
Chipotle to launch Adobo Ranch dip after sluggish start to the year
Chipotle Mexican Grill is hoping that Americans' love for ranch will boost its sales.
On June 17, the burrito chain is launching Adobo Ranch, a spicier take on the iconic condiment that has transcended salads to adorn pizza, chicken wings and chips. The menu item is Chipotle's first new dip since queso blanco, which launched in 2020.
The debut comes as Chipotle tries to recover from a rough start to the year. In the first quarter, the company reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020. Executives cited a pullback from consumers who had become more concerned about the economy.
The company also lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth and said traffic wouldn't grow until the second half of the year.
Shares of Chipotle have fallen 12% this year, dragging its market cap down to $71 billion.
But Adobo Ranch could help to boost the company's sales if it draws cautious diners back to the chain's restaurants.
The dipping sauce is made with adobo peppers, sour cream and herbs and spices, according to the company. Adding Adobo Ranch to an order will cost an extra 75 cents.
Ranch outsells ketchup, although NIQ retail sales data shows that mayo still holds the top spot as the favorite condiment of U.S. consumers.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
GOP student loan overhaul is getting closer to becoming law
Read more: Republicans propose massive overhaul of student loans, Pell Grants The Senate's version of the legislation is less aggressive than the bill that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced in late April. While it will likely be further watered down due to congressional budget rules, the scope of the legislation indicates big changes will be enacted soon to how Americans pay for college. Student loan caps proposed When President Donald Trump asked Republicans to find billions of dollars in federal spending cuts, GOP lawmakers in the House drew up measures to eliminate or dramatically curb many student loan programs. In April, they proposed cutting subsidized loans altogether for undergraduates. When students take out a federal direct subsidized loan, the government pays the interest while they're in school (and for a short grace period after the students complete their studies). That idea didn't survive in the Senate version of the bill, which was expected to be slightly more moderate than the House proposal. Read more: Could Trump fail on tax bill? Why going 'big' doesn't always work out as planned Other elements of the House version remain, however. Like the House bill, the Senate measure proposes cutting the number of student loan repayment plans to just two. That change would kill President Joe Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, program, which former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona repeatedly called the "most affordable repayment plan ever." SAVE has been stalled in court for months, placing roughly 8 million people in forbearance. The Senate bill would also dramatically curb lending for graduate students and parents (though at lower caps than House Republicans wanted). Ben Cecil, a senior education policy advisor at Third Way, a center-left think tank, said he was pleased to see the bill appeared to make compromises. "These loan limits are much more reasonable," he said. Melanie Storey, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said she was "relieved" some of the "most harmful" provisions of the House bill had been nixed. "Still, there are several concerning aspects of this bill that would ultimately make college less affordable for students," she said, including changes that "may drive borrowers to riskier private loans, which are not available to all borrowers." Less concern over Pell Grants One of college access groups' biggest criticisms of the initial bill was a significant change to Pell Grants, federal subsidies that help lower-income students pay for college. House Republicans wanted to increase the number of credits students would need to take each semester to be eligible for Pell Grants. The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, estimated that two out of three Pell recipients could've lost their grants or received smaller ones if that requirement were enacted. The Senate version takes a softer approach, codifying a provision to more fully exclude higher-income students qualify for Pell funds. At the same time, the bill expands Pell Grants in ways that could waste money, according to critics such as Sameer Gadkaree, president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a college affordability group. "While the Senate nixed most of the House's proposed cuts to the Pell Grant program and averts a looming funding shortfall, it regrettably threatens the program's long-term stability by extending Pell eligibility to unaccredited programs that are unlikely to pay off for students," Gadkaree said in a statement. New accountability rules One of the biggest distinctions between the House and Senate versions of the bill is that they lay out two entirely different sets of new accountability rules for colleges. The House proposal would fine colleges for leaving students on the hook for unpaid student loan debt. The Senate's framework suggests taking federal financial aid away from college programs if they can't prove that students who graduate are earning more than they would have without a degree. Mike Itzkowitz, who served in the Education Department under President Barack Obama, said that concept has bipartisan support. "I don't know anyone who would be willing to fork over their time to take on loans to earn less than a high school graduate," he said. But it's possible that particular provision won't survive special Senate rules. To avoid needing the support of Democrats, Republicans are trying to pass Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" using the budget process. That strategy comes with challenges. However, the bill must only make changes that spend money or save money. Significant reforms to college oversight might go too far, said Jon Fansmith, the senior vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, the main association for colleges and universities. "This process isn't designed to do complicated policymaking," he said. "I really do worry about rushing something through without understanding what we're doing." Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @


The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
Major airlines may have been secretly selling your flight data to DHS, report claims
Americans' flight data may have been sold to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without their knowledge, internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media suggest. A data broker, the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), owned by several of the top airlines in the U.S., including Delta, American Airlines, and United, reportedly gathered the flight records of U.S. travelers and sold access to CBP. Part of the contract was that CBP wasn't allowed to share where the data had originated from, the report says. The data included passengers' names, itineraries, and financial information, according to Wired. CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The agency has stated that it requires the data to support state and local law enforcement in tracking individuals of interest. This comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outlined how it also bought the data. 'The big airlines—through a shady data broker that they own called ARC—are selling the government bulk access to Americans' sensitive information, revealing where they fly and the credit card they used,' Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement. "ARC has refused to answer oversight questions from Congress, so I have already contacted the major airlines that own ARC—like Delta, American Airlines, and United—to find out why they gave the green light to sell their customers' data to the government." Publicly shared documents show that ARC is owned and operated by at least eight top U.S. airlines. Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, as well as European airlines Lufthansa and Air France, in addition to Air Canada, all have representatives on the company's board of directors. Over 240 airlines use ARC's services for ticket settlement. The company also connects airlines and travel agencies, locating travel trends with other companies such as Expedia. It also provides fraud prevention, the ARC YouTube channel and website show. The selling of travel information is conducted via the company's Travel Intelligence Program (TIP). The documents obtained by 404 Media via a Freedom of Information Act request state that CBP needed access to the information 'to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest's US domestic air travel ticketing information.' The documents reveal that ARC asked CBP to 'not publicly identify vendor, or its employees, individually or collectively, as the source of the Reports unless the Customer is compelled to do so by a valid court order or subpoena and gives ARC immediate notice of same.' The data delivers 'visibility on a subject's or person of interest's domestic air travel ticketing information as well as tickets acquired through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories,' the documents state. According to a DHS Privacy Impact Assessment, the data is updated daily and includes more than a billion records over the course of 39 months of travel, both past and future. TIP can be searched using names, credit cards, or airlines. However, the data only includes travel arrangements made using a travel agency accredited by ARC, such as Expedia. 'If the passenger buys a ticket directly from the airline, then the search done by ICE will not show up in an ARC report,' the assessment states. It also says that data is included on both U.S. and non-U.S. persons. The deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, Jake Laperruque, told 404 Media that 'While obtaining domestic airline data—like many other transaction and purchase records—generally doesn't require a warrant, they're still supposed to go through a legal process that ensures independent oversight and limits data collection to records that will support an investigation.' 'The government seems intent on using data brokers to buy their way around important guardrails and limits,' he added. A spokesperson for CBP told Wired that the agency 'is committed to protecting individuals' privacy during the execution of its mission to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation's economic prosperity.' 'CBP follows a robust privacy policy as we protect the homeland through the air, land and maritime environments against illegal entry, illicit activity or other threats to national sovereignty and economic security,' the spokesperson added. ARC earlier told The Lever that TIP 'was established after the September 11 terrorist attacks to provide certain data to law enforcement … for the purpose of national security matters' and criminal probes.


NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Inflation report expected to show whether companies heeded Trump's call to 'eat' tariff costs
The president wants U.S. firms to 'eat' the cost of his tariffs. Fresh price-growth data will show whether he's getting his wish. The monthly inflation report set to be released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to provide the most definitive look yet at whether U.S. companies are passing the cost of President Donald Trump's higher import duties on to customers. And there's some anticipation that inflation has ticked up. The Consumer Price Index, which tracks changes in prices for consumer goods and services, is forecast to show a 12-month increase of 2.4% in May, compared with a 2.3% annual pace in April, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. 'Core' inflation, a measure closely watched by economists that excludes prices for food and energy, which tend to fluctuate more, is expected to rise 2.9% over the year, up from 2.8% in April. The core month-on-month reading was expected to climb to 0.3% from 0.2% in April. The president's on-again, off-again tariffs and trade-deal announcements have scrambled the spending plans of businesses and consumers. As a result, sentiment surveys have shown deteriorating confidence since April, when Trump rolled out his 'Liberation Day' tariffs that reset the base U.S. import duty level to 10%. Trump campaigned on promises to bring price relief to Americans, but economists say his tariffs by definition will lead to price increases. As price pressures from the tariffs have begun to build, businesses are signaling they will pass along higher prices to customers — in spite of Trump's warnings not to do so. Walmart said last month that consumers would soon start seeing higher costs. The National Federation of Independent Businesses reported Tuesday that a net 31% of its surveyed members planned price hikes last month, up from 28% in April. 'Walmart making their announcement that customers are going to start seeing higher prices really underscores how businesses are starting to feel this,' said Stephen Kates, financial analyst with Bankrate. 'And if the largest businesses are saying this, smaller businesses are definitely feeling it, too — there's no way around that fact.' Walmart responded to Trump's threats by saying it would 'keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins.' Price inflation is already hitting other parts of the economy. In May, U.S. factories registered the highest share of price-increase reports since November 2022, S&P Global, a data and business consultancy group, said last week. And firms quoted in the Institute of Supply Management's latest manufacturing report noted the president's tariffs have wreaked havoc on their ability to plan for the future as they deal with the prospect of higher costs. If there has been any price relief, it is likely the result of an overall slowing economy, analysts say, with a weakening labor market forcing consumers to cut back on spending. The pace of airfare, hotel and gas-price growth was likely lower in May as customers reduced their travel, with new Bank of America data showing spending rates remain below levels seen before Trump took office. Even if May's price-growth data comes in milder than expected, economists say past experience suggests the coming months will more fully capture the impact from the tariffs. In a note to clients this week, Pantheon Macroeconomics analysts said it took a full three months before the price increases from Trump's 2018 washing machine tariffs showed up in data — but that when they did, the pass-through was 'rapid and complete.' That suggests it would take until July for the tariffs — the bulk of which were announced in April — to begin to fully appear. Even if the pace of price growth is no longer at the pace seen in 2022, when inflation rates reached levels not seen in decades, Bankrate's Kates said consumers are still going to be left smarting. 'It's going to be a persistent itch that doesn't go away,' Kates said.