a systemic problem, and that the use of manure to grow organic food can increase the risk of spreading bacteria like E. coli.

In December 2015, Seattle health officials closed a Seattle-area Chipotle for a day after it had repeatedly had small numbers of violations during recent consecutive inspections that previously would not have generated a closure order. On December 10, 2015, CEO Steve Ells released a press statement apologizing for 2015 outbreaks and promised changes to minimize the risks of future outbreaks.

March 2008 hepatitis outbreak
In March and April 2008, the Community Epidemiology Branch of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency traced a hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County to a single Chipotle restaurant located in La Mesa, California, in which 22 customers were infected with the virus.

April 2008 norovirus outbreak
In 2008, Chipotle was implicated in a norovirus outbreak in Kent, Ohio, where over 400 people became ill after eating at a Chipotle restaurant. Officials at the Ohio Department of Health said that the outbreak was caused by Norovirus Genotype G2. Many of the victims were students at Kent State University. The initial source of the outbreak was never found.

July 2015 E. coli outbreak
In early November 2015, The Oregonian reported that there was a little-known E. coli outbreak that had occurred earlier in July in which five people were infected with the O157:H7 strain of E. coli. The outbreak was traced to a single Chipotle location in Seattle and that the incident was not publicized at that time. Seattle public health officials defended their actions at that time by saying that the outbreak was over by the time they made an association with Chipotle. Health officials were unable to trace the source of the July outbreak and said that the cause of the July outbreak is unrelated to the October/November outbreak.

August 2015 norovirus outbreak
Another norovirus outbreak was confirmed to have occurred in August 2015 at a Simi Valley, California, location in which 80 customers and 18 employees reported becoming ill. Ventura County health inspectors found various health violations during two inspections following the outbreak report. Despite those violations, the county health officials did not close the restaurant and allowed it to continue to operate. In a January 2016 article, The New York Times reported that the number of victims involved in the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak was actually 207, twice the number that was reported earlier.

In an unusual move, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration had gotten a federal grand jury to issue a subpoena in January 2016 as part of a criminal investigation seeking documents and information from Chipotle concerning the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak. , it is too early to tell which organization is the actual target of the investigation. In most cases involving norovirus outbreaks that involved a single location, state and/or local authorities are the usual jurisdiction responsible in the investigation and prosecution of those type of cases. However, Ventura County officials had been criticized for their handling of parts of their investigation, and for allowing the restaurant to continue to operate after finding health violations during consecutive inspections.

Less than two weeks later, a federal class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California claiming that Chipotle knowingly allowed an ill kitchen manager to work for two days before sending that person home. Then, the restaurant actively deep-cleaned the restaurant to remove all traces of contamination prior to notifying the Ventura County Environmental Health Division of the existing outbreak, hindering their investigation. The lawsuit also claimed that the number of known victims was as high as 234 and estimates that the number of meals that the infected employee may have come in contact with could be as high 3,000.

August 2015 Salmonella outbreak
At almost the same time as the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak, Minnesota health officials confirmed a Salmonella outbreak that affected 17 Minneapolis-area Chipotle restaurants in mid-August 2015. The source of the outbreak was traced back to contaminated tomatoes that were grown in Mexico. The Minnesota Department of Health reported that samples from 45 victims were tested and found that their illness was caused by the Salmonella Newport bacterium as determined by DNA profiling. Later, the state officials reported that the total of persons who became infected was increased to 64 and the number Chipotle locations in which they had acquired the bacterium was increased to 22, all located within the state of Minnesota.

October 2015 E. coli outbreak
In October 2015, at least 22 people were reported to have gotten sick after eating at several different Chipotle locations in the states of Washington and Oregon. At that time, an epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health said the culprit appeared to be a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli bacterium, but they were still waiting the outcome of several laboratory tests before they could give a definitive result. As a precaution, Chipotle had closed 43 stores in Washington and Oregon pending the results and recommendations of the involved health authorities. On November 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported that the number of persons reported ill had risen to 40 known cases and that the bacteria samples taken from 7 infected persons in Washington and 3 persons in Oregon states were confirmed to be infected by the same strain of E. coli, the Shiga toxin-producing STEC O26 strain, as determined by DNA profiling. At least 12 persons required hospitalization, but no fatalities. As of November 2015, Health authorities were still trying to trace the exact source of the bacterial contamination, but suspected fresh produce.

On November 12, the CDC increased the number of known cases to 50, the number of persons requiring hospitalization to 14, and the number of DNA fingerprint confirmations to 33. Through a match via Pulsenet, the DNA fingerprint also matched a recent case in Minnesota, but the ill person did not eat at Chipotle. The source of the bacteria infection still had not yet been determined at the time of the report released by the CDC and the CDC is trying to use the more definitive, but more time-consuming whole genome sequencing procedure to see if they are able to determine the relationships between all of the STEC O26 cases. In the meantime, Chipotle reopened the closed restaurants on November 11 after disposing all of the food within the closed facilities and deep cleaning those facilities.

On November 20, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 45 with 16 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to six. Besides Oregon and Washington, new cases were reported in the states of Minnesota, California, New York, and Ohio. 43 out of 45 of the affected individuals had reported that they had eaten at a Chipotle in the week before they had become sick.

On December 4, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 52 with 20 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to nine. New cases were reported in the states of California (1), Illinois (1), Maryland (1), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (1), and Washington (1).

The price of shares for Chipotle stock dropped a further 12% immediately after the CDC had issued their update on November 20. Share prices had been dropping since the initial announcement of the E. coli outbreak in late October with investors unsure if the drop in share prices just a temporary aberration and that Chipotle management is handling the incident as well as they could. Chipotle has since hired a consultant to improve their food safety program and have their program reviewed by both the CDC and FDA.

On February 1, 2016, the CDC official closed their investigations on the larger E. coli that started in Pacific Northwest in October 2015 and also the smaller outbreak that started in Kansas and Oklahoma in November since no new cases were reported since December 1. In their final report, the CDC stated that 55 persons in 11 states were infected with the same strain of STEC O26 during the major outbreak with 21 of those persons requiring hospitalization. The five persons infected in the later outbreak were made ill by a genetically different strain of STEC O26. The CDC also reported that federal and local health and food safety authorities were unable to detect traces of the microorganisms in any of the food samples taken from the suspected restaurants or from their supply chain. The CDC, FDA, and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service were unable to determine a point source that was in common in the meals that were consumed by all the victims since some of the restaurants were located far apart and had obtained some of their ingredients from different suppliers while other consumers of the suspected suppliers were not affected.

November 2015 E. coli cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on December 21 that five more people became ill after eating at two Chipotle restaurants located in Kansas and Oklahoma in late November. Preliminary DNA fingerprinting results appear to indicated that the newer cases were caused by a different strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26. Scientists are waiting for the results of the more definitive whole genome sequencing analyses to determine if the organisms responsible for this outbreak are genetically related to the E. coli that are responsible for causing the outbreak that had started in Oregon and Washington in late October and thus an extension of that outbreak. The agency has not yet determined which food is responsible for the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration reported that they are trying to determine how the bacteria in these cases, along with the earlier Oregon, Washington, and other multi-state cases, might have been propagated through the food supply chain.

December 2015 norovirus outbreak
In December 2015, 80 students at Boston College, including members of the men's basketball team, were sickened after eating at a single Chipotle restaurant. Affected students had been tested for both E. coli and norovirus in order to determine the cause of the illnesses. Although it would take as long as two days before the results of more definitive tests became known, public health investigators reported that preliminary tests pointed to the presence of norovirus. The health inspectors for the City of Boston had since closed this particular location on December 7 for a number of health violations that included maintaining meats at a too low of a temperature on the serving line and for allowing a sick employee to work at the time of the inspection.

On December 10, officials from the Boston Public Health Commission reported that tests had identified a single strain of norovirus that was responsible for this particular outbreak. Boston Globe reported on December 10 that 141 persons were reported to have gotten ill and that some of the newer victims had not visited Chipotle before contracting the virus and most likely became infected by being in close proximity to someone who had gotten ill at Chipotle, such as a roommate or dorm-mate. Boston authorities traced the cause of the outbreak to a sick employee who was allowed to work on the day of the outbreak. Chipotle has since fired the employee and also the manager who knowingly allowed the ill worker to complete his shift instead of following health codes.

Consequences
On February 8, 2016, Chipotle closed all of its eateries nationwide for a few hours during the morning for an all-staff meeting on food safety. The company hired a new head of food safety, who instituted changes including having all employees wash hands every half hour, having two employees verify that produce like onions, jalapeños and avocados have been immersed in hot water for five seconds to kill germs on their exteriors, and using Pascalization to pre-treat food ingredients.

Since the series of food-poisoning outbreaks in 2015 lowered trust in the product, Chipotle has tried to lure back its customers with free food and heavier advertising. Same-store sales increased 17.8% percent in the first quarter of 2017.

July 2017 norovirus outbreak
Despite corrective actions, the company faced another setback in implementing their safe food policies in July 2017. A norovirus outbreak is being investigated in Virginia. More than 130 people reported having norovirus-like symptoms and two individuals had tested positive for the virus after eating at a Chipotle restaurant in Sterling, Virginia. The Loudoun County Health Department confirmed the illnesses from July 13–16, 2017. Shares of Chipotle's stock stumbled more than 10% on this news. On July 25, several news agencies reported that Chipotle officials confirmed that the "recent norovirus outbreak in Virginia was the result of lax sick policy enforcement by store managers" and that the company believed that an employee was the cause of the outbreak.

July 2018 Clostridium perfringens outbreak
In late July 2018, Ohio public health officials launched an investigation after receiving 350 complaints from customers after they had eaten at a Powell, Ohio, location. By mid-August, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the bacteria that cause the outbreak which had affected over 700 people as Clostridium perfringens. This food borne outbreak has been called the worst incident to date that can be traced to a single restaurant location.

2017
In April 2017, Chipotle first announced that their point of sale payment system was compromised during a three-week period from late March to mid-April but gave very little information about the incident. The following month, the company later revealed that 2,250 restaurants in 47 states were involved which could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of customers who may had their credit or debit card account information with security codes stolen. A few restaurants in Canada were also affected. Some security experts criticized the way Chipotle had downplayed the incident. During the same month, a credit union in New Hampshire filed a class action lawsuit on the behalf of banks and credit unions against Chipotle for failure to provide elementary credit card data security in the most recent data breach after a similar data breach that had occurred in 2004. In July 2017, Gainesville, Florida, police reported that an unidentified person took more than $17,000 from an ATM at a local credit union by stealing from 40 different accounts that can be traced directly to the data breach.

2019
A number of Chipotle mobile ordering app customers claimed that their mobile ordering app accounts had been hacked and reported fraudulent orders charged to their credit cards. Chipotle claimed that the customers were using unsecured passwords, and that any fraudulent orders were a result of this. The customers then argued that the passwords they were using were secure, and that their complaints involved an issue with the server.

Lawsuits
In November 2016, three men filed a class-action lawsuit against Chipotle alleging that a burrito was listed as containing only 300 calories, when in fact it contained more. They are seeking "unspecified damages and for an injunction against the company to prevent it from posting what it calls misleading information on its food."

In January 2020 the company received a $1.3 million fine from the state of Massachusetts for 13,000 child labor violations.

Labor issues and unionization
In May 2019, Chipotle was in the news for having dismissed a manager who had been falsely accused of racism. In June 2022, Chipotle closed a Maine restaurant whose staff was trying to unionize, ostensibly due to staffing difficulties. In August 2022, a restaurant in Lansing, Michigan, became the chain's first location to vote to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

At multiple points in 2022, various outlets highlighted Chipotle as an example of a restaurant chain investing in robotics and automation via Chippy, an autonomous kitchen assistant made by Miso Robotics.

Advertising and publicity

In the past, Chipotle mainly relied on billboards, radio advertisements, and word of mouth to advertise. In 2010, the company initiated an ad campaign that mocks advice given to Chipotle by advertising agencies. In 2012, Chipotle aired its first nationally televised commercial during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. Chipotle has run many promotions giving out free food to potential customers, especially when opening a new store. Stores also give out free burritos on certain holidays; for instance, on Halloween, some locations have had promotions in which free burritos are given to people who come dressed as a burrito.

Chipotle gave away free burritos to reporters during the 1997 trial of Timothy McVeigh, which took place in Chipotle's hometown of Denver. In addition, stores offered free burritos to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Chipotle received attention when Ozzy Osbourne's reality show The Osbournes featured the company's burritos heavily.

For Halloween 2010, Chipotle announced that customers dressed as a processed food product would receive a burrito for $2. The event was part of a $1 million fundraiser for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution called "Boorito 2010: The Horrors of Processed Food." For "Boorito 2011", customers dressed in costumes "inspired by family farms" will receive a menu item for $2, with proceeds from the promotion going to The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid. The promotion is aimed to increase awareness of family farms. Also in support of family farms, Chipotle released music videos of Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Willie Nelson.

On September 12, 2013, Chipotle released an animated short called The Scarecrow, with a companion mobile video game; both feature a narrative heavily critical of industrial farming, but little in the way of direct marketing for the chain. The short features a cover of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, sung by Fiona Apple. It was named one of the worst advertisements of 2013 by The Wall Street Journal.

In 2011, Chipotle created the "Farm Team", which is a rewards program available only by invitation from restaurant managers. The Farm Team members have access to a special Chipotle website, where members can earn rewards, i.e. free food and T-shirts. The site offers members to, "learn where Chipotle’s food comes from, take quizzes and polls, play games and watch videos about the company". In April 2014, the Farm Team program was shut down.

Chipotle sponsors Team Garmin-Barracuda (formerly Team Garmin-Chipotle, Team Garmin-Slipstream, Team Garmin-Transitions and Team Garmin-Cervélo) of the International Cycling Union, and is an official team partner of the Boston Celtics, and the Boston Bruins. In June 2009, Chipotle sponsored free screenings of Food, Inc., a film that criticizes the corporate food industry. Founder Steve Ells stated that he hoped the film would make customers appreciate Chipotle's Food With Integrity policy. From May until September 2009, Chipotle ran a contest on mychipotle.com, a microsite which had a competition for the best user-created audio and video presentations about different combinations of ingredients. In July 2010, Chipotle began a campaign to support healthier lunch alternatives for students, in which money will be donated to The Lunch Box program based on how many spam E-mails consumers forward to a company E-mail address.

For Chipotle's 18th anniversary, the company began wrapping its burritos in gold foil as part of a larger promotion to draw attention to its Food With Integrity mantra. Also as part of the gold foil campaign, Chipotle is offering prizes for customer-created pictures of items wrapped in gold foil. Chipotle hired comedian Amy Sedaris to create a comedic how-to video on wrapping with gold foil, and spread the video using Twitter. In March 2013, Chipotle pulled its sponsorship of a Boy Scouts of America event, citing that organization's ban on LGBT members.

On March 14, 2016, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge concluded that Chipotle's social media policy, and more specifically its application towards an employee who posted tweets regarding wages and working conditions, violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). A former Chipotle employee in Havertown, Pennsylvania, wrote a series of tweets from his personal account about hourly workers being required to work on snow days. Chipotle instructed the employee to delete the tweets. The NLRB judge determined that Chipotle's request to delete the tweets violated the NLRA even though the employee was not disciplined as a result of his tweets.

In July 2021, Chipotle rolled out limited edition gold foil at participating locations to celebrate American athletes competing in Tokyo at the 2020 Summer Olympics. On October 28, 2021, Chipotle announced $1 million of burritos to be given away for free for the first 30,000 people to play the Chipotle experience on the video game Roblox.

On February 16, 2023, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team announced a sponsorship deal with Chipotle. The Chipotle logo will be featured on both the nose and side of the VF-23, racesuits of drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and team apparel.

Architecture
Architecturally, all Chipotle restaurants are built using most of the same material finishes (plywood, corrugated metal, stainless steel, exposed ductwork), although each store is unique. The interiors have been described as having an "industrial, sheet metal look". Chipotle has built restaurants using white ceramic tile instead of stainless steel. It costs the company approximately $850,000 to open a new restaurant. When the first Chipotle opened, Steve Ells asked his friend, sculptor Bruce Gueswel, to design the chairs and a styled Mayan king whose face was loosely based on that of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., a personal inspiration of Gueswel, for the restaurant. Both items were made from wood and metal. Gueswel has continued to design and build the art and chairs for all subsequent Chipotle restaurants.

Most Chipotle locations display a photograph of the original restaurant, which is near the University of Denver campus on Evans Avenue. Instead of a photograph of itself, the original location has a photograph of the Dolly Madison Ice Cream that previously occupied the location. In 2010, Chipotle began opening smaller concept locations that have lower costs of development and occupancy. Chipotle uses environmentally friendly packaging, with bowls made from recycled newsprint, unbleached tray liners, and napkins and cups made from postconsumer waste.

Chipotle's architectural design team incorporates the principles of sustainable architecture in their projects. The "green" restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois, features an on-site six kilowatt wind turbine, which generates about 10% of the restaurant's electrical needs. The Gurnee restaurant has received Platinum level LEED certification from U.S. Green Building Council. A restaurant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses recycled drywall, low-VOC paint, and energy-efficient appliances. A Chipotle restaurant in Austin, Texas, was the first to receive a four-star rating from the city's Green Building Program. Additionally, Chipotle has made arrangements to add solar panels to 75 of its restaurants. Chipotle has contracted to clean its stores in the New York metropolitan area, with "plant-based, environmentally preferable cleaning supplies and technologies." The cleansers are readily biodegradable and non-toxic to humans or aquatic life.

Chipotle was the defendant in a lawsuit for failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Maurizio Antoninetti, a customer who used a wheelchair, claimed he was denied the "Chipotle Experience", because he was unable to see the food preparation. The case against the company was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear Chipotle's appeal, leaving the Ninth Circuit's ruling intact. Chipotle has "an official disability policy of bringing ingredients to the tables of diners with disabilities and doing tableside preparation." Chipotle is retrofitting restaurants affected by the ruling, replacing the walls in front of the food preparation area with lower ones or transparent panels. They are incorporating the new design elements into new restaurants. The case was one of over twenty ADA-related lawsuits filed by Antoninetti, who died in 2011.

Other restaurant units

 * Farmesa is a new restaurant concept launch by Chipotle in March 2023 that specializes in custom-made bowls. The first location opened in Santa Monica.

 * Defunct units

 * Pizzeria Locale was a fast casual pizza restaurant chain formed as a partnership with the original Pizzeria Locale, a single full-service pizza restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. The original Pizzeria Locale owners, Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, would continue to own their original location in Boulder while Chipotle would increase its stake in the chain over time. The first jointly owned location (with Chipotle) opened in Denver in May 2013. A second Denver location was opened in October 2014. The first location outside of Colorado was opened in Kansas City in July 2015. The first location in Cincinnati, the fourth in the chain, was opened in March 2016. By February 2017, the chain had grown to seven locations. In June 2018, Chipotle closed five Pizzeria Locale locations in Kansas City and Cincinnati, leaving two locations in Denver and one in Boulder still operating. In March 2019, Pizzeria Locale announced plans to open two additional locations within the Denver metropolitan area, one in Hale and the other in Stapleton. The planned Pizzeria Locale for Stapleton opened in December 2019, to make it the third location in operation. It was announced in February 2020 that the new Pizzeria Locale at the 9th and Colorado mixed-use development in Hale was expected to open later that year. The Hale restaurant finally opened in August 2020. In July 2023, Chipotle announced that they were closing all of their remaining Pizzeria Locale locations in Denver and were "dissolve the business".

 * Soul Daddy was a soul food fast casual restaurant that was owned by ANGR Holdings, LLC, and was managed by Chipotle after purchasing Ells' stake in the company. The restaurant had three locations that had operated for less than 5 weeks in 2011 before closing.
 * ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen was an Asian fast-casual concept restaurant that was opened by Chipotle in September 2011. The company said that the new restaurant "would follow the Chipotle service format and its focus on 'food with integrity' in ingredients." Chipotle's plan was to start with only one store, and see how the restaurant works out before expanding the concept. By July 2016, the chain had 15 restaurants. All ShopHouse locations were closed on March 17, 2017.
 * Tasty Made was a burger restaurant concept that Chipotle first opened in Lancaster, Ohio, in October 2016. On July 29, 2016, the company announced the opening of its first Tasty Made burger restaurant in the fall. The first location was revealed to be in Lancaster, Ohio. Ohio was selected as culinary manager Nate Appleman and national training director David Chrisman are both from the state and helped design the concept. Tasty Made was announced to have a focused menu like early burger restaurants which were limited to burgers, fries and milkshakes. Chipotle had trademarked Better Burger earlier in the year. Tasty Made was closed on February 28, 2018.

title: Chipotle Mexican Grill


text:
Azathoth

Azathoth is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of writer H. P. Lovecraft and other authors. He is the supreme deity of the Cthulu Mythos and the ruler of the Outer Gods, and may also be seen as a symbol for primordial chaos, therefore being the most powerful entity in the entirety of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Azathoth is referred to as the "daemon-sultan" and "Lord of All Things", whose throne is at the center of "Ultimate Chaos".

Inspiration
The first recorded mention of the name Azathoth was in a note Lovecraft wrote to himself in 1919 that read simply, "AZATHOTH—hideous name". Mythos editor Robert M. Price argues that Lovecraft could have combined the biblical names Anathoth (Jeremiah's home town) and Azazel—mentioned by Lovecraft in "The Dunwich Horror". Price also points to the alchemical term "Azoth", which was used in the title of a book by Arthur Edward Waite, the model for the wizard Ephraim Waite in Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep".

Another note Lovecraft made to himself later in 1919 refers to an idea for a story: "A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sultan Azathoth." In a letter to Frank Belknap Long, Lovecraft ties this plot germ to Vathek, a supernatural novel by William Beckford about a wicked caliph. Lovecraft's attempts to work this idea into a novel floundered (a 500-word fragment survives, first published under the title "Azathoth" in the journal Leaves in 1938), although Lovecraftian scholar Will Murray suggests that Lovecraft recycled the idea into his Dream Cycle novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, written in 1926.

Price sees another inspiration for Azathoth in Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Sushai, from The Gods of Pegana, a creator deity "who made the gods and thereafter rested." In Dunsany's conception, MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI sleeps eternally, lulled by the music of a lesser deity who must drum forever, "for if he cease for an instant then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI will start awake, and there will be worlds nor gods no more." This oblivious creator god accompanied by supernatural musicians is a clear prototype for Azathoth, Price argues.

Fiction
Aside from the title of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was the first fiction by Lovecraft to mention Azathoth:

"[O]utside the ordered universe [is] that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes."

Verse 22 of Lovecraft's 1929 poetry cycle Fungi from Yuggoth is entitled "Azathoth" and consists of the following:

"Out in the mindless void the daemon bore me Past the bright clusters of dimensioned space, Till neither time nor matter stretched before me, But only Chaos, without form or place. Here the vast Lord of All in darkness muttered Things he had dreamed but could not understand, While near him shapeless bat-things flopped and fluttered In idiot vortices that ray-streams fanned. They danced insanely to the high, thin whining Of a cracked flute clutched in a monstrous paw, Whence flow the aimless waves whose chance combining Gives each frail cosmos its eternal law. 'I am His Messenger,' the daemon said, As in contempt he struck his Master’s head."

The "daemon" that claims to be Azathoth's messenger is identified by later authors as Nyarlathotep, another of Lovecraft's deities.

Lovecraft referred to Azathoth again in "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), where the narrator relates that he "started with loathing when told of the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth". Here "nuclear" most likely refers to Azathoth's central location at the nucleus of the cosmos and not to nuclear energy, which did not truly come of age until after Lovecraft's death.

In "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932), the protagonist Walter Gilman dreams that he is told by the witch Keziah Mason that "He must meet the Black Man, and go with them all to the throne of Azathoth at the centre of ultimate Chaos.... He must sign in his own blood the book of Azathoth and take a new secret name.... What kept him from going with her...to the throne of Chaos where the thin flutes pipe mindlessly was the fact that he had seen the name 'Azathoth' in the Necronomicon, and knew it stood for a primal horror too horrible for description." Gilman wakes from another dream remembering "the thin, monotonous piping of an unseen flute", and decides that "he had picked up that last conception from what he had read in the Necronomicon about the mindless entity Azathoth, which rules all time and space from a curiously environed black throne at the centre of Chaos". He later fears finding himself "in the spiral black vortices of that ultimate void of Chaos wherein reigns the mindless daemon-sultan Azathoth".

The poet Edward Pickman Derby, the protagonist of Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep", is a poet whose collection of "nightmare lyrics" is called Azathoth and Other Horrors.

The last major reference in Lovecraft's fiction to Azathoth was in 1935's "The Haunter of the Dark", which tells of "the ancient legends of Ultimate Chaos, at whose center sprawls the blind idiot god Azathoth, Lord of All Things, encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and amorphous dancers, and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demonic flute held in nameless paws".

In a letter to a friend who jokingly claimed descent from Jupiter, Lovecraft drew up a detailed genealogy charting his and fellow writer Clark Ashton Smith's shared descent from Azathoth, through Lovecraft's creation Nyarlathotep and Clark-Smith's Tsathoggua, respectively. As nowhere stated in Lovecraft's published work, primordial Azathoth here is made ancestor, through his children Nyarlathotep, "The Nameless Mist," and "Darkness," of Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, Nug and Yeb, Cthulhu, Tsathoggua, several deities and monsters unmentioned outside the letter, and a few of Lovecraft's and Ashton-Smith's fancifully-posited human forebears.

The Azathoth Cycle
In 1995, Chaosium published The Azathoth Cycle, a Cthulhu Mythos anthology focusing on works referring to or inspired by the entity Azathoth. Edited by Lovecraft scholar Robert M. Price, the book includes an introduction by Price tracing the roots and development of the Blind Idiot God.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Azathoth


text:
Tokyo Stock Exchange

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (東京証券取引所), abbreviated as Tosho (東証) or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan.

The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (tyo: 8697), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of JPX. JPX was formed from merger of Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. with Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. (now Osaka Exchange, Inc. ); the merger process began in July 2012, when said merger was approved by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. JPX itself was launched on January 1, 2013.

Overview
The TSE is incorporated as a kabushiki gaisha (joint-stock company) with nine directors, four auditors and eight executive officers. Its headquarters are located at 2-1 Nihonbashi-Kabutochō, Chūō, Tokyo which is the largest financial district in Japan.

The main indices tracking the stock market of TSE are the Nikkei 225 index of companies selected by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan's largest business newspaper), the TOPIX index based on the share prices of Prime companies, and the J30 index of large industrial companies maintained by Japan's major broadsheet newspapers. There are also active bond market and futures market.

Ninety-four domestic and 10 foreign securities companies participate in TSE trading. See: Members of the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Press club
The exchange's press club, called the Kabuto Club (兜倶楽部), meets on the third floor of the TSE building. Most Kabuto Club members are affiliated with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Kyodo News, Jiji Press, or business television broadcasters such as Bloomberg LP and CNBC. The Kabuto Club is generally busiest during April and May, when public companies release their annual accounts.

Hours
The exchange's normal trading sessions are from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance. The exchange is closed for the following holidays: New Year's Day, Coming of Age Day, National Foundation Day, Vernal Equinox Day, Shōwa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day, Marine Day, Respect for the Aged Day, Autumnal Equinox, Health and Sports Day, Culture Day, Labour Thanksgiving Day, and The Emperor's Birthday.

First, Second and other Sections until April 4, 2022
Until April 4, 2022, corporate shares are listed and traded at Tokyo Stock Exchange in five market sections: the First Section which started when Tokyo Stock Exchange was re-established in 1949 and includes mainly large companies; the Second Section which started in 1961 and includes mainly mid-sized companies; JASDAQ (established in 1991, acquired by Osaka Stock Exchange in 2010, and absorbed into TSE in 2013) and Mothers (Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks, established at TSE in 1999) which are both for emerging companies; and TOKYO PRO Market which was established in 2009 jointly with London Stock Exchange as an Alternative Investment Market (Tokyo AIM) for small companies.

There were a total of 3,821 companies listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange, as of March 31, 2022.

Prime, Standard and Growth markets since April 4, 2022
Beginning April 4, 2022, the market divisions were restructured into the Prime, Standard and Growth market divisions, differentiated by market liquidity, corporate governance, and other criteria. Companies voluntarily selected their new division between September and December 2021, and the results were published on January 11, 2022. From the First Section, 1841 companies were transitioned into the Prime market and 344 companies were transitioned into the Standard market. All 474 companies in the Second Section were also transitioned into the Standard market. From JASDAQ, all 658 companies in its Standard subsection were transitioned into the Standard market and all 36 companies in the Growth subsection were transitioned into the Growth market, along with all 424 companies in the Mothers section.

There were a total of 3,899 companies listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange, as of 21 August 2023.

Prewar
The Tokyo Stock Exchange was established on May 15, 1878, as the Tokyo Kabushiki Torihikijo (東京株式取引所) under the direction of then-Finance Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu and capitalist advocate Shibusawa Eiichi. Trading began on June 1, 1878.

In 1943, the exchange was combined with eleven other stock exchanges in major Japanese cities to form a single Japanese Stock Exchange (日本証券取引所). The combined exchange was shut down on August 1, days before the bombing of Hiroshima.

Postwar
The Tokyo Stock Exchange reopened under its current Japanese name on May 16, 1949, pursuant to the new Securities Exchange Act.

The TSE runup from 1983 to 1990 was unprecedented, in 1990 it accounted for over 60% of the world's stock market capitalization (by far the world's largest) before falling precipitously in value and rank one of the 4th largest exchange in the world by market capitalization of listed shares.

The current TSE building was opened on May 23, 1988, replacing the original TSE building from 1931, and the trading floor of the TSE was closed on April 30, 1999, so that the exchange could switch to electronic trading for all transactions. A new facility, called TSE Arrows (東証アローズ), opened on May 9, 2000. In 2010, the TSE launched its Arrowhead trading facility.

In 2001, the TSE restructured itself as a kabushiki gaisha ("stock company"): before this time, it was structured as an incorporated association (社団法人) with its members as shareholders.

On 15 June 2007, the TSE paid $303 million to acquire a 4.99% stake in Singapore Exchange Ltd.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the TSE are developing jointly traded products and share technology, marking the latest cross-border deal among bourses as international competition heats up.

In July 2008, the LSE and the TSE announced a new joint venture Tokyo-based market, which will be based on the LSE's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Technology problems
The exchange was only able to operate for 90 minutes on November 1, 2005, due to bugs with a newly installed transactions system, developed by Fujitsu, which was supposed to help cope with higher trading volumes. The interruption in trading was the worst in the history of the exchange until October 1, 2020. Trading was suspended for four-and-a-half hours.

During the initial public offering of advertising giant Dentsu, in December 2001, a trader at UBS Warburg, the Swiss investment bank, sold 610,000 shares in this company at ¥6 each, while he intended to sell 16 shares at ¥600,000. The bank lost £71 million.

During yet another initial public offering, that of J-Com, on December 8, 2005, an employee at Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. mistakenly typed an order to sell 600,000 shares at ¥1 each, instead of an order to sell 1 share at ¥600,000. Mizuho failed to catch the error; the Tokyo Stock Exchange initially blocked attempts to cancel the order, resulting in a net loss of US$347 million to be shared between the exchange and Mizuho. Both companies are now trying to deal with their troubles: lack of error checking, lack of safeguards, lack of reliability, lack of transparency, lack of testing, loss of confidence, and loss of profits. On 11 December, the TSE acknowledged that its system was at fault in the Mizuho trade. On 21 December, Takuo Tsurushima, chief executive of the TSE, and two other senior executives resigned over the Mizuho affair.

On January 17, 2006, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.8%, its fastest drop in nine months, as investors sold stocks across the board in the wake of a raid by prosecutors on internet company livedoor. The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading 20 minutes before the close on January 18 due to the trade volume threatening to exceed the exchange's computer system's capacity of 4.5 million trades per day. This was called the "livedoor shock". The exchange quickly increased its order capacity to five million trades a day.

On October 9, 2018, one of the four gateways used for order entry was taken down after Merrill Lynch Japan Securities erroneously tried to establish a second connection after it had already connected. Even though brokerages have access to alternative gateways, the outage caused "delays in execution, correction and cancellation" for many securities firms including Daiwa Securities and Nomura.

On October 1, 2020, for the first time in its history as an all electronic exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange had to suspend trading in all shares for a whole day due to a technical glitch, causing buying and selling to freeze. This was announced just minutes before 9 a.m., when it was scheduled to open. The problem was found to be in "the system for relaying market information", hence making the glitch a network problem, but the Asahi Shimbun reported that the glitch was due to a mechanical failure. The issue stemmed back to the "Arrowhead" trading system and the inability to fail over to backup hardware. Other stock markets in Japan, including regional exchanges in Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo, also suspended trading because they used the same technology platform as the TSE. Meanwhile, derivatives on the OSE continued trading, with Nikkei futures ending the day 0.56% higher. Japan Exchange Group Inc., which operates the Tokyo Stock Exchange, said that the suspension would be indefinite until the problem was resolved. Normal trading was resumed the following day.

title: Tokyo Stock Exchange


text:
Skjaldbreiður

Skjaldbreiður (, "broad shield") is an Icelandic lava shield formed in a huge and quite protracted eruption series from about roughly 9,500 years ago. The extensive lava fields which were produced by this eruption, flowed southwards, and formed the basin of Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest lake, and Þingvellir, the "Parliament Plains" where the Icelandic national assembly, the Alþing was founded in 930.

The volcano summit is at 1066 m, and its crater measures roughly 300 metres in diameter. The Skjaldbreiður lava shield covers 170 km2 with a volume of about 13 km3. and is sometimes considered as a separate southern part of the Oddnýjarhnjúkur-Langjökull volcanic system which it is usually classified as being within. In this context its most recent eruption would be 3600 years ago, and the earliest eruption after the last ice age 10,200 years ago. There are at least three lava units deposited between 6000 and 9000 years BP,

Straddling the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the lava fields from Skjaldbreiður have been torn and twisted over the millennia, forming a multitude of fissures and rifts inside the Þingvellir National Park, the best known of which are Silfra, Almannagjá, Hrafnagjá and Flosagjá.

title: Skjaldbreiður


text:
Trampolining

Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more complex combinations of forward and/or backward somersaults and twists. Scoring is based on the difficulty and on the total seconds spent in the air. Points are deducted for bad form and horizontal displacement from the center of the bed.

Outside of the Olympics, competitions are referred to as gym sport, trampoline gymnastics, or gymnastics, which includes the events of trampoline, synchronised trampoline, double mini trampoline and tumbling.

Origins
In the early 1930s, George Nissen observed trapeze artistes performing tricks when bouncing off the safety net. He made the first modern trampoline in his garage to reproduce this on a smaller scale and used it to help with his diving and tumbling activities. He formed a company to build trampolines for sale and used a variant of the Spanish word trampolín (diving board) as a trademark. He used the trampoline to entertain audiences and also let them participate in his demonstrations as part of his marketing strategy. This was the beginning of a new sport.

In the United States, trampolining was quickly introduced into school physical education programs and was also used in private entertainment centers. Elsewhere in the world the sport was most strongly adopted in Europe and the former Soviet Union. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport in 2000, many more countries have started developing programs.

Basic landing positions
Competitive trampolining routines consist of combinations of 10 contacts with the trampoline bed combining varying rotations, twists and shapes with take-off and landing in one of four positions:

A routine must always start and finish on feet. In addition to the 10 contacts with the bed in a routine, competitors must start their routine within 60 seconds after presenting to the judges. They are also permitted up to one "out bounce", a straight jump to control their height at the end of a routine, before sticking the landing. The trampolinist must stop completely—this means that the bed must stop moving as well—and they have to hold still for a count of 3 seconds before moving.
 * Feet
 * Seat
 * Front
 * Back

Basic shapes
In competitions, moves must usually be performed in one of the following 3 basic shapes:

A fourth 'shape', known as 'puck' because it appears to be a hybrid of pike and tuck, is often used in multiple twisting somersaults—it is typically used in place of a 'tuck' and in the competition would normally be judged as an open tuck shape.

A straddle or straddled pike is a variant of a pike with arms and legs spread wide and is only recognized as a move as a shaped jump and not in any somersault moves.

Rotation is performed about the body's longitudinal and lateral axes, producing twists and somersaults respectively. Twists are done in multiples of a half and somersaults in multiples of a quarter. For example, a barani ball out move consists of a take-off from the back followed by a tucked 1¼ front somersault combined with a ½  twist, to land on feet. Rotation around the dorso-ventral axis is also possible (producing side-somersaults and "turntables"), but these are not generally considered to be valid moves within competitions and carry no 'tariff' for difficulty.

Trampoline skills can be written in FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) shorthand. FIG shorthand consists of one digit signifying the number of quarter rotations, followed by digits representing the number of half twists in each somersault, and a symbol representing the position of the skill. "/" represents a straight position, "<" represents a pike position, and "ο" represents a tuck position. For example, 42/ is a back somersault with a full twist in the straight position, 800ο is a double back somersault with no twists in the tuck position, and 821/ is a double somersault that has a full twist in the first full somersault and a half twist in the second full somersault while remaining in a straight position.

Individual
The first individual trampolining competitions were held in colleges and schools in the US and then in Europe. In the early years of competition there was no defined format with performers often completing lengthy routines and even remounting if falling off partway through. Gradually competitions became more codified such that by the 1950s the 10-bounce routine was the norm thereby paving the way for the first World Championships which were organised by Ted Blake of Nissen and held in London in 1964. The first World Champions were both American, Dan Millman and Judy Wills Cline. Kurt Baechler of Switzerland and Ted Blake of England were the European pioneers and the first ever televised National Championships were held in England in 1958.

Soon after the first World Championships, an inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt to explore the formation of an International Trampoline Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, the Federation was formally recognised as the International Governing Body for the sport. In 1969, the first European Championship was held in Paris and Paul Luxon of London was the winner at the age of 18. The ladies winner was Ute Czech from Germany. From that time until 2010, European and World Championships have taken place in alternate years—the European in the odd and the World in the even. Now the World Championships are held annually.

In 1973, Ted Blake organised the first World Age Group Competition (WAG) in the newly opened Picketts Lock Sports Centre; these now run alongside the World Championships. Blake also used the first WAG as an opportunity to organise a World Trampoline Safety Conference which was held in the Bloomsbury Hotel, London, in order to codify safety concerns. There is also a World Cup circuit of international competitions which involves a number of competitions every year. There are also international matches between teams from several countries.

At first the Americans were successful at World Championship level, but soon European competitors began to dominate the sport and for a number of years, athletes from countries that made up the former Soviet Union have often dominated the sport. Germany and France have been the other strong nations in trampolining and the first four ranking places in World Trampolining used to go to USSR, France, Britain and Germany. In recent years, Canada has also produced Olympic medalists and World champions due in large part to contributions made to the sport by Dave Ross. Ross pioneered the sport in Canada almost 30 years ago and has consistently produced Olympic and World Cup athletes and champions. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport, China has also made a very successful effort to develop world-class trampoline gymnasts, their first major success was in the 2007 Men's World Championship and later in both Men's and Women's gold medals and a bronze in the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing. Since then, they have won both World Championships and several Olympic medals.

Synchronized
In synchronized trampolining, two athletes perform exactly the same routine of ten skills at the same time on two adjacent trampolines. Each athlete is scored separately by a pair of judges for their form in the same manner as for individual competitions. Additional judges score the pair for synchronization. Fewer points are deducted for lack of synchronization if the pair are bouncing at the same height at the same time. The degree of difficulty of the routine is determined in the same way as for individual trampoline routines and the points added to the score to determine the winner.

Double mini
A double mini trampoline is smaller than a regulation competition trampoline. It has a sloped end and a flat bed. The gymnasts run up and jump onto the sloping end and then jump onto the flat part before dismounting onto a mat. Skills are performed during the jumps or as they dismount.

A double mini-trampoline competition consists of two types of pass. In the one, which is known as a mounter pass, the athlete performs one skill in the jump from the sloping end to the flat bed and a second skill as they dismount from the flat bed to the landing mat. In the second, which is known as a spotter pass, the athlete does a straight jump from the sloping end to the flat bed to gain height, then after landing on the flat, performs the first skill, then after landing on the flat a second time, performs a second skill as they dismount. These skills are similar to those performed on a regular trampoline except that there is forward movement along the trampoline.

The form and difficulty are judged in a similar manner as for trampolining but there are additional deductions for failing to land cleanly (without stepping) or landing outside a designated area on the mat.

Tumbling
Tumbling gymnastics is a further discipline of gymnastics competed at national and international events, usually alongside trampoline events. Instead of a sprung trampoline, competitors do a single, long complex tumbling and somersaulting combination along a straight, sprung runway, leading to a high final somersault onto a landing mat. The skills involved are very similar to those used in floor exercise or vault routines in artistic gymnastics, but with an extra emphasis on continuity and directional accuracy than in either of those events.

Tumbling is not an Olympic Games event but has been held as part of the European Games, as well as individual World and Continental Championships.

Format
The International Trampoline Federation became part of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique in 1999. FIG is now the international governing body for the sport which is paired with tumbling as the skill sets overlap. International competitions are run under the rules of FIG. Individual national gymnastics organizations can make local variations to the rules in matters such as the compulsory and optional routines and number of rounds for national and local competitions.

As part of the agreement to merge FIT with FIG, individual trampolining was accepted into the Summer Olympic Games for 2000 as an additional gymnastic sport.

The currently accepted basic format for individual trampoline competitions usually consists of two or three routines, one of which may involve a compulsory set of skills. The skills consist of various combinations of somersaults, shaped bounces, body landings and twists performed in various body positions such as the tuck, pike or straight position.

The routines are performed on a standard 14-foot-by-7-foot regulation-sized trampoline with a central marker. Each routine consists of the athlete performing ten different skills starting and finishing on the feet.

Scoring
The routine is marked out of 10 by five judges with deductions for incomplete moves or poor form. Usually, the highest and lowest scores are discarded. Additional points can be added depending on the difficulty of the skills being performed. The degree of difficulty (DD or tariff) is calculated by adding a factor for each half turn (or twist) or quarter somersault. Difficulty is important in a routine, however, there are differences in opinion between various coaches whether it is better to focus on increasing the difficulty of routines given that this usually results in a reduced form score or to focus on improving execution scores by displaying better form in an easier routine.

In senior level competitions, a "Time of Flight" (ToF) score was added to the overall score from 2010. This benefits athletes who can maintain greater height during their routines. "Time of Flight" is the time spent in the air from the moment the athlete leaves the mat until the time they make contact again and is measured with electronic timing equipment. The score given is the sum the time in seconds of all completed jumps. This is now mainly in all competitions, including Club, County and Regional, as it is a key factor in judging.

In 2017, the method of determining the horizontal displacement from the centre was changed, new markings were added to the bed and zones set up with deductions based on the distance from the centre of the trampoline bed. The score is determined by a deduction which is the sum of all the landing zone deductions subtracted from 10. The displacement is measured electronically where the equipment is available, or else by two judges observing the landing zones.

The total score is a combination of the degree of difficulty (DD) performed plus the total Time of Flight (ToF) minus standardized deductions for poor form and mistakes and the horizontal displacement.

Score records
The official world record DD for men at a FIG sanctioned event is 18.00, achieved by Jason Burnett of Canada on April 30, 2010, at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne, Australia. He beat his own world record of 17.50 that he had achieved on April 2, 2007, at the Lake Placid, New York, Trampoline World Cup. Burnett beat the twenty-year-old record of 17.00 by Igor Gelimbatovsky (USSR, 1986) and Daniel Neale (GBR, 1999). The top competitors usually perform routines with a DD of 16.5 or greater. In 2009 Jason Burnett completed a training routine with a DD of 20.6 at Skyriders Trampoline Place in Canada. The women's world record DD is 16.20 by Samantha Smith (CAN). The top women competitors usually compete routines with a DD greater than 14.50. The women's synchronised trampoline pair of Karen Cockburn and Rosannagh Maclennan also of Canada completed a new world record DD of 14.20 at the same April 2, 2007, Lake Placid World Cup.

Safety
Although trampoline competitors are highly trained, they are also attempting to perform complex manoeuvres which could lead to accidents and falls. Trampolines used in competitions have their springs covered in pads to reduce the chance of injury when landing off the bed. They also have padded end decks, which are the locations that athletes are most likely to fall off the trampoline. The rules for international competitions (updated by FIG in 2006) also require 200mm thick mats on the floor for 2 metres around each trampoline and for there to be four spotters whose task it is to attempt to catch or reduce the impact of an athlete falling off the side of the trampoline bed. The floor matting rules are typically adopted by national bodies but not always in full; for example, in the UK the requirement for National & Regional competition is still 2m but only of 20–25mm matting.

Teenage trampoline athletes are at higher risk of injury with higher training loads.

Among Olympic athletes at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 games, the injury rate for trampoline gymnasts was about half that for artistic gymnasts.

title: Trampolining