4 ms·

I went on a Sweetgreen phase earlier this year, and I'm so surprised that they can't seem to make any money. Most of their business appears to be delivery via a

by jerlam 2y ago

I went on a Sweetgreen phase earlier this year, and I'm so surprised that they can't seem to make any money. Most of their business appears to be delivery via apps, so they have minimal front-end staff. Their food wasn't uniquely great, just fresh and overpriced. There was always a line. They have low amounts of seating, so lower real estate costs than somewhere like Chipotle.

darth_avocado 2y ago
> Their food wasn't uniquely great, just fresh and overpriced. Sweetgreen originally was chef designed salads. They had fresh unique salads, a little pricey, but still accessible to the masses. Their popularity was because their salads tasted great. Unfortunately they pivoted to a business model of maximum profitability, which meant removing a lot of salads that took longer to prep for and streamlined the ingredients. In the process, they kept the mediocre stuff that tasted okay and removed unique and tastier stuff. You get the sweet greens version of cobb and Caesar, meanwhile their Mediterranean and Mexican salads were gone. They pivoted so hard that they no longer meet their original selling point.
- jdminhbg 2y ago
  > Unfortunately they pivoted to a business model of maximum profitability Based on the article, they still haven't manage to pivot to any profitability.
  - zeroonetwothree 2y ago
    I suppose the maximum profitability could still be negative
- infecto 2y ago
  The company is still unprofitable so perhaps the thing you enjoyed cannot be had at a price consumers are willing to pay.
  - darth_avocado 2y ago
    Unfortunately, there are many sweetgreen rip offs in my city that offer the original sweetgreen experience at the same price point. Which makes me think, either sweetgreen isn't managed well or the other places are also losing money (which doesn't make much business sense).
    - infecto 2y ago
      Hard to say what the apples to apples comparison is. The biggest difference most likely with those copy cat clones is the food supply chain. Not sure how much it has changed but one of sweetgreen's challenges has been working closer to the farm which can be more costly and harder to scale across geographies. The clones may just be getting everything from sysco. I don't follow sweetgreen very well and it could very well be mismanaged but I suspect those clones you see are apple to oranges in comparison.
      - darth_avocado 2y ago
        Maybe. I would like them to do a market research on what % of their customers would pay $17 for a Caesar salad for their lettuce to come from a local farm and what % would prefer to pay $17 for a tasty salad curated by a chef, but with not all ingredients sourced locally. And once they have that info, I'd like them to decide which one of the two they are from a mission perspective. Nothing wrong with being either, as long as the expectations are set.
        infecto 2y ago
        I think they already decided? Maybe it does not work out for them but I thought this was always there pitch and along with it higher labor and food costs. Labor because they were having to do more of the prep work in-house instead of via the food distributor.
annoyingnoob 2y ago
I tried Sweetgreen a couple of times. The food was okay but overpriced, probably would go back but for the staff. The staff was just not nice at all, for no reason, twice. If you don't appreciate your customers then you won't stay in business, a simple smile isn't a lot to ask, just be nice that's it. If you are going to put a frowning, seemingly annoyed, human at the front then maybe just go with self-checkout.
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  thank god i don't have to work a customer facing job, customers sound insufferable
  - annoyingnoob 2y ago
    Insufferable because I smiled, said hello, spent money with you, and expected a smile in return? When a kiosk is more friendly than your employee maybe the customer is not the problem.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- jerlam 2y ago
  Their normal "customer" is an annoyed, impatient Doordash driver. I glanced at their delivery kitchen and it had 3x the staff of the front. I wouldn't be surprised if their front of house was really the back of house employees who don't want to be talking to in-person customers.
- parpfish 2y ago
  Low level employees have no reason to be appreciative of the customers. Don’t take it personally. If you want them to be appreciative of customers, you need to give them an incentive structure that makes them treat customers as something other than a hurdle to overcome. And just saying “if there were no customers, you wouldn’t have a business to work at” will only works if you give them enough individual autonomy that their actions actually affect the business. And that just isn’t going to happen for low level jobs.
bsder 2y ago
I suspect the issue is that the number of customers is dropping--thus the excessive marketing costs. $10 is a weak tipping point and then $20 is a strong tipping point. If you cross $10, I'm going to ask if there is something I can substitute. For sweetgreen, the answer is likely that I can go hit the local grocery store and grab a prepackaged salad. If I'm just looking for non-junk calories for lunch, that's way more than sufficient. This is dangerous as the mindspace starts decreasing. If you cross $20, you had better be an actively good food experience. Otherwise, I'm looking for another place to eat or pre-preparing something myself. $20 buys a nice steak at the grocery store. Once you get me comparing your restaurant to a pound slab of ribeye, you've got a deep, deep problem.
- twic 2y ago
  A ready-to-eat salad and a raw steak seem like products in completely different markets.

by jerlam 2y ago

darth_avocado 2y ago

> Their food wasn't uniquely great, just fresh and overpriced. Sweetgreen originally was chef designed salads. They had fresh unique salads, a little pricey, but still accessible to the masses. Their popularity was because their salads tasted great. Unfortunately they pivoted to a business model of maximum profitability, which meant removing a lot of salads that took longer to prep for and streamlined the ingredients. In the process, they kept the mediocre stuff that tasted okay and removed unique and tastier stuff. You get the sweet greens version of cobb and Caesar, meanwhile their Mediterranean and Mexican salads were gone. They pivoted so hard that they no longer meet their original selling point.

jdminhbg 2y ago
> Unfortunately they pivoted to a business model of maximum profitability Based on the article, they still haven't manage to pivot to any profitability.
- zeroonetwothree 2y ago
  I suppose the maximum profitability could still be negative
infecto 2y ago
The company is still unprofitable so perhaps the thing you enjoyed cannot be had at a price consumers are willing to pay.
- darth_avocado 2y ago
  Unfortunately, there are many sweetgreen rip offs in my city that offer the original sweetgreen experience at the same price point. Which makes me think, either sweetgreen isn't managed well or the other places are also losing money (which doesn't make much business sense).
  - infecto 2y ago
    Hard to say what the apples to apples comparison is. The biggest difference most likely with those copy cat clones is the food supply chain. Not sure how much it has changed but one of sweetgreen's challenges has been working closer to the farm which can be more costly and harder to scale across geographies. The clones may just be getting everything from sysco. I don't follow sweetgreen very well and it could very well be mismanaged but I suspect those clones you see are apple to oranges in comparison.
    - darth_avocado 2y ago
      Maybe. I would like them to do a market research on what % of their customers would pay $17 for a Caesar salad for their lettuce to come from a local farm and what % would prefer to pay $17 for a tasty salad curated by a chef, but with not all ingredients sourced locally. And once they have that info, I'd like them to decide which one of the two they are from a mission perspective. Nothing wrong with being either, as long as the expectations are set.
      - infecto 2y ago
        I think they already decided? Maybe it does not work out for them but I thought this was always there pitch and along with it higher labor and food costs. Labor because they were having to do more of the prep work in-house instead of via the food distributor.

annoyingnoob 2y ago

I tried Sweetgreen a couple of times. The food was okay but overpriced, probably would go back but for the staff. The staff was just not nice at all, for no reason, twice. If you don't appreciate your customers then you won't stay in business, a simple smile isn't a lot to ask, just be nice that's it. If you are going to put a frowning, seemingly annoyed, human at the front then maybe just go with self-checkout.

whimsicalism 2y ago
thank god i don't have to work a customer facing job, customers sound insufferable
- annoyingnoob 2y ago
  Insufferable because I smiled, said hello, spent money with you, and expected a smile in return? When a kiosk is more friendly than your employee maybe the customer is not the problem.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jerlam 2y ago
Their normal "customer" is an annoyed, impatient Doordash driver. I glanced at their delivery kitchen and it had 3x the staff of the front. I wouldn't be surprised if their front of house was really the back of house employees who don't want to be talking to in-person customers.
parpfish 2y ago
Low level employees have no reason to be appreciative of the customers. Don’t take it personally. If you want them to be appreciative of customers, you need to give them an incentive structure that makes them treat customers as something other than a hurdle to overcome. And just saying “if there were no customers, you wouldn’t have a business to work at” will only works if you give them enough individual autonomy that their actions actually affect the business. And that just isn’t going to happen for low level jobs.

bsder 2y ago

I suspect the issue is that the number of customers is dropping--thus the excessive marketing costs. $10 is a weak tipping point and then $20 is a strong tipping point. If you cross $10, I'm going to ask if there is something I can substitute. For sweetgreen, the answer is likely that I can go hit the local grocery store and grab a prepackaged salad. If I'm just looking for non-junk calories for lunch, that's way more than sufficient. This is dangerous as the mindspace starts decreasing. If you cross $20, you had better be an actively good food experience. Otherwise, I'm looking for another place to eat or pre-preparing something myself. $20 buys a nice steak at the grocery store. Once you get me comparing your restaurant to a pound slab of ribeye, you've got a deep, deep problem.

twic 2y ago
A ready-to-eat salad and a raw steak seem like products in completely different markets.