Product Profile: Sweetgreen

 

INDUSTRY

food

Category

chain restaurants

product Profiled

Sweetgreen restaurants

 

H-Score

 

70

ranked 1st of 25 within the food industry

ranked 11th of 76 overall

 

product description

 

Sweetgreen is a chain of fast casual restaurants, estimated to have approximately 200 outlets across the U.S.(1) It serves meals throughout the day and evening, offering consistent menus throughout the U.S. Sweetgreen serves customizable salads, bowls, and protein plates including a core menu available year-round in all locations and a smaller seasonal menu refreshed throughout the year.

 

product use

 

Customers can purchase food by ordering at the counter, at a drive-thru window (where available), or via a website or app. Customers can also have Sweetgreen food delivered via a delivery service such as DoorDash, Grubhub or Uber Eats. Customers can eat inside the restaurants or take their meals away.

 

who’s affected

 

Sweetgreen’s target market includes the general population with a focus on affluent, dense urban areas.

 
 

influence on health-related behaviors

 

EATING

moderate positive influence

 

Sweetgreen is a fast-casual restaurant chain which specializes in salads and other “feel-good foods.”

In Building H’s analysis, Sweetgreen was found to have a modified Restaurant Nutrition Quality (RNQ)(2,3) score of 1.65. Of the 11 chain restaurants in the Index, the range of modified RNQ scores was 1.65 (best) to 0.50 (worst). Sweetgreen’s score placed it highest of the 11 restaurant chains we profiled. In addition, in a 2021 study that calculated the RNQ for over 500 chain restaurants, Sweetgreen’s RNQ placed it in the 95th percentile (higher is better).

In terms of calories, a sample of featured meal combos averaged 859 calories, or 1.5 times the recommended calories for women at lunch, 1.1 times the recommended calories for men at lunch, 1.3 times the recommended calories for women at dinner, and 1.0 times the recommended calories for men at dinner.(4)

Sweetgreen features salads heavily on their menu. Most of their menu is composed of either a make-your-own salad option or premade salads. Sweetgreen has salads listed most prominently with bread and other sides listed underneath. 

Sweetgreen’s website includes cross-selling tactics, such as suggesting additional items such as a bag of chips and a can of spritzer.(5)

 

opportunities:

  • Offer reduced portion size options.
  • Enable users to set preferences for calorie limits and/or how healthy they want their diets to be and then tailor their ordering experience and recommendations accordingly.
  • Do not recommend additional items after users pass a reasonable calories per person level.
 
 

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

slight to moderate positive influence

 

One way in which restaurants contribute to physical activity is how people arrive at them. Restaurants in walkable locations are more likely to get customers to walk or bike to them than restaurants located in car-dependent neighborhoods. Building H reviewed existing Sweetgreen locations and found that 93% were in either “most walkable” (72%) or “above-average walkable” (21%) neighborhoods. Eight (8) percent were in “below-average walkable” (7%) or “least walkable” (1%) neighborhoods, using the US EPA’s National Walkability Index.(6)

An additional factor that affects physical activity is the presence of drive-thru windows, which enable customers to pick up meals without ever leaving their cars. Less than 1% of the Sweetgreen locations Building H reviewed had drive-thru service available.(7)

 
 

Sleeping

neutral to slight positive influence

 

Studies have shown that eating within three hours before bedtime increases the likelihood of sleep disruption.(8)

Sweetgreen locations typically close between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Based on Google data for Sweetgreen locations, it appears that approximately 2% of Sweetgreen’s activity takes place after 9:00 pm.(9)

Note that late night eating does not necessarily result in eating shortly before bedtime or extending into people’s sleep windows as there is diversity in daily schedules (due to reasons such as shift work).

opportunities:

  • Discourage ordering of caffeinated drinks in the evening.
 
 

Engaging Socially

slight positive influence

 

Eating in a restaurant can be a social experience, especially when one eats with family or friends. It is not clear how many of Sweetgreen’s customers eat in the restaurant in groups or take food out for groups.

A Building H analysis of Google data shows that the typical amount of time spent at over 60% of Sweetgreen locations was at or above 20 minutes.(10) This suggests that many customers are staying to eat at these restaurants rather than taking their order to go. 

Mobile ordering would typically involve less social interaction. Sweetgreen has stated that digital sales account for approximately 65% of sales.(11)

 

opportunities:

  • Focus on the dine-in experience in order to encourage more customers to eat in the restaurants.
    • Ensure adequate seating for eating in.
    • Add communal tables as seating options.
  • Limit kiosk or app-based automated ordering in order to promote more interaction among staff and customers.
  • Facilitate family style meals for both in-person dining and delivery or take-out orders.
 
 

Getting Outdoors

slight positive influence

 

Providing outdoor seating can positively influence the amount of time that customers spend outdoors. Building H reviewed Google data for existing Sweetgreen locations and found that only 30% offer outdoor seating.

The walkability of restaurant locations can influence the amount of time customers spend outdoors. The more walkable, the more likely it is that customers walk or bike to and from the locations and thus spend time outdoors. As noted above, 93% of Sweetgreen's locations were in either “most walkable” or “above-average walkable” neighborhoods, while 8% were in “below-average walkable” or “least walkable” neighborhoods.

 

opportunities:

  • Offer outdoor seating at more restaurants.
 
 
 

Notes

 

  1. sweetgreen locations. Sweetgreen website, accessed July 2023.

  2. Iris Liu et al. A continuous indicator of food environment nutritional quality. MedRxiv. November 26, 2021.

  3. The RNQ is based on the ratio of nutrients recommended by dietary guidelines, e.g. protein and fiber, to ingredients whose consumption should be restricted, such as sugars, sodium and saturated fats, for the median menu item. Building H modified the RNQ by selecting the most featured breakfast and lunch/dinner menu items.

  4. Based on a Building H review of the most featured meal combos in September 2023, as compared with federal data on how Americans distribute their calories across meals (see Eliana Zeballos et al. Frequency and Time of Day That AmericansEat: A Comparison of Data From the AmericanTime Use Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. USDA Economic Research Service, Technical Bulletin Number 1954. July 2019) and federal dietary guidelines for moderately active adults (see U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. December, 2020. P. 140).

  5. Sample online order via sweetgreen.com. October 10, 2023.

  6. For the National Walkability Index, see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. National Walkability Index: Methodology and User Guide. July 2023.

  7. Based on a Building H review of service options listed on Google for Sweetgreen locations. July 2023.

  8. Nicola Chung et al. Does the Proximity of Meals to Bedtime Influence the Sleep of Young Adults? A Cross-Sectional Survey of University Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Volume 17, Issue 8 (April 14, 2020), p. 2677.

  9. Based on a Building H review of Google’s “popular times” data for Sweetgreen locations. July 2023.

  10. Based on a Building H review of Google’s data on how much time people typically spend at Sweetgreen locations. July 2023.

  11. Sweetgreen. 2022 Annual Report, p. 9.