Is Sweetgreen the next Chipotle? No. Chipotle is for people who want to max out protein and carbs for $12 in a high sodium slop-bowl. Is it the next Lululemon? Much closer. This is the "Becky" play of the decade where people with good taste buy premium clothes and premium bowls to make them look good. Sweetgreen ($SG) has been quietly building a fleet of high-margin restaurants ready for society’s health craze.

The "Adults" Have Entered the Room

For years, the biggest bear case against SG was: "Great brand, terrible operators." The founders built a cool vibe but didn't know how to scale efficiently. That era is coming to an end with Nathaniel Ru (co-founder) stepping down and a slate of executive hires from GameSt*p, Starbucks, and Chipotle.

First, they brought in Rossann Williams (former Starbucks EVP) as COO in early 2024, helped the stock boom throughout the year and now her role has been taken over by Jason Cochran, this guy is a legend. He was the VP of Operations at Chipotle during their massive turnaround under Brian Niccol and spent 14 years at GameSt*p as SVP of 4000+ Stores. They also brought in Zipporah Allen (ex-Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s) to take over branding.

The main point is that you have some real war-time execs who built empires we all eat and will apply these lessons to Sweetgreen that the founders never learned.

Menu Innovation and New Focus on Dinner

The big issue with Sweetgreen is most of their traffic is lunchtime, because they are best known for cold salads which don't really have a dinner crowd and it’s a popular place to grab lunch with coworkers in lots of cities. Because of this, they had to figure out how to get higher throughput during lunch hours and get more traffic in during the rest of the day and evening. There are a few levers here:

– The Infinite Kitchen helps pump out up to 500 bowls per hour for the lunch rush

– Pivoting beyond salads into hot bowls (grains and chicken/steak)

– Next year they will also release new handhelds (wraps and sandwiches for example)

– Making the restaurants more dinner-friendly (playing around with lighting, ambience, etc.)

Human Workers Suck

Their Infinite Kitchen (robotic assembly line) is the golden goose. They build bowls extremely quickly and efficiently, never skimping on portions. The stores fitted with the IK run at 30%+ margins, double their standard stores. Remember that Sweetgreen is the queen of the urban lunch crowd, so traditionally moving customers through the line at noon has been their bottleneck. This removes that bottleneck.

More importantly, complaints in the industry are really widespread around bad service and skimping on portions. This applies to everyone, but since Sweetgreen is a premium brand, people expect to be treated like kings. Since it’s not economical nor easy to find people who can give good service for a <$20 meal, the replacement of human labor with machines not only improves margins but also helps with overall hospitality because people aren’t as burnt out and the experience will be less dependent on someone’s mood that day.

They are also renovating the IK design to look cool as hell. They are adding theatrical lighting, neon accents, and glass paneling. They want the "Apple Store effect" where watching the robot make your food is part of the premium experience.

False Narratives

There’s a lot of FUD around Sweetgreen, primarily:

1. “It’s too expensive” and

2. “They’re always empty”

The average transaction value at Cava and Chipotle is both $21, whereas it’s $23 for Sweetgreen. It’s BARELY more expensive, and if you just want a bowl, there are warm chicken bowls at a similar price range as the others. All the major outlets (CNBC, WSJ, Bloomberg) have written some form of FUD on these fast casual chains and particularly on Sweetgreen, which led to the stocks being oversold and subsequently all 3 chains are up 20% or more in the last month. Sweetgreen no longer sells salads as the only option, but even if you complain about the “$18 salad”, most people realize that if you go to a restaurant a basic salad is $15 with +$6 for protein add-on and then you have to tip another $5 for sitting down. This is why fast casual continues to climb as a sector and casual dining is down:

On empty stores, you have to realize that Sweetgreen is really a digital-first business more than the others. Over 60% of their revenue is digital and so when you see an "empty" store, you are looking at a highly efficient fulfillment center. The orders are being picked up by people who ordered ahead or by delivery drivers, so an empty line doesn’t mean no sales, it just means they’ve solved the bottleneck.

Sweetgreen Rewards & Goat Status

Sweetgreen, like Lululemon, is selling a lifestyle identity. They’ve had some stumbles with their reward iterations, but they will eventually find a way to rebuild a loyal customer base.

For example, they have an invite-only "Goat Status" that has the potential to become some viral form of status. By making the experience for their highest-LTV customers like a digital country club, they can accelerate demand.

Also because 60% of revenue is digital, Sweetgreen’s reward system will win the data/AI race. Unlike Chipotle, which still deals with massive guest /anonymous traffic, Sweetgreen knows exactly what their customers want. This will allow them to develop their app further and introduce things people like and provide personalized "challenges" or deals that drive incremental visits during slow periods and help shape demand.

TLDR:

– Sweetgreen is expanding beyond salads and even bowls into sandwiches/wraps in 2026

– Extreme FUD around Sweetgreen and 25% short interest = squeeze imminent

– New exec team from Chipotle/Starbucks/Gamest*p now running the show

– SG is transitioning from a "growth at all costs" startup to a "margin-printing" machine.

– The "Premiumization" trend is real, people will skip a sit-down dinner to pay $16 for a "lifestyle" bowl if it makes them feel healthy and elite.

Bull Case: $SG recovers to $20-25 a share by mid-2026 as the sector stabilizes, and towards ATH longer term as Infinite Kitchens roll out nationwide and dinner-time traffic spikes.