Sweetgreen, a trend-setter of fast-casual salad tradition, has dominated office-worker diets for over a decade. In line with its model as a haven for these employees, most of its shops have been concentrated in and round main US cities since its first location opened in 2007. The comfort and halo of well being round Sweetgreen bowls make the restaurant a pure match for metropolis dwellers who’re brief on time, keen to pay excessive costs, and determined to devour one thing simple and wholesome.
Now, it appears, Sweetgreen is getting rid of the made-for-city-life vibe it labored so arduous to domesticate. On November 15, Schaumburg, IL acquired the nation’s first Sweetlane, Sweetgreen’s foray into drive-through. In March 2020, the corporate appeared to put the inspiration for such an growth when it eliminated the phrase “native” from its menu advertising, to account for the potential for “unexpected circumstances within the provide chain.” A menu board inside every location nonetheless consists of some details about the place elements are sourced from—a menu that might be a lot tougher to see from a drive-through window. And similar to that, Sweetgreen—or shall I say Sweetlane—goes full-on Panera. It’s turning into that rather more out there and that rather more, nicely, company.
As soon as, Sweetgreen was the bastion of the athleisure-clad finance and advertising set —those that believed within the therapeutic energy of heat grains, the limitless potential of plain grilled rooster, and the last word righteousness of a $16 bowl of greens. They dominated Sweetgreen’s fast-casual storefronts, that are mind-numbingly smooth, and aesthetically inoffensive. These areas helped outline the now-ubiquitous aspirational, upwardly cellular millennial aesthetic: rows of brilliant, clear subway tile, a chalk board to listing domestically sourced elements, a fiddle leaf fig tree in a white ceramic pot. Sweetgreen was based by then-Georgetown college students Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, and Jonathan Neman, millennials themselves, who, after thousands and thousands of {dollars} garnered in funding rounds, turned a form of beacon of stylish startup success.
The chain has seen large reputation in metropolises, and obtained a staggering $1 billion valuation in 2019. However, Sweetgreen has but to achieve profitability. Like many different fast-casual chains, the salad model struggled by way of the pandemic, shedding 20% of its company workforce. Now, to capitalize available on the market pattern of digital ordering, Sweetgreen appears keen to develop previous the world of company millennial ambition in favor of lastly transferring into the black.
Whereas the choice so as to add a drive-through might seem to be a stark departure from the foundational model picture that Sweetgreen has constructed for itself, the corporate has been contemplating the format for years. The introduction of Sweetlane and the growth into extra suburban areas are strikes possible aimed toward serving to the corporate inch nearer to profitability—a consideration that has develop into particularly essential because it went public in 2021.
Whereas Sweetgreen’s smooth shops in bustling metropolis facilities uphold a sure model picture—collaborating with different 2010s-era luxury-adjacent wellness manufacturers like SoulCycle—they aren’t essentially what Sweetgreen sees because the clearest path to revenue. Although it appears like there’s a Sweetgreen on most metropolis blocks, the model must construct a broader viewers if it desires to remain afloat.