46THE EXCHANGEW
ITH A DEVOTED following and a recent
valuation of over $1 billion, the fast-
casual salad chain Sweetgreen seems
to be doing things right. The company’s
three founders—Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Neman
and Nathaniel Ru—wouldn’t fully agree. “Right now,
the experience is average or mediocre at best,” says
Jammet, 34. He points to lines that can overwhelm
at peak hours and the anxiety some newcomers
experience when having to order on the spot. The
company, which says it sources all sustainable ingre-
dients, wishes it were more effective at conveying its
philosophy to customers and better suited to juggleBY GABE ULLA PHOTOGRAPHY BY EMILY ANDREWSSince its launch, the fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen has been on a roll.
With a new store model debuting this fall, the company continues to shake things up.FRESH PERSPECTIVE
UPSTARTdemand from third-party delivery services and other
channels. The founders have hatched what they hope
will be a solution. Later this year, the company will
debut a new store model on Park Avenue and 32nd
Street in Manhattan. Sweetgreen 3.0, as it is called
internally, will act as an incubator for several new
ideas and move the company closer to its goal of serv-
ing more than just salad.
The new location is a bilevel space intended to be a
cross between an Apple store and a farmers’ market.
As many as 22 bowls at a time will be included on the
menu, up from an average of 10. The assembly line will
no longer be visible to customers. However, a shinynew cooking range will be in full view, as part of an
open-plan kitchen where some dishes will be prepped.
Sweetgreen’s CEOs remain tight-lipped about the cat-
egories and plates that will find a permanent home
on the menu, but certain markets have already seen
hints of a broader offering. In Culver City, California,
where Sweetgreen is now headquartered, the test
lab served protein plates in late 2018 and early 2019,
and some stores around the country have featured
appetizers and side dishes. Koginut fries, made with
squash developed by chef Dan Barber, were on menus
nationwide last year.
At 3.0, guests will still be able to watch as food isWSJ. MAGAZINEprepared, but, according to the business partners,
this should no longer be the focus. “The front line
was how Chipotle and others like it showed transpar-
ency,” says Neman, 34. “We can build that trust in
other ways.” Tasting counters in a new market area
will give customers greater opportunity to sample
products—dressings, drinks, composed bites and
seasonal ingredients; concierges equipped with
tablets w i l l be on ha nd to ta ke g uests’ orders a nd pro-
vide information about farmers and ingredients. The
Sweetgreen chalkboard that typically lists suppliers
will evolve into a “digital sourceboard” with graph-
ics highlighting farms and growers. Customers who
want to watch the action of the kitchen can hang out
on the ground floor or sit upstairs, where there will
be a large dining room and additional seating. Those
who want to grab their food and run are just as wel-
come. “The thesis is that it is self-selecting,” says Ru,
34, explaining that, in addition to ordering from con-
cierges, people can use kiosks within the location or
order on the app or online.
Do average consumers really want to take a min-
ute to hear about the farmer who grew the cherry
tomato in their salad? When Sweetgreen launched in
Washington, D.C., 12 years ago, it bet that they actu-
ally might. The three founders met at Georgetown
University and graduated in 2007, “which means
we are at the older edge of millennial,” says Neman.
“[That] gave us so much insight into how our genera-
tion wants to eat. Gen Z cares even more about healthy
and sustainable food.” The three friends and business
partners have observed the rise of chefs as storytell-
ers. If, like the stars of Chef’s Table, Sweetgreen can
tell people about farmers and recipes in a manner
more engaging than, say, a self-published flier, the
founders believe they can own a broader category of
healthy food. It is a logical evolution for a company
that has spent years leveraging its relationships with
notable chefs like Barber. Osteria Mozza’s Nancy
Silverton and Mission Chinese Food’s Danny Bowien
are among those who have contributed limited-time
salads for the menu. Jammet, whose parents owned
and operated the storied Midtown Manhattan res-
taurant La Caravelle, argues that, in customers’
minds, the emotional component is as important as
nutrition. “We can’t improve how people eat if it’s not
craveable,” he says.
The quest to create a more personal experience
has required “building a lot of tech internally,” says
Jammet. Sweetgreen recently hired Ganapathy
Krishnan, a data science and analytics specialist
who led teams at Amazon and Microsoft for close to a
decade. His department has provided the Sweetgreen
CEOs with new insights, including data about the
average time between when a customer orders a
menu item for the first time and tries it again. The
company’s app base has grown by 70 percent over the
past year and now has over a million users. Repeat
mobile customers already receive menu recommen-
dations on the app based on their order history, much
as Spotify and Netflix offer individual suggestions.
The founders say this feature will become more
nuanced as 3.0 kicks into gear later this summer. The
idea is to help offset fatigue: Data indicate that manycustomers stick to one salad, often because they don’t
want to risk spending money on something they’ve
never tried. The founders are hoping to develop
the technology further, so it can devise meals that
adhere to an individual’s nutritional regimen.
Another tech development that will appear
within the first six months of 3.0’s launch is an
updated “smart” shelving system for pickup
orders. Customers may already be familiar with the
Sweetgreen shelving at their stores as well as in
certain office buildings via its Outpost service. The
CEOs think there is room for improvement. “Today,
the app points you in the right direction, but you still
have to... sift through bags to get your order,” says
Jammet of the pickup process. Sensors in the new
shelving system will activate once a package lands
in each cubby, letting customers and couriers know
precisely where to locate their order.
Sweetgreen 3.0 is a testing ground, the found-
ers are careful to note. Not every feature will
launch at once, and not every one of them will stick.
Sweetgreen is small enough, the CEOs say, that it can
still act nimbly: The company
currently operates 97 stores
across the United States and
employs almost 4,000 peo-
ple. Jammet, Neman and Ru
want to experiment before it
becomes too risky to retrofit.
This was a key factor in their
decision to remain a private
company: “We have capital
partners that believe in us and
want to support us without the
external pressure that comes
from being a public company,”
says Jammet.
A second 3.0 is in the works
in NYC, but the founders are
also careful to note that not
every store going forward
will be in that mold. “We can
deconstruct 3.0 into certain
places,” says Ru. Existing
stores could slowly start
adopting ideas that succeed at
3.0 without requiring drastic
transformations. The new Park
Avenue location, for instance,
will feature a leader board that
alerts customers when their
order is ready. Some cities or
neighborhoods may not need a
standing restaurant at all and
will instead be served by one
of the virtual kitchens that thecompany is aiming to start using this year.
The three CEOS say they keep a running list of
pipe dreams. In May, they achieved one of them,
announcing a five-month parental leave program
for all employees. Part of the reason that they are
investing in virtual kitchens is so that they can lower
prices and increase access to nutritious food. “We
want to work on accessibility and affordability, but it
will always be somewhat more expensive than subsi-
dized, processed food,” says Neman, who even sees
the potential for his company’s product to be con-
sidered a health benefit. “I have no idea how it would
look, but imagine your health insurance subsidizing
healthier food so your claims are less expensive,” he
says. The thought was inspired by the hundreds of
companies that offer their employees use of the med-
itation app Headspace as a perk.
The most immediate goal is to experiment at 3.0.
“We are doing something most big restaurant com-
panies never do,” says Neman. “What we’ve learned
watching companies like Blockbuster is that if you
don’t disrupt yourself, someone will do it to you.” ǕHEALTHY START
Composed bites that will be
served in Sweetgreen 3.0’s new
market area. Previous page, from
left: Founders Nicolas Jammet,
Nathaniel Ru and Jonathan
Neman, at the new NYC location.