Jon Quast

But are those next 3,000 locations going to be as high of sale volume, as high quality as the last 4,000?

That's really the question.

If it's adding a lot of underperforming new stores, then

it does drag down the profits.

I think it's a little bit dismissive to say that people aren't eating out as much.

There's definitely some shifts happening in the market.

We're seeing some of those more family-oriented casual dining chains doing a little bit better than they have in times past.

It seems like there's some shifts happening.

I will say with Chipotle, one of the interesting things is, it's in a very strong financial position.

That makes it very hard to count it out.

It's still earned $1.5 billion in net income over the past year.

It has $1.8 billion in cash and investments, no debt other than its lease liability.

It's still in a great position that it can pivot the business as it needs to, and it can still give cash back to shareholders.

I'd be very hesitant to say Chipotle's best days are over.

Well, price does matter, in particular, the bigger that the company gets and the lower the long-term growth prospects become.

Absolutely.

To quote the great Warren Buffett, growth is a component of value.

If you're going to calculate what is a good valuation for a company, you need to also be able to calculate what are the realistic growth prospects.

When you have a small company, yeah, growth is going to be a lot easier than a large company looking to do the same thing.

Absolutely.