Chipotle has locations in a variety of formats, whether it’s the traditional standalone, inside a mall, or even out of a ghost kitchen.
But for a few days in October, the fast-casual giant will debut a restaurant at an unprecedented location—inside of an online gaming platform.
In honor of its 21st annual Boorito Halloween event, Chipotle will open a virtual store on Roblox, a website that allows users to create and share games with others. Gamers can enter the virtual location by visiting https://www.roblox.com/chipotle from October 28 through October 31, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Prior to entering the video game restaurant, users will dress up their Roblox avatar with Chipotle-inspired costumes and accessories, such as a Chip Bag Ghost, Burrito Mummy, Spicy Devil, Guacenstein, and more.
After selecting a costume, gamers will enter the restaurant and receive a promo code for a free burrito from the digital cashier if they are one of the first 30,000 visitors for the day. If a user is not among the 30,000, they will be instructed to use promo code “BOORITO” to receive a $5 burrito, bowl, salad, or taco entrée on Halloween from 5 p.m. until closing. In total, Chipotle will give away roughly $1 million worth of burritos during the multi-day virtual event. Each player is limited to one free burrito.
After leaving the restaurant, gamers move to the Chipotle Boorito Maze where they collect ingredients that give them powers to avoid monsters and reach the center of the maze, where they will have access to free and exclusive Chipotle-themed virtual items for their avatar.
In previous years, Chipotle customers could dress up in costumes and visit restaurants in person to receive special deals, but this year, the opportunity is digitally exclusive.
“As a digital innovator, we are always experimenting on new platforms to meet our guests where they are,” said CMO Chris Brandt in a statement. “Roblox’s popularity has boomed over the past year, and we know our fans will be excited to celebrate the next evolution of Boorito in the metaverse.”
The innovation is another example of Chipotle leveraging social entertainment platforms to reach younger audiences. This summer, the chain became the exclusive restaurant partner for Twitch, a live streaming gaming platform. Also, in July, the fast casual utilized quickly growing social media platform TikTok to gather more applicants from potential Gen Z employees.
