Chipotle Mexican Grill is now offering happy hour deals on alcohol to help increase sales after an E. Coli outbreak hit several stores and severely hurt their bottom line.
The Mexican food chain will be offering either two-for-one, or half-off drink specials from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, Business Insider reported Tuesday.
The happy hour deals from Chipotle come in response to an E. Coli outbreak that swept through many of its stores in 2015. In total, 14 states were affected by the outbreak and the chain ultimately closed 43 stores, even closing all stores for one day in February to address the issue.
While the Center for Disease Control and Prevention officially declared the outbreak over in February, the chain has not been able to get back to the same level of profitably it saw prior. Chipotle reported their first quarterly loss since going public in 2006 during the last quarter of 2015, which saw a staggering 44 percent drop from the previous years profits. While sales were marginally better during the first quarter of 2016, they still reported a 30 percent loss in revenue.
The cheap booze campaign couples with another hopeful revenue generator for the chain. In June, Chipotle introduced a temporary rewards program, called “Chiptopia Summer Rewards,” that allows return customers to earn points which can be used to gain free meals.
Chipotle did not respond to emails from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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