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> Their food wasn't uniquely great, just fresh and overpriced. Sweetgreen originally was chef designed salads. They had fresh unique salads, a little pricey, b

> 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.

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.