U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is America's longest-serving independent politician in Congress. He is well known for his progressive ideas and his consistent tax criticisms of the rich, which often includes lashing out at executives from some of the country's largest companies. Well, the Vermont Senator is at it again.
What Happened: Sanders targeted Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) with his latest tweet, calling the company out for its "corporate greed" practices.
"Corporate greed is Chipotle increasing its profits by 181% last year to $764 million, giving its CEO a 137% pay raise to $38 million in 2020 and blaming the rising cost of a burrito on a minimum wage worker who got a 50 cent pay raise," Sanders said. "That's not inflation. That's price gouging."
Chipotle shares traded higher after the company announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year financial results earlier this week.
The company reported net income of $653 million for 2021, up from $355.8 million in 2020, while adjusted net income totaled $724.8 million.
Chipotle noted that its lower food, beverage and packaging costs were a result of leverage from menu price increases, partially offset by higher freight and beef costs. Restaurant level operating margin increased from 17.4% in 2020 to 22.6% in 2021, primarily driven by leverage from comparable restaurant sales and again, menu price increases.
Chipotle did say that its rising menu prices were partially offset by wage inflation, but also by "higher commodity inflation primarily from freight and beef, as well as increased delivery expenses."
See Also: Chipotle Mexican Grill: Q4 Earnings Insights
Why It Matters: Sanders made headlines last year following criticism of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. Bezos and Musk didn't hesitate to fire back at Sanders.
Bezos reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of aggressiveness from Amazon officials after Sanders tweeted about the company’s labor and business practices. Amazon officials pushed back shortly after.
"I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace," Amazon Retail CEO Dave Clark said on Twitter. The @AmazonNews twitter account also defended the company in a series of snarky tweets directed at Sanders and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
When Sanders took to Twitter to urge people to demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, Musk quickly snapped back.
"I keep forgetting that you’re still alive," Musk responded, before following it up with another sarcastic response.
Ok, how much do you think is fair? Does 53% seem reasonable?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2021
It remains to be seen if Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol will follow in the footsteps of Bezos and Musk and engage with Sanders on Twitter. At very least, it seems waging a Twitter war with a U.S. Senator hasn't negatively impacted the duo, as the pair of execs remain atop the Forbes' Billionaires List.
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Flickr.
