- Sweetgreen is undoubtedly one of the healthiest fast food options in the United States, but it is also one of the most expensive. Salads cost around $ 16 on average, but the CEO of the company encourages customers to think beyond today’s price of a meal and rather in the long-term impacts of what you eat.
Consumer confidence drops – and for a good reason. Since 2020, goods prices jumped more than 23% And there is fear surrounding the new pricing policies of President Donald Trump as well as inflation.
But a CEO implored consumers to think beyond the price of their product today, defending the long-term advantages that it can bring. Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman said The New York Times When you think about the cost of something, you sometimes have to think about the total cost.
“There is the cost for you, but when you eat certain things, what is the cost for your health? What is the cost for the environment?” Neman said, who launched the fast salad chain in the event of a quick box in the mid -2000s when he was a student at the University of Georgetown. The company became public at the end of 2021 and now has 250 locations across the United States – and they have aspirations to Make the Starbucks of the Salad.
He and his business partners, Nicolas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru, Open their first Sweetgreen Near the campus in Washington, DC in 2007. It was about three years after the first of the documentary “Super size Me”, which launched conversations on the short and long -term impacts of traditional American fast food.
“We were going to reject the fast food for the previous generation,” Neman told Nyt.
But healthier options inevitably mean a higher cost and thereafter the price of consumers. Sweetgreen average salad costs around $ 16, according to Eaterwhile the Average price of a Big Mac meal is about $ 10.
“People pay not only for the quality of the taste of food, but the fact that it is done by hand, the fact that we are fairly paying for our farmers and our teams,” said Neman Nyt.
However, Sweetgreen uses fresh ingredients from the farm and production partners, and their menu is largely made up of vegetables, cereals and proteins, although it is recently launched Fried fried fries in the air which are on 160 less calories that the fries of McDonald’s. The company also praised in an advertisement that the fries have only five ingredients, while competitors include a litany of unrecognizable additives.
“Most companies treat their food centrally and expedient it across the country,” said Neman said The Wall Street Journal In 2024. “In order to maximize taste and freshness, we believe that food must be brought closer to where guests eat food.”
In addition, “treating you” in Sweetgreen could end up being cheaper than buying grocery products: Take it from the old Fortune journalist Jane Thier. THE Average monthly cost of grocery store For one person costs $ 504, BLS data shows.
Sweetgreen did not immediately respond to Fortunerequest for additional comments.
Although the company’s profits have reached nearly $ 677 million for the 2024 fiscal year, according to Sweetgreen Most recent income reportHe still faced a net loss of around $ 90 million. Assuming an average price of $ 16 for a Sweetgreen salad, the company loses approximately $ 2.26 per meal, one Sherwood News analysis watch. Some of the highest costs include food, drinks, packaging, labor and administrative costs, depending on the benefit report.
Another major cost for Sweetgreen has been to invest in technology to feed its collection services, deliveries and AI to provide suggestions to customers and maintain its loyalty program.
“Our path to profitability on a net income basis comes from a few levers,” Neman told WSJ. “The first continues to develop our footprint. The second is sales growth in existing stores. The third is very disciplined on our cost structure to ensure that the incremental benefit that we achieve through the results. ”
Sweetgreen will report Genuations of the first quarter for exercise 2025 on May 8.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
