A new Chipotle Mexican Grill is set to open Tuesday at 5467 Wales Ave. NW in Massillon, marking the city's third location for the burrito chain. The restaurant, situated on the southwest corner of Wales and Fulton Road NW, will feature a Chipotlane drive-through pick-up lane that lets customers grab prepaid digital orders without leaving their vehicles.
The opening was first reported by Cleveland.com, which noted the new spot will run from 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and joins existing Massillon locations on Tommy Henrich Drive NW and Lincoln Way East. Chipotle is also hiring employees for the Wales Avenue store, according to the same report. The chain now counts about 270 locations across Ohio and more than 3,900 nationwide.
A Drive-Thru Built for Phones, Not Speaker Boxes
Unlike a traditional fast-food lane, the Chipotlane skips the ordering speaker and menu board entirely, since customers pay ahead through the Chipotle app or website. Chipotlane pickup windows let mobile customers collect prepaid orders in under 30 seconds on average, compared with more than 200 seconds at a typical drive-thru lane, according to CX Dive. The design reflects how central digital orders have become to the chain's business, with mobile app, online, and delivery sales making up 38.6% of Chipotle's total food and beverage revenue in the first quarter of 2026, per the company's own first-quarter results.
The Massillon build also fits Chipotle's current construction playbook. Roughly 80% of new Chipotle restaurants opened in 2025 and 2026 include a dedicated Chipotlane, with 42 of 49 new company-owned locations in the first quarter of 2026 alone featuring one. In fiscal 2025, Chipotle opened 334 company-owned restaurants globally, 257 of them with a Chipotlane, helping push annual revenue up 5.4% to $11.9 billion.
Part of a Bigger Ohio and National Push
Massillon's third Chipotle is a small piece of a much larger expansion plan. Chief Executive Officer Scott Boatwright reaffirmed during the company's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings report that Chipotle is targeting 7,000 restaurants across North America, up from more than 4,000 active global locations as of early 2026, according to Seeking Alpha. Chipotle operates every one of its North American restaurants as a corporate-owned location rather than a franchise, a model the chain has kept since Steve Ells founded it in Denver in 1993.
That corporate structure means hiring and benefits at the new Wales Avenue store trace directly back to company policy rather than a local franchisee. Chipotle offers hourly restaurant workers up to $5,250 a year in tuition reimbursement, plus fully covered tuition for select debt-free degree programs through Guild Education after 120 days on the job, according to Learn.org. The company also promotes more than 80% of its restaurant managers from entry-level crew positions, having logged over 23,000 internal promotions companywide in 2025.
Chipotle's Ohio footprint extends beyond its restaurants. Even though the company moved its executive headquarters to Newport Beach, California, in 2018, it still runs a Shared Services Center in Columbus that employs more than 250 corporate support staff.
A Deal Timed to the Opening
Customers heading to any Chipotle, including the new Massillon location, can take advantage of the chain's Chipotle Sundays promotion on August 30 and September 6. Shoppers who order two or more entrées after 3 p.m. through the Chipotle app or website and enter the code SUNDAYS can get a free entrée added to their order.
