Chipotle Reprimands Woman For Changing Baby On Restaurant Dining Table
The phrase “the customer is always right” is not always right — at least it was not for one woman in the Midwest who was criticized for choosing to use a Chipotle dining table as a changing station for her daughter.
The woman in question was having a meal when she realized her 16-month-old needed to be changed. The restaurant does not have a changing room in its bathroom. Seeing no better alternative, the woman took to replacing her daughter’s dirty diaper with a clean one on one of the tables in the dining area, only to be reprimanded by the staff.
The restaurant warned the family that they would be asked to leave if they repeated the action, prompting the woman’s husband, Chad, to write a letter to Chipotle in which he criticized the staff for showing no understanding over their dilemma.
Though he admits that his wife’s choice to change their daughter may have struck some customers as “unsavory,” he says the staff was completely out of line for their “inability/unwillingness to empathize with parents who find [the car] a less convenient alternative even on a beautiful day like yesterday, much less a subfreezing day as we undoubtedly will have in [this region] this winter," he wrote in a letter, part of which was published by the Consumerist.
But online users are also criticizing the woman's actions, calling them disgusting and saying that they violate restaurant health and safety standards. “I am DISINTERESTED in diaper smell while I munch on fries,” said one blogger on Mommyish. “I don't poop on your table so keep your kid's poop AWAY FROM MINE.”
Some have also pointed out that there are other options, such as changing your baby on the bathroom floor, going to another place with a changing room, and have even defended the notion of changing babies in cars.
“I hate when the restaurant doesn't have a changing table, but generally the bathroom still has a floor,” said another blogger on the same site. “I've changed my baby on a blanket on the floor multiple times. Or in the backseat of the car. There are many, many options. Especially with a 16 month old who could easily just stand there.”
Others, though, have been more sympathetic. “I would also never change a diaper on the table of a restaurant,” said one person in a comment on Eater, “but, should parents be forced to leave the restaurant to go to their car to change their baby or leave the baby soiled until after you’re finished eating? Come on! If an establishment is supposed to be "family-friendly," not having a diaper changer in their restroom is most certainly contradictive of that.”
Whether wrong or right, the woman’s actions call to question as to why Chipotle does not offer changing stations in its facilities. Danielle Winslow, a representative of Chipotle’s public relations and marketing department says the company is testing changing rooms in some restaurants and will install more in new Chipotle establishments. Chad told the Consumerist that the restaurant she was in opened in the last year or so.
“We are testing changing tables in a handful of restaurants now, and our design team is looking to incorporate them into new restaurants that are in locations where we are likely to see a high concentration of families as customers,” she said in an email.
The company has responded to Chad, emphasizing that it understands their dilemma and apologizes for any inconvenience.