Chipotle's E. Coli Disaster Was Qdoba's Gain, New Data Shows

The latest data from TickerTags shows that the E. coli scare at Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) may have created a market share opportunity for rival Qdoba and parent company Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK).

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words or phrases that are found together in social media content, such as tweets.

Since the beginning of November, there have been multiple spikes in social media content that include mentions of both Chipotle and Qboda, much of which presents Qboda in a favorable light.

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Conversely, Chipotle’s downfall has also been clearly chronicled on social media. The graph below shows the downward trend in Chipotle’s stock being mirrored by steep falloffs in the number of times “Chipotle” has been mentioned alongside “line” “lunch” and “dinner” on social media sites since the E. coli scare began.

If Chipotle’s stock is going to recover to its previous levels, the company is first going to have to find a way to get its social media buzz trending in the right direction again.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.

Image Credit:By 2008-10-05_Chipotle_Mexican_Grill_in_Durham.jpg: Ildar Sagdejev (Specious)derivative work: AngryApathy (2008-10-05_Chipotle_Mexican_Grill_in_Durham.jpg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons