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Why does a bowl of ordinary salad make consumers and investors so satisfied? ”
Author | Wang Wang Editing | Cranberry Week
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
Light food has not been good lately.
In the two years since the outbreak of the epidemic, catering enterprises have been greatly impacted. Unexpectedly, the new elements of the "originator" light food brand have also been dragged down. As a chain company that has stood for 19 years and successfully survived the SARS epidemic, it has to end in the winter of 2021 because it is increasingly difficult for its business model to be competitive in today's market. Coincidentally, the same veteran light food brand Wagas has also recently reported the news of seeking an acquisition, although the official statement is untrue, but it is difficult to hide the fact that its operation is not so "thriving".
The two light food brands that urban beauties were once fascinated by are now in a sad situation, and people can't help but ask: Can selling salads make a good business?
Recalling the "light food fever" in the Chinese market, it was five or six years ago. Since 2016, light salads have received keen attention from capital. Zhen Fund invested in rice salad, Sequoia China invested in sweetheart rock salad, IDG investment of lustful salad and other emerging brands rose from the ground, when the order growth rate of young food salad takeaway in the same period was as high as 16 times, which was more than 5 times the growth rate of the takeaway market.
However, only two or three years later, the wave of store closures swept in, including many light food salad brands supported by the above-mentioned well-known funds, which were drowned in the waves of history. Then, although milk tea, small noodles, and coffee once again raised the attention of the entire catering industry, light food did not usher in the next moment of scenery.
Turning your sights to the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in this more Red Sea light food market, this year it ran out of a chain of listed companies. Why does a bowl of ordinary salad make consumers and investors so satisfied?
In November, sweetgreen, which has been established for five years, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange for | Image source: Sweetgreen
01
Make light food into light luxury, why should consumers pay for it?
Ordering a salad or light food bowl in Sweetgreen costs around $9 to $15, which is about 2-3 McDonald's packages, which is slightly higher than other light food brands. Not only consumers who are not familiar with Sweetgreen, but even the media can't help but ask: Why spend so much money to eat grass? To this, Sweetgreen and the brand fans who know this well have to answer secretly: This is a belief, you don't understand.
When it comes to "eating grass", many people's first reaction is health, and the second reaction is anti-humanity. The business of "eating grass" also faces these two problems. A healthy low-calorie light food or salad, in most cases is not delicious enough, no matter how cooked (of course, cooking can not be operated space), the taste is certainly not as good as hot pot milk tea, so eat light food do not want to satisfy the appetite.
This "destructible" nature makes the market for light salad relatively small – even in Europe and the United States, where salads originate and have a high penetration rate of light food, the daily diet of ordinary people is pizza, pasta, and hamburgers. However, if the proportion of salt, sugar and oil is increased for the sake of good food, it will suffer from "unhealthy" accusations. Both at home and abroad, there are many media that have exposed the truth that light food is higher than fast food calories.
A week's worth of food for an American family | Image source: Time
Good food is not healthy, healthy is not good food. From the perspective of food itself, no light food salad brand can solve this pair of contradictions well. If you add "expensive", it is even more difficult to understand.
In order to do a good job in this business that makes people "spend money and suffer", Sweetgreen has put a lot of effort into "faith".
02
Turn salad shops into tech companies
Like all light food brands, health and safety is Sweetgreen's promise to consumers, and labeling calorie values and nutrients is standard. To make this promise more authentic and solemn, Sweetgreen introduced the power of technology.
Sweetgreen has 140 offline stores in the United States, not counting consumer salads, more than 20 kinds of fixed dishes, and more than 200 suppliers who directly provide ingredients for it. This is because in order to ensure the freshness of the ingredients and avoid long-term cold chain transportation and storage, Sweetgreen only cooperates with local farms, uses local ingredients, and does not purchase off-season crops except for a few raw materials such as oil and rice. In other words, whenever consumers place an order at Sweetgreen, the menu they see is seasonal and regionally limited.
Sweetgreen even went to a seed company to custom-grow a new variety of pumpkin | Image source: Row7
Sweetgreen will also indicate on the store's sign that the lettuce comes from the old William's farm outside the city and the chicken comes from the village's Little Tom's Chicken Coop, so that consumers can understand it (although consumers may not know these farms). As if that wasn't enough, Sweetgreen partnered with a blockchain company to get every lettuce tomato on the chain and build an electronic resume for them.
In this way, Sweetgreen can trace the cultivation, transportation and storage of ingredients throughout the process, not only to ensure food safety, but also to help make personalized recommendations for consumers. For example, if a customer is happy with a bowl of carrots in a salad, Sweetgreen can recommend that the customer taste it again when the next batch of the same variety of carrots from this supplier arrives at the store. Of course, this data also makes Sweetgreen more flexible control of the supply chain, when to order, how much to order, can be estimated through data, to avoid food loss.
The farmer that Sweetgreen works with and the sensors in his field | Image source: Sweetgreen
03
I don't eat grass, I have a sense of responsibility to protect the earth
Despite the strict selection of ingredients, Sweetgreen did not escape a major dilemma of light food: it was not delicious. Some media and consumer reviews, Sweetgreen's delicious taste is not outstanding among similar light food brands. Unable to win by menu, Sweetgreen starts with the spirit and occupies the hearts and minds of consumers. It's not just about the energetic hospitality of the store staff and the blockbuster video on TikTok, Sweetgreen wants to be more compelling.
Sweetgreen's goal is to be the next generation of fast food for young people, so Sweetgreen has always strived to show a youthful attitude of personality.
Every once in a while, Sweetgreen and artists team up to launch a Seasonal Music Compilation album for consumers to listen to. Artists he has collaborated with include Fana Hues, Noodles, Faye Webster, HAIM, etc., all of whom are cool girls with personalities. While eating the fresh vegetables and fruits of the season, while listening to the niche music with a sense of season, is this life mood not worth sending a ten-eight-strip social media?
After Japanese athlete Naomi Osaka won consecutive US Open and Australian Open titles, in June this year, Sweetgreen officially announced her brand ambassador status and launched the Naomi Osaka package. The image of youth, health, avant-garde and pluralism represented by Naomi Osaka is exactly what Sweetgreen calls the "next generation". In Sweetgreen's IPO roadshow, the endorsement was even compared to the collaboration between Michael Jordan and McDonald's.
Naomi Osaka is also sweetgreen's youngest investor | Image source: Sweetgreen
Sweetgreen is a pioneer in the social responsibility topics that young people care about. The restaurant industry is a big carbon emitter, and Sweetgreen has made a bold commitment to become carbon neutral by 2027. In order to reduce its own carbon emissions, Sweetgreen will look at the carbon emission level of suppliers and use them as a basis for purchasing decisions; menu design to use as much fruit and vegetables as possible and use less animal products, because animal husbandry will produce a lot of carbon emissions; and the building materials, energy, equipment, supplies, etc. of the store are also as environmentally friendly as possible.
Since 2019, Sweetgreen has been recording its carbon footprint, and as of now, Sweetgreen's carbon dioxide emissions for every $1 in revenue generated are below the U.S. restaurant average. At the same time, Sweetgreen is also actively promoting sustainable lifestyles in the community. For consumers, is spending at Sweetgreen just buying a salad? No, you're buying the future of the planet! What's the big deal about spending $15 on something so important?
The use of degradable tableware is purely based on | Image source: Sweetgreen
04
After the listing, there is a long way to go
Since its inception, Sweetgreen has been favored by investors for carrying a halo of technology and sustainability, and has been listed on Fast Company Magazine's annual list of most innovative food companies in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020, and was also listed in the Top 50 companies list and ranked 6th in 2019, surpassing giant technology companies such as Alibaba and Apple.
On the first day of listing, Sweetgreen shares rose 76.8%, but in the following month or so, they showed a continuous downward trend. Investors are most worried about its profitability.
Three young founders | Source: The New York Times
On the one hand, Sweetgreen not only competes with other light salads, but also with other categories of catering, although favored by young white-collar workers and fitness people, under the label of "anti-humanity", how far can light salads go?
On the other hand, Sweetgreen's operating investment is quite high, not only in terms of site selection, decoration and other aspects of higher costs, non-collection supply chain is also a considerable burden. But if you change your strategy for the sake of profitability, Sweetgreen, which lacks these, will also lose its brand uniqueness.
The future also depends on whether Sweetgreen can attract more consumers to "generate electricity with love" for the dream of a sustainable planet.
参考资料：1. Sweetgreen官网2.Time: Hungry Planet - What The World Eats3.Hungry Planet: What The World Eats
Interaction at the end of the article: Are you optimistic about the field of light food salad? What do you think of Sweetgreen listing? Share it with us in the comments section