There is a Chipotle about 1/2 mile from my office. Doesn't ever seem busy, certainly not compared to the lines out the door that they used to have around the country. I haven't spent a dime there in the last 12 months.
(As an aside, our area seems to be getting tons of "expensive lunch places" where you order at a counter, spend $10+ on lunch, and then carry your food on a tray/drink out of a disposable cup/ use plastic utensils types of places. I don't know who routinely budgets in excess of $10 for lunch, so the market seems to be limited, and would compete with the Chipotle allocated lunch budgets. The places that seem to be getting built are Zupas and Paneras, which are both a Soup-Salad-Sandwhich type of place.)
For burritos, Qdoba offers a better product than Chipotle. Chipotle started as a little burrito place here in Denver in a building they couldn't afford to make "pretty" so they did the cheesy galvanized steel wavy stuff and stainless steel tops on homemade tables thing -- and it added something "interesting" to a hole in the wall burrito shop, but extending that to mass produced interiors of that style never did it for me. Their food was "above okay" but nothing to write home about, but when they started there weren't a lot of consistent quality grab and go burrito places. Nowadays you can't throw a rock and not hit a burrito chain of some sort.
So standard business problem. Do something kinda new and different and then get copied and one-upped. They didn't keep up and then the modern media just hammered them over the food cleanliness problem. Instant second fiddle or third fiddle and they have to DO something to win back their reputation.
I think their CEO is off base. They never had anything but fast food burritos and people assembling them cafeteria style behind a sneeze guard isn't ever going to be some sort of "fine dining" experience. I want a burrito, I want it to taste good, I want the table clean, and I want to GTFO. I don't care about any "experience". And I want it at a reasonable price tag.
Sandwiches: Another place where the copycats are kicking the original butt. Subway is hosed. Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, and WhichWich are all better food for the dollar. I noticed I don't have any interest in a Subway sub much anymore, but I'll go out of my way to find a Jersey Mike's. Subway is now on the bottom of the list and I'll only go in there for the $5 foot long deal if it's what I want and I want to be ultra cheap.
Fancy soup and sandwich: Happening there too. Panera holds the market for now, but Kneaders is knocking on their back door. Bakery goods at Kneaders are way more varied and more popular items like good take home bread already stocked in a rack out front and far more "dessert" type items.
Both are tasty and overpriced, but it's going to be easier to stop at a Kneaders and grab a nice loaf of bread for homemade sandwiches and oh ok, while we are here, I'll eat something too...
The also-ran in that category is Einstein Brothers. Still too much of a bagel shop, but if you want Lox and Bagel and don't have a Jewish deli anywhere nearby, the others won't have that. Not done right anyway.
The other growing sleeper in the lunch market is Tokyo Joe's. They're serving really good food and holy hell, real veggies, for a reasonable price.
Panda Express is kinda their only competition, and they have good offerings which aren't nearly as healthy, so they're not going anywhere -- they're the junk food version of TJ and doing fine. Plus who can't resist Orange Chicken?
Watch for Torchy's Tacos coming to a strip mall near you. The "upscale taco" is going to take off. And they're hella good. Not cheap but way better than most taco chains.
And of all crazy things, Chilis seems to have recovered from total mediocrity and worked their butts off on their menu -- and lowered prices or held seafood stuff steady during tough times. They're a great casual dining value these days.
Darden can't seem to get out of their own way and execute -- but after a LOT of failed restaurant brands, Brinker finally learned to focus on Chilis and Maggianos.
Back in 2009 with Ford, GM, TXT, and a few other big stocks around $1-2, I had the thought of shifting some of my investments over to there. If I had my finances would be in a very good spot.
I wanted Ford so bad back then and didn't have the free cash to do it. They were nearly guaranteed a comeback, even before they announced that they didn't take bailout money willingly.
They were missing on their diesel trucks but would eventually fix it, and starting to hit big on compact bubble cars and were investing to dump the boxy old stuff. They really executed well.
GM STILL hasn't got a new design any newer than their pre-bailout stuff. They keep making the same cars they always made. Ford is soundly kicking their ass. Oh look, another Yukon rolled off the GM line. Yay. I already have one of those and it's 12 years old and nothing of significance has changed. Ford both managed their money properly and took reasonable risks. EcoBoost is still a little risky but in general, it's a hit. (Still have the fouling issues in the intake manifolds and no engineering approved way to clean them without damaging the turbo...)
In fact, if you look at even the Japanese makers, nothing revolutionary is going on in their stuff. Today's Carolla and Tacoma follow tried and true formulas that haven't changed much in over a decade.
Oh well. Water way way under the bridge. Would have loved to have owned some "F" though. It was very clear they were the only big manufacturer that was trying new things where new was warranted, and keeping old things that did the job flawlessly.
They didn't just sit back and keep releasing the same old stuff.
Like everything else it has its ups and downs but I work from home 1 - 2 hours a day and it allows me to own planes so I'm good with it 
