--- title: Free Guac! The Spirit Airlines of Burritos Stops Nickel and Diming Customers description: Chipotle rival Qdoba has started offering guacamole, vegetables, and other extras free of charge with entrees. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2014-10-03T20:09:44.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T04:29:46.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Burrito - Chipotle - fast casual - fees - Food & Drink - Guacamole - Qdoba - restaurants - Spirit Airlines word_count: 467 canonical: https://money.com/qdoba-chipotle-burritos-guacamole-charge-extra/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![chip and guacamole](https://img.money.com/2014/10/141003_em_qdoba.jpg?crop=0px%2C1487px%2C2413px%2C1355px&quality=85) It must be difficult to compete with Chipotle. The Mexican restaurant chain is widely credited as the godfather of the [ultra-hot fast-casual](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2111801,00.html) restaurant, the only [category flourishing](https://time.com/5425/the-only-kind-of-restaurant-flourishing-in-todays-economy/) in recent years, and the model blamed for stealing business away from [casual-dining](http://business.time.com/2014/01/10/red-lobster-may-be-cooked-casual-dining-restaurant-category-is-suffering/) and [fast food chains](https://time.com/65504/fast-food-breakfast/) alike. The Chipotle concept—customizable orders, high-quality ingredients, literal and figurative [transparency](http://business.time.com/2012/08/20/nothing-to-hide-why-restaurants-embrace-the-open-kitchen/) about what goes on in the kitchen—has been applied to [pizza](http://business.time.com/2012/10/01/can-the-chipotle-fast-casual-approach-work-for-pizza/), ["better" burgers](http://business.time.com/2011/09/22/fast-food-fight-the-battle-for-better-burger-supremacy/), and even [grilled cheese](http://business.time.com/2012/10/19/is-grilled-cheese-the-next-big-thing-in-fast-casual-restaurants/), and there's no sign of the business slowing down. Even after instituting a price hike earlier this year, Chipotle was able to post a 12% increase in store traffic and a [17% rise in same-store sales](http://nrn.com/operations/traffic-success-stories-chipotle) during the second quarter of 2014. Among the many Chipotle copycats is one that chose the unfortunate tactic of competing directly with it in terms of style of cuisine. [Qdoba Mexican Grill](http://www.qdoba.com/) was founded two years after Chipotle, in the same city where Chipotle was born (Denver). Both being "Mexican Grills," their menus are similar. But Chipotle holds a sizeable lead in terms of number of locations, by a count of roughly 1,600 to 600, and most importantly, Chipotle has the [consensus edge](http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/burrito-smackdown-chipotle-vs-qdoba-1588013798) in terms of quality and value. In fact, a [compelling argument](http://www.vox.com/2014/9/10/6131095/burrito-bracket-chipotle-taqueria) can be made that Chipotle makes America's best burrito bar none. Another thing keeping Qdoba's reputation as that of little more than a Chipotle knockoff was the way it nickel-and-dimed customers, [a la Spirit Airlines](http://business.time.com/2013/11/01/the-fee-crazed-airline-travelers-love-to-hate-keeps-piling-up-profits/), if they wanted to personalize orders. Like Chipotle, Qdoba charged extra for guacamole. But it also made fajita veggies and queso an add-on—which struck many customers as, well, pretty cheesy. But all of that changed as of Friday, when [Qdoba announced](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/qdoba-frees-the-flavor-extras-no-longer-cost-extra-2014-10-03) a simplified pricing structure in which guac, queso, fajita vegetables, chile BBQ sauce, and other extras could be added at no extra charge. "We heard complaints from guests and from team members," Tim Casey, brand president of Qdoba, told [*USA Today*](http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/02/qdoba-mexican-grill-fast-food-restaurants-free-extras/16545905/). "They view (the extra charges) as nickel-and-diming them." Yes, customers are funny that way: When they're getting nickel-and-dimed with upsells, they view it like they're being nickel-and-dimed with upsells. Earlier this year, the executives in charge of pricing at sister ice cream chains [Maggie Moo's and Marble Slab](https://money.com/ice-cream-deals-summer-2014/) likewise instituted a flat pricing structure with unlimited "mix-ins" after "discovering" that customers hated getting charged extra for every little extra ingredient. What makes Qdoba's move especially interesting is that free extras—guacamole especially—represent a point of separation and perhaps superior value when compared with top dog Chipotle. In recent months, a strange ["I Know That Guacamole Is Extra" meme](http://www.businessinsider.com/chipotle-guacamole-is-an-extra-charge-2014-7) made the rounds, referring to Chipotle's relentless reminding of customers that, well, guacamole costs extra. Around $2 extra, in fact. At Qdoba now, however, guacamole is free, and Qdoba surely hopes that some other meme takes root and spreads the word. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/qdoba-chipotle-burritos-guacamole-charge-extra/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Restaurants", "item": "https://money.com/restaurants/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Free Guac! 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