Chipotle Considering Drive-Thru Windows, Breakfast Options

Guys, your favorite neighborhood Chipotle might end up like every other fast-food restaurant out there: hawking breakfast options and drive-thrus.

Bloomberg reports that since Chipotle sales have gone down, founder Steve Ells is considering options including running more commercials, adding breakfast items, and installing drive-thru windows. And while this might boost sales, some analysts feel this will detract from Chipotle's brand of fast, good-quality Mexican food.

"You have to be careful of the death by a thousand cuts, where you're making a series of decisions that might have little compromises," marketing professor Kevin Lane Keller told Bloomberg. In fact, Ells has reportedly said Chipotle would never become a fast-food joint, but a drive-thru window in particular would interrupt Chipotle's production-line service, ruining everyone's chances of asking for extra corn salsa on their burrito bowl at the last minute.

Of course, the drive-thru addition might boost sales. Bloomberg notes that U.S. fast-food chains generated 24 percent of sales through drive-thrus in the past year (ending in August). On the bright side, we wouldn't mind Chipotle breakfast burritos.