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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast.

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Speaker 2: I'm Joe Wisenthal and I'm Tracy Alloway.

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Speaker 1: Tracy, do you know my favorite thing about working in

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Speaker 1: midtown Manhattan?

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Speaker 2: Is it the daily commute?

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Speaker 1: Actually, I have a fine commute. I'm like a few

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Speaker 1: stops away on the subway. That's fine. Yeah, I guess so.

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Speaker 2: No.

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Speaker 1: I love the plethora of bowl lunch options that we

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Speaker 1: have around as we're in the bowl lunch capital of

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Speaker 1: the world, maybe DC also, but I imagine like the

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Speaker 1: per capita number of places that let you like get

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Speaker 1: something that's sort of like like you're feeding from a

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Speaker 1: trophy and you can get it right in front of

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Speaker 1: your computer and eat while checking Twitter or your emails.

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Speaker 1: It's very nice.

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Speaker 2: I feel very old because I remember like when none

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Speaker 2: of these existed, and if you wanted to get lunch

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Speaker 2: in midtown Manhattan, you went to like a sandwich shop

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Speaker 2: and you had a selection of sandwiches and you weren't

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Speaker 2: allowed to make any individual customer choices. And I guess

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Speaker 2: the upside of that was it took everyone literally ten

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Speaker 2: seconds to order, and now it seems to take everyone

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Speaker 2: about six minutes. Yeah, but of course, the downside is

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Speaker 2: you weren't able to customize. You weren't able to get

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Speaker 2: the specific things that you want maybe pay as much

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Speaker 2: attention as you can now to ingredients. So it's definitely changed.

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Speaker 1: It's definitely changed.

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Speaker 3: By the way.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of change, I've been rewatching I think it's on

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Speaker 1: Hulu or something, the old La Law episodes that are

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Speaker 1: streaming again, and it's so funny watching what professional lunches

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Speaker 1: looked like in the eighties, like white table cloths was

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Speaker 1: at stake. It was like fancier like plates of I

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Speaker 1: don't know, vegetables over a piece of.

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Speaker 2: Fish, and people actually going out too.

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Speaker 1: Restaurants anyway, So that's a side that version. But I

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Speaker 1: actually do like being able to just eat in a

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Speaker 1: bowl at my computer and staring at the screen anyway.

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Speaker 1: But it does raise the questions there are all these

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Speaker 1: chains and wan offs doing salads and Mediterranean bowls and

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Speaker 1: cava and knockoff cava and knockoff of the knockoff kava

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Speaker 1: and salad bowls and stuff like that, and knockoff chipotles.

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Speaker 1: How do you stand out? How do you win in

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Speaker 1: this game where there are clearly many competitors.

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Speaker 2: No, I completely agree. It seems like a crowded market

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Speaker 2: at the moment, and everyone, even the non bowl places

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Speaker 2: have their version of a bowl nowadays. But also I'm

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Speaker 2: really interested in how you come up with the specific

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Speaker 2: offerings for customers and like how much of it is

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Speaker 2: what people are asking for, so demand versus supply, Like

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Speaker 2: what is available to you in terms of ingredients at

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Speaker 2: a cost effective price?

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Speaker 1: Totally. Well, we really do have the perfect guest to

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Speaker 1: talk about all of this. How the lunches that we

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Speaker 1: eat get in front of us, how the ingredients are selected.

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Speaker 1: Why am I eating this salad that I'm eating right now?

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Speaker 1: Figuratively I'm not eating a salad right now. We're going

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Speaker 1: to be speaking with Nick Jamai. He is the co

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Speaker 1: founder of Sweet Green, one of them success stories in

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Speaker 1: the Salid Bowl Game. So Nick, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for coming on.

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Speaker 4: Odd Lots, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: There's plenty of things to talk about in the bowl game,

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Speaker 1: but let's start with something. You recently announced that Sweet

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Speaker 1: Green is going to be not cooking anything in seed

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Speaker 1: oils and it's only going to be using I think

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Speaker 1: olive oil and other higher quality oils. There is an

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Speaker 1: internet community of people who are like really antiseed oils.

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Speaker 2: Joe's dream is to finally do the anti seed oil episode.

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Speaker 1: We're going to do an hour long conversation about seed

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Speaker 1: oils and seed oil Bros. But actually, for real, though,

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Speaker 1: I am curious, why did you make this switch? How

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Speaker 1: much is it actual customer demand, how much is it science,

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Speaker 1: how much is it quality? Where did this come from?

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Speaker 1: And how much is it going to cost you.

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Speaker 4: A great question. So I'm glad we have an hour

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Speaker 4: because there's lots to talk about here. We can go deep,

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Speaker 4: but zooming out and backing up a bit. The reason

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Speaker 4: we started Sweet Greens was because we did see this

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Speaker 4: shift in the consumer and this between their relationship with food,

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Speaker 4: and we saw this conversation starting to change. We were

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Speaker 4: seniors at Georgetown, myself with my co founders Jonathan and Ate,

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Speaker 4: and we were missing the options that we wish we

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Speaker 4: had to eat, and this idea of wanting food that

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Speaker 4: was good for you, that made you feel good, but

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Speaker 4: that was also delicious and cravable and cool. We didn't

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Speaker 4: see any of those options. And when we looked around,

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Speaker 4: all the food that was the most delicious, the most cravable,

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Speaker 4: the most accessible, the coolest brands were all the least healthy,

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Speaker 4: and so we wanted to change that. We wrote a

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Speaker 4: business plan and really in an effort to redefine and

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Speaker 4: rethink fast food, the traditional fast food model of what

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Speaker 4: you were sourcing, what you were serving, how you were

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Speaker 4: prepping it, and ultimately the story you were telling around

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Speaker 4: that food. And over the course of the last sixteen years,

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Speaker 4: we really tried to create an incredible level of transparency

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Speaker 4: around our food, how we're sourcing it, and why all

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Speaker 4: that is important and ultimately how all that leads to

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Speaker 4: really delicious, cravable food. And the consumer has changed a

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Speaker 4: lot in sixteen years, and I'm happy to talk about

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Speaker 4: different parts of that, but so much of it has

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Speaker 4: been around removing friction between them and and their meal

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Speaker 4: and their food, whether that's you know, the convenience of

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Speaker 4: how you ordered or how you pick it up or

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Speaker 4: how it comes to you, or just the convenience or

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Speaker 4: friction of understanding what is in your food and what

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Speaker 4: you're eating and how it makes you feel. And so

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Speaker 4: I think what got us excited to grow Sweeceren was

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Speaker 4: this kind of lifting of the curtain between consumers and

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Speaker 4: their food. And I remember very specifically, you know, the

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Speaker 4: kind of questions consumers asked and we first started Sweecreen

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Speaker 4: about their food and what they asked today are so

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Speaker 4: different the information they want to know about their food.

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Speaker 4: And so we've been on this, you know, so far

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Speaker 4: as sixteen year journey, which sounds like a long time,

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Speaker 4: but we still think we're very in the very early

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Speaker 4: innings of our of our journey. But in sixteen years,

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Speaker 4: it's it's wild to see just the shift of the consumer.

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Speaker 4: What they want to know, their connection to food, and

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Speaker 4: you know how we are part of that.

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Speaker 1: Wait, so set oils though, Yes, were they ask that question? So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is what I want. Were they what was going

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Speaker 1: on here? Was it actual demand? Was it just tweets?

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Speaker 1: Was it what happened there?

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Speaker 4: So, you know, we spend a lot of time looking

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Speaker 4: at all of our ingredients, our whole supply chain, and

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Speaker 4: we also spend a lot of time understanding our consumer,

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Speaker 4: what they're talking about, what they care with the value

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Speaker 4: and it's kind of this balance of learning from the

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Speaker 4: customer but also leading them in places we think are

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Speaker 4: important for the food system and for our fast food

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Speaker 4: model and our menu and our sources have evolved so

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Speaker 4: much in sixteen years. So we had seen this growing

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Speaker 4: conversation around seed oils, and the more we looked at

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Speaker 4: just the consumer conversation around it, and the more we

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Speaker 4: did our research to understand. And I will say on

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Speaker 4: that point, doing the research around any of these supply

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Speaker 4: chains or any of these ingredients can be pretty tricky

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Speaker 4: because a most of them are incredibly probably nuanced in

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Speaker 4: some ways. Right, there's some parts that are black and white,

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Speaker 4: but there's incredible nuance in what's good for you, what

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Speaker 4: the carbon footprint is, and across all supply chains like seafood, oils, poultry, vegetables,

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Speaker 4: and so we spend a lot of time trying to

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Speaker 4: understand and become experts on all these categories so we

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Speaker 4: can make the best decisions possible and then ultimately be

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Speaker 4: transparent with those decisions to our customers. So we saw

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Speaker 4: this growing converse and for us, it was really understanding

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Speaker 4: what we think is important to try to shift some

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Speaker 4: of the standard practices in fast food, but also what

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Speaker 4: we think our customers would really value. And so we

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Speaker 4: talk a lot about price value at tweeed Green, and

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Speaker 4: we spend so much time and energy and money sourcing

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Speaker 4: our food and building our network of farmers and growers

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Speaker 4: and this incredible roster of ingredients and so oils. As

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Speaker 4: you look at the last couple of years, it had

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Speaker 4: become a growing conversation. And to your point, there's all

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Speaker 4: these voices online on social media that have really started

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Speaker 4: to focus in on the specifics around oils and what

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Speaker 4: part of our diet that makes up and our caloric

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Speaker 4: intake and what's good for you it's bad for you.

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Speaker 4: And so as we looked around, we saw that no

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Speaker 4: chains or large scale restaurant groups were really thinking about

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Speaker 4: this or really talking about it. And we look at

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Speaker 4: our menu every year and we say, what can we upgrade?

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Speaker 4: And this was the investment we wanted to make. We

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Speaker 4: thought it was a really important conversation, and we decided

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Speaker 4: to change all of our cooking oil to extra vergin

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Speaker 4: olive oil and avocado oil, which we were switching from

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Speaker 4: high lax and flower oil well, which again this goes

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Speaker 4: back to part of the nuance, has a very similar

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Speaker 4: fatty asset profile to the two that we're switching to.

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Speaker 4: And and generally is you know, different than a lot

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Speaker 4: of the other When people say seed oils okay, technically

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Speaker 4: is a seed ol But for us, it's really trying

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Speaker 4: to understand the nuance and what customers would value. And

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Speaker 4: we were excited to make that switch and announcement, and

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Speaker 4: you know, the response has been incredible.

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Speaker 2: So I definitely want to get into how your supply

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Speaker 2: chain works because my understanding is it's different to a

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Speaker 2: lot of other chain eateries, but just on olive oil

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Speaker 2: in particular, maybe avocado oil as well. But it seems

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Speaker 2: like you're doing this a kind of maybe a bad time,

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Speaker 2: because I'm looking at a chart. Oh yeah, all the oil, yeah,

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Speaker 2: and it's I mean, it reached a record earlier this

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Speaker 2: year and it's still phenomenally high. So how do you

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Speaker 2: manage the cost of making the switch? And I'm curious

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Speaker 2: also do you hedge something like all of oil purchases?

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Speaker 4: Great question. So it is if you're looking at the

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Speaker 4: chart around the olive oil markets, given in some of

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Speaker 4: the situation in Greece and Spain and with weather and

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Speaker 4: with the weather and droughts and fires, the olive oil

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Speaker 4: markets have really are at an all time high. We

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Speaker 4: see that as a more short term blip. We know

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Speaker 4: that ultimately will come down to some version of steady state,

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Speaker 4: we decided it was still worth the investment, and we're

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Speaker 4: able to really think about how to offset that creatively

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Speaker 4: within our supply chain, so there was no price increase

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Speaker 4: connected to this for our customers, and really just wanted

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Speaker 4: to create value there for our customers on the menu.

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Speaker 4: And part of the reason of having olive oil and

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Speaker 4: avocado it was also to be able to hedge between

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Speaker 4: the two. Typically in our supply chain are more important skews.

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Speaker 4: We do think about contracts to really think about locking

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Speaker 4: in great prices, and we have an incredible supply chain

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Speaker 4: team that spends time in the field with our farmers

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Speaker 4: and growers and with our partners and really does a

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Speaker 4: great job, you know, sourcing incredibly high quality ingredients and

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Speaker 4: you know, paying a price that makes sense for our

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Speaker 4: business but also makes sense for our partners.

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Speaker 2: So when you decide to switch to you know, from

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Speaker 2: seed oils some flower oil to all of oil slash avocado,

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Speaker 2: how do you go about sourcing that oil? And again,

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Speaker 2: maybe this is a good way to get into the

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Speaker 2: differences between your supply chain and how you're sourcing things

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Speaker 2: versus other restaurants, because my understanding is the majority of

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Speaker 2: restaurants they will go through like large food distributors, whereas

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Speaker 2: you are sourcing directly from farmers and doing a lot

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Speaker 2: of that transportation yourself, I guess abits.

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Speaker 4: So the way our supply chain works is, you know,

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Speaker 4: we spend a lot of time understanding the different inputs

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Speaker 4: and having direct relationships with our growers, farmers, food partner,

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Speaker 4: so we go direct to the source. We still use

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Speaker 4: distributors to move that product around just because there was

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Speaker 4: an efficient there's a very efficient infrastructure around that. And

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Speaker 4: you know, we're not in the distribution business and that's

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Speaker 4: not part of the Speacreen model. But we spend a

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Speaker 4: lot of time directly with the farmers, growers and food

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Speaker 4: sources people growing and raising our food to really understand

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Speaker 4: how those products fit our ethos. And so we have

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Speaker 4: a food ethos that really guides all the decisions and

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Speaker 4: vestments we make in our menu, things like focusing on

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Speaker 4: regenerative organic growers and produce clean oils, really thinking about

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Speaker 4: the animal responsibility of how animals are raised. And so

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Speaker 4: for us, we have this you know, detailed foody thist

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Speaker 4: that really guides our supply chain team and our culinary

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Speaker 4: team and allows us to really make the right decisions.

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Speaker 4: We then very often will contract prices directly with growers

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Speaker 4: and partners, and then we use our distribution partners to

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Speaker 4: move that product around into our restaurants. And so you know,

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Speaker 4: we celebrate seasonality, regionality. We work with some of the

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Speaker 4: country's greatest farmers and growers that are growing the highest

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Speaker 4: quality products across the country and really proud of that.

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Speaker 4: Every single one of our restaurants does have a board

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Speaker 4: that lists every single source and not just of like

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Speaker 4: you know, the cool ingredients like this peaches and season

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Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you where it's from, our oils,

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Speaker 4: our rice, really sharing full transparency around all of our

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Speaker 4: ingredients to really again lift the curtain between customers and

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Speaker 4: their food. And so for us, we think that's really important,

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Speaker 4: and ultimately we do all that because we think it

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Speaker 4: leads to the best tasting food when things are grown

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Speaker 4: right in the right soil with the right methods and

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Speaker 4: you're sourcing high quality food. Ultimately, we are doing all

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Speaker 4: fresh prep in our restaurants. But it is not like

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Speaker 4: you know, high end culinary chef driven protocols and cooking.

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Speaker 4: It is very simply taking high quality ingredients and prepping

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Speaker 4: them very minimally for our customers.

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Speaker 1: By the way, just for those at home, are those

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Speaker 1: curious Tracy I did. First of all, I did not

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Speaker 1: realize we actually had spot alive oils on the terminal.

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Speaker 1: I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though the tickerssm one.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty it was two thousand euros for a

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Speaker 1: metric ton of extraversion spot olive oil. It's recently eight thousand,

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Speaker 1: so that's a four burgger since twenty twenty. Pretty extraordinary. Okay,

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Speaker 1: one last question on the seed oils. We're not really

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Speaker 1: going to go forty five minutes.

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Speaker 4: Which is how we met, by the way, yeah on Twitter, right.

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Speaker 1: But actually this is this is one last question on

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Speaker 1: the seat oil, and then they can move on. How

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Speaker 1: much is it about? Like, okay, there's a bunch of

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Speaker 1: weirdos with you know, anonymous avatars talking about seed oils

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, so and they're like, okay, there's

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Speaker 1: goodly a conversation here. People want a higher quality oil,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. But I don't know who these people are,

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Speaker 1: and I can't read the science versus like you independently

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Speaker 1: saying you know what I think? Actually, avocado oil and

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Speaker 1: olive oil sitting aside the Twitter chatter, are better healthier

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Speaker 1: oils that you've independently sort of done research on independent

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Speaker 1: of what weirdo is on the internet.

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Speaker 4: Great question, It is more the latter, and it's really understanding.

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Speaker 4: You know, we've made so many great decisions around our

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Speaker 4: supply chain and our menu and how we source, just

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Speaker 4: based on what we think is right, what direction we

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Speaker 4: want to shift the industry in. As I look back

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Speaker 4: on the sixteen years, we've made a lot of decision

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Speaker 4: on our menu and supply chain that honestly, folks thought

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Speaker 4: were a bit crazy when we did it. And ultimately,

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Speaker 4: you know.

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Speaker 1: What's an example of something that people thought was crazy.

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Speaker 4: You know, opening and not serving, like having a soda

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Speaker 4: fountain program. We don't have cheddar cheese, right, we don't

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Speaker 4: hope we've had terror cheese at moments, we don't have it.

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Speaker 4: What's up with it is that our quest for tetter cheese.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually like that seems like a weird decision to me.

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Speaker 1: That Like when you say because that struck me, I've

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Speaker 1: gone to sweet grain a handful of times, just a

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Speaker 1: normal cheese like that seems like an interesting decision to me.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I would say there are dozens of

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Speaker 4: ingredients that would be incredible on our menu and that

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Speaker 4: we just can't have room for them. All. Our menu

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Speaker 4: does evolve when things come on and off, and so

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Speaker 4: cheddar is definitely something that might make its way back

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Speaker 4: on the menyn day.

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Speaker 1: Wait, so speaking of red headline breaking news when this

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Speaker 1: comes out, cheddar might come back one day.

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Speaker 2: So speaking of things that can come on and off

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Speaker 2: the menu, and also weirdos on the internet. As part

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Speaker 2: of my research, I was looking on Twitter and it

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Speaker 2: seems like the thing people are most upset about at

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Speaker 2: Sweet Green at the moment is used to stop serving beats.

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Speaker 2: And I can read you like dozens of tweets on

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Speaker 2: this subject. No beats is killing my vibe. No longer

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Speaker 2: serves beats in the shree mommy, So you're just gonna

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Speaker 2: completely alter the ingredients? Where TF are the beats? Like

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Speaker 2: this goes on and on and on, But like what

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Speaker 2: happens when that kind of ingredient is no longer available?

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Speaker 2: Is it a seasonal choice? Is a supply choice? Like,

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Speaker 2: clearly there is some customer demand for beats.

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Speaker 4: First of all, I love that there's this much passion

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Speaker 4: around beats, which which is really incredible. But you know,

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Speaker 4: our menu evolves quite a bit, and this is related

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Speaker 4: to a big menu launch we did about two months

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Speaker 4: ago with a new category on our menu called protein plates,

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Speaker 4: So launching these more center of plate protein plates that

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Speaker 4: have grains and protein and veg and no lettuce so

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Speaker 4: not a salad, and really thinking about just you know,

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Speaker 4: a completely different occasion for customers and new customers. And

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Speaker 4: this is based on a lot of customer feedback. We

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Speaker 4: heard about options they wish they had at Sweet Green

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Speaker 4: or just out there. In general, whenever we add things

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Speaker 4: to the menu, we also do remove things, Okay, otherwise.

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Speaker 2: Is that just to like streamline and keep count locations.

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Speaker 4: This idea of ski rationalization and just efficiency for an

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Speaker 4: operation for your prep for just the number of ingredients

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Speaker 4: you have in your restaurant, And if we just kept

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Speaker 4: adding a couple of things every year, you'd wake up

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Speaker 4: ten years later having way too many ingredients, way too

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Speaker 4: complex an operation, and it.

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Speaker 2: Would take customers seven minutes to order now instead.

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Speaker 1: Of I'm surprised though about the beach because one of

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Speaker 1: the stories I remember from years ago was that Sweet

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Speaker 1: Green teamed up with the rapper Kendrick Lamar for a

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Speaker 1: salad called bes Don't Kill My Vibe.

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Speaker 4: That was that was the reference in that.

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Speaker 1: Yah yeah, and the Verge headline I ate a salad

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Speaker 1: named after Kendrick Lamar song anyway. But so actually this

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Speaker 1: reason an interesting question. I mean, I like Sweet Green,

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Speaker 1: I go there. Sometimes I go to Chipotle. Sometimes Chipotle

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem to change it's I mean never once in

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Speaker 1: a while it adds, don't have a new meat, something

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Speaker 1: really similar for the decade or however long. Why is

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Speaker 1: it important to switch it up?

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Speaker 4: You know, today we have two hundred twenty restaurants in

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Speaker 4: twenty states, and we're continuing to grow into different parts

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Speaker 4: of the country and really broaden who our customer is

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Speaker 4: and who we can serve, which is really exciting and

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Speaker 4: so for us, aside from just the seasonality in our

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Speaker 4: ethos and really wanting to celebrate incredible produce and ingredients

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Speaker 4: as they come in and out of season at peak

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Speaker 4: of freshness, it's important for us to just keep evolving

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Speaker 4: and broadening. You know, the addition of protein plates for

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Speaker 4: us was about creating a new occasion and attracting a

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Speaker 4: new consumer that maybe doesn't want to eat a salad,

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Speaker 4: or our existing customers that maybe don't want a salad

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Speaker 4: every day. And you know, especially one of the things

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Speaker 4: we've been hearing from our consumers, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 4: we're reading and seeing all the same things that you

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Speaker 4: all are in the world around value and just the

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Speaker 4: consumer wallet and what they're feeling right now. And customers

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Speaker 4: certainly want value more than ever now. And so as

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Speaker 4: we think about places in the world today to get quick, clean, delicious,

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Speaker 4: healthy dinner options and the convenience and a price that

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Speaker 4: makes sense, you know, it's it's not easy, and so

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Speaker 4: for us to launch something like protein plates, it's what

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Speaker 4: our customers are telling us they would love for dinner.

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Speaker 4: And so to have you know, between fifteen and sixteen

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Speaker 4: bucks a plate of you know, clean, pseudo free cooked

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Speaker 4: proteins and grains that is hardy and delicious really appealed

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Speaker 4: to our consumers and is striking a cord where they

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Speaker 4: are right now.

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Speaker 2: So you mentioned the number of stores that you have,

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Speaker 2: and I think you are rolling out quite a bit

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Speaker 2: outside of the traditional urban centers, so Midtown, Manhattan, LA.

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Speaker 2: Those sorts of places do you find as you open

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Speaker 2: stores outside of cities that tastes are different there versus say,

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Speaker 2: a midtown Manhattan. Is that part of the reason why

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Speaker 2: you've you know, unveiled the new menu.

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Speaker 4: Yes. Overall, you know, I would say it's been exciting

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Speaker 4: for us to really broaden where Swee Green is and

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Speaker 4: who we can serve. And so as we do that,

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Speaker 4: broadening the menu is a really exciting objective. And that

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Speaker 4: doesn't just mean adding new categories like protein plates. You know,

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Speaker 4: over the past year we've also added some really incredible

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Speaker 4: flavors and ingredients on our menu, things like, you know,

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Speaker 4: a really clean barbecue sauce in a barbecue chicken plate

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Speaker 4: and salad that we made with a chef in Chicago

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Speaker 4: named Charlie McKenna who's the world champion of barbecue sauce,

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Speaker 4: and we made a version of his sauce with no

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Speaker 4: refined sugars and according to our ethos and it is delicious,

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Speaker 4: and so thinking about broader flavors and ingredients, more protein

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Speaker 4: at the center of the plate. The protein plates we

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Speaker 4: did launch have up to fifty grams of protein per plate,

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Speaker 4: which the focus on protein right now for consumers is

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Speaker 4: really really big. And so we heard that.

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Speaker 1: From our protein to hot right now.

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Speaker 4: Yes, protein is very hot right now. And ultimately, like

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Speaker 4: anything at Sweet Green, you can come and customize and

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Speaker 4: create what you want. So if you want double protein

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Speaker 4: or no protein, you can really create the mil you want.

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Speaker 1: Talk to us about the intersection of plate design with

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Speaker 1: the food inflation that we've seen over the last few years.

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Speaker 1: I have to imagine that, you know, twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 1: early in Sweet Green era, it probably just wasn't much

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Speaker 1: of a constraint, and I imagine that it's a lot

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Speaker 1: trickier now or maybe more of like an engineering or

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Speaker 1: puzzle problem to solve. Like, Okay, food has gotten a

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Speaker 1: lot more expensive, and so given these constraints and given

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Speaker 1: the desire to like have an economical price point, you

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Speaker 1: have to like solve for X. Talk about plate design

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Speaker 1: in the era of higher commodity costs.

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Speaker 4: You know, for us, as we have scaled and now

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Speaker 4: that we're at a certain size versus you know, ten

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Speaker 4: years ago, it's not just about price and design, and

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Speaker 4: I can talk about that, but it's also about just

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Speaker 4: creating more resilience in our supply chain. So when we

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Speaker 4: do launch something like olive oil or sources an ingredient.

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Speaker 4: You know, we have to think about it at a

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Speaker 4: much different scale and thinking about having secondary and tertiary

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Speaker 4: sources and and so you know, when you have fifty

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Speaker 4: restaurants versus a couple of hundred, just having the resiliency

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Speaker 4: in the supply chain is more critical than ever. But

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Speaker 4: you know, for us, engineering and designing a menu and

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Speaker 4: a plate in these entrees is really starts with a

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Speaker 4: ton of time spent with our customer understanding and not

436
00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,159
Speaker 4: just existing customers, but prospective customers, people that don't to

437
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,199
Speaker 4: Sweet Green, or people that have heard about it and

438
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,440
Speaker 4: have never come, or people that have never heard about it,

439
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 4: so really understanding what would drive intend to purchase for

440
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:09,560
Speaker 4: them and what appeals to them. And then you know,

441
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 4: then we take that's kind of the science side. Then

442
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 4: we take the art side and understand, you know, what

443
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,640
Speaker 4: we think is exciting in food in our supply chain,

444
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:19,440
Speaker 4: what flavors we want to really talk about and celebrate,

445
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 4: and we marry those two things, and we do a

446
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 4: lot of customer testing, So we put a lot of

447
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,159
Speaker 4: products in front of customers to truly understand how it

448
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,959
Speaker 4: makes them feel and how the flavors work. And then ultimately,

449
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,119
Speaker 4: for us, when you talk about inflation and price, we

450
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:35,359
Speaker 4: focus a lot on price value. So you know, we

451
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,480
Speaker 4: spend all this time sourcing really high quality ingredients, creating

452
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:41,439
Speaker 4: this experience in the restaurants where our team members are

453
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:45,480
Speaker 4: taking those ingredients, prepping them from scratch and creating this fresh,

454
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 4: incredible product that then you have all these channels to

455
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 4: interact with, so the convenience of whether it's our app

456
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,880
Speaker 4: or the pickup shelves, and so it's not just about

457
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:56,480
Speaker 4: the price of your menu, it's also the price value

458
00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,000
Speaker 4: and so making sure that whatever the customer is paying,

459
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,160
Speaker 4: they feel like it's worth it and the value is there.

460
00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:02,879
Speaker 4: And so that's why so much of it for us

461
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,159
Speaker 4: is really communicating all the work that goes into the

462
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,560
Speaker 4: quality of our ingredients and getting credit for that. And

463
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 4: all of oil Change was one of those examples where

464
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 4: we really want to tell this story. And you know,

465
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 4: for us, we were the first national change to really

466
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 4: use clean oils and talk about it, and so you know,

467
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,040
Speaker 4: we're excited to see if that continues to spread in

468
00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:21,679
Speaker 4: the industry, if other folks will do that, and there

469
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:23,680
Speaker 4: are some other great, you know concepts out there talking

470
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 4: about this, but at scale, we haven't really seen that.

471
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:28,639
Speaker 4: So it's exciting to see and talk about those things.

472
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 4: So ultimately customers can come to Sweet Green and say, Okay,

473
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 4: this feels worth it the values here for what I'm paying.

474
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,880
Speaker 2: Nick, you keep mentioning scale, which you know fair enough.

475
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,200
Speaker 2: You're still a young company and you're still clearly growing.

476
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 2: But I guess I'm curious, like how important is scale

477
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:50,560
Speaker 2: to the overall strategy to achieve profitability? And I think

478
00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 2: you were profitable in a recent quarter on an adjusted

479
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,640
Speaker 2: ebit daw basis, so like there is some progress there,

480
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,239
Speaker 2: But do you need to get to a certain in

481
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,680
Speaker 2: size in order to have pricing power in the market

482
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 2: for things like ingredients or maybe even labor in order

483
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 2: to start making profits on a sort of regular basis.

484
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:14,920
Speaker 4: You know, scale is definitely important. And you know, as

485
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,760
Speaker 4: we have made so many incredible investments over the last

486
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 4: few years in our technology, our supply chain, continuing to

487
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,159
Speaker 4: leverage our GNA and our home office to really you know,

488
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 4: create that path of profitability. We have had two quarters

489
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 4: of adjustity bit of profitability, so we are excited about

490
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,919
Speaker 4: the progress and well on our way. And you know,

491
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 4: but when you talk about scale, you know, two hundred

492
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 4: and twenty something restaurants sounds big, and it certainly would

493
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:37,800
Speaker 4: have sounded big to me a few years ago, but

494
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 4: it is still very small relative to the opportunity we

495
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:45,119
Speaker 4: have in fast food and in our category. And you

496
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 4: look at so many of these larger competitors in there

497
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,199
Speaker 4: are thousands, if not tens of thousands of restaurants, and

498
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 4: so sixteen years in two hundred twenty restaurants, we still

499
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 4: think we are very early in our journey, and so

500
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,160
Speaker 4: we're excited to build sustained and profitable growth and really,

501
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 4: you know, in this time, more than ever, being really

502
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 4: disciplined about the growth. You know, we opened in five

503
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 4: new states in the past twelve to eighteen months and

504
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,639
Speaker 4: bringing speakering to communities and states where we probably rewind

505
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 4: ten years ago, maybe didn't think we'd get to.

506
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: What's Where's that?

507
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 4: You know, We've had really exciting growth in the Midwest,

508
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 4: so opening in Indiana, in Michigan, in you know, all

509
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,159
Speaker 4: over the Chicago area, and it's been really exciting to

510
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 4: see in Minneapolis, really excited to see our growth there

511
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 4: and how the brand was received, and that's a really

512
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:27,879
Speaker 4: exciting growth there also.

513
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 2: How seasonal are sales in places like the Midwest. I'm

514
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 2: just curious when it's really cold, I personally do not

515
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 2: crave a salad, although I admire your objectives to make

516
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:42,880
Speaker 2: craveable options for presumably year round, But do you see

517
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 2: like a big dip in places like Minneapolis in the winter.

518
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: Unlike say La where I'm at. Yeah, that's all people

519
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,360
Speaker 1: want to eat three hundred and sixty five days a year.

520
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 4: You know, we've had one full winter in the broader Midwest.

521
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 4: But we do see seasonality, right, and I think a

522
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 4: lot of restaurants do. But I think with our product,

523
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 4: especially the South category, we do see more seasonality that

524
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,720
Speaker 4: affects it. We have. You know, actually the larger category

525
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 4: on our menu is more the warm bowls, so things

526
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 4: that have hardier grains and more proteins in them. And then, honestly,

527
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 4: that was part of the intention of the protein plates

528
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 4: was also to think about if you are a sweeperen

529
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,160
Speaker 4: eater and you've eaten, you know, a lot of salad,

530
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 4: you know, once a week or twice a week in

531
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,399
Speaker 4: the summer and fall when winter hits and it's just

532
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 4: one of those days where you want something a little hardier,

533
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 4: or you want something for dinner and it just isn't

534
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 4: a salad even you know, the greatest of salad eaters

535
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 4: don't want to eat that every single day. And so

536
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,360
Speaker 4: really starting to create that range and breath on our

537
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,200
Speaker 4: menu for existing and new consumers that just hits a

538
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 4: different need state. It's satiating in a different way. And

539
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 4: so it's been really exciting to see even early on

540
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 4: just the effect on dinner and then now as we

541
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 4: enter the winter, to really see how protein plates will perform.

542
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 4: We just launched it six weeks ago, but the signs

543
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 4: have been really exciting so far.

544
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Midwest a little bit more specifically.

545
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: You recently opened up a robotic concept in Naperville, Illinois,

546
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: in which robots make the sale it and I have

547
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: to imagine that there's a lot of interest in a

548
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: lot of people these days for service automation, given tightness

549
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: of the labor markets, etc. What is the hardest part

550
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 1: about automating the process of making a salad.

551
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,120
Speaker 4: So we did open our first automated sweet green in Naperville,

552
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 4: Illinois about six months ago. We acquired an incredibly talented

553
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 4: group of individuals with a company called Spice two years

554
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 4: ago and have since started building the Sweet Green version

555
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 4: of that machine called the Infinite Kitchen, and so we

556
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 4: launched it six months ago. And really so much about

557
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 4: designing this format and that restaurant was you know, the

558
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 4: technology was really important in the actual automation and the robotics,

559
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 4: but it was more about the full experience that wraps

560
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 4: it and thinking about today they experience our customers are

561
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:00,200
Speaker 4: going from where they walk into a restaurant. You know,

562
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 4: they're pointing at their ingredients on a line, interacting with

563
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 4: a team member, but also thinking about the friction that

564
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 4: exists in this existing format of I'm sure you've been

565
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 4: into a Sweet Green at peak lunch and it can

566
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 4: be intense, right There's a line out the door. People

567
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 4: are trying to move fast, people want to order, things

568
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,959
Speaker 4: are flying, things are going fast, and you know, our

569
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 4: team members, who do an incredible job, you know, have

570
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 4: to be fast, friendly and accurate at the same time,

571
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 4: which is really hard. And so for us, you know,

572
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 4: understanding what we love about our current format and experience

573
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 4: and what friction we want to create. So much of

574
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 4: the work was more around the experience we wanted to

575
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,359
Speaker 4: build around the automation and thinking about the different roles

576
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 4: and how the team members play a role that is

577
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 4: actually more around hospitality and less surround assembly. So the

578
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 4: infinite kitchen assembles the meal, but our team members now

579
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,120
Speaker 4: get to really spend their time interacting with customers more

580
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 4: focused on hospitality, maybe talking to them about our supply chain.

581
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: I just want to drive home this question though, of

582
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 1: like the Salid construction challenge, because especially I have to imagine,

583
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,919
Speaker 1: you know, the hospitality component for say like restaurants that

584
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 1: are making doing a lot of money on delivery, so

585
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: it's not as important. What did the change? I was

586
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: in San Francisco one time and I went to a

587
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: robotic coffee shop. It was truly a terrible experience, Like

588
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 1: I don't know, they just I can't imagine how they

589
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:16,719
Speaker 1: screwed it up so badly, and I don't think it's

590
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,399
Speaker 1: there anymore. But what is the actual constraint? Because I

591
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:21,920
Speaker 1: watched the video of how the Naperville thing works looks

592
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:25,719
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward, etc. So from a sort of like workflow

593
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: operations standpoint, a lot of economists businesses must be really

594
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: interested in how much service sector work can be automated.

595
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 4: What makes it hard, well, you know, to your point,

596
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 4: I do believe that fast forward, in the next decade

597
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 4: or beyond, automation will play a role in food right

598
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 4: and in restaurants. I think it will have to, and

599
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 4: I think it shifts that team member experience, it shifts

600
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 4: the experience for the customer. And what makes it hard

601
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 4: is just the technology. There's no off the shelf solutions

602
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 4: don't exist today, and every restaurant has different menus of

603
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 4: the different ingredients that need to be handled differently. I

604
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 4: think you're starting to see, you know, there are many

605
00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 4: automated solutions in coffee, they're some in pizza. You know,

606
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 4: you're starting to see some more spot automation where they

607
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 4: can do one task, you know, or one discrete task.

608
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 4: The Infinite kitchen for us that was built at Sweet Green, it,

609
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 4: you know, assembles the majority of the meal and then

610
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 4: there's a finishing station where our team member gets to

611
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 4: finish the bowl or plate with you know, the fresh

612
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 4: herbs or the piece of protein or a sauce, and

613
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 4: then it's handed to the customer by the team members.

614
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 4: So the idea was of the transaction even though your

615
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 4: bowl is mostly assembled by this automated machine starts and

616
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 4: ends with human hands, and there is this opportunity for

617
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 4: more hospitality in a commer environment. And there's all these

618
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 4: other benefits that really start to create a ton of

619
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,719
Speaker 4: value for the customer on perfect accuracy in the machine,

620
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 4: perfect portioning, perfect temperature control speed.

621
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: You know, so this is coming, this is coming.

622
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 4: We're actually opening our second one in a few days

623
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 4: in California.

624
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 2: What about simpler automation? And I think when we hear

625
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 2: salad making robots, you know, everyone has a vision of

626
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 2: a robot chopping up let us or something like that.

627
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 2: But you could have automation on things like salad dressing

628
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 2: so you can pre mix the salad dressings and maybe

629
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 2: that saves costs. So something a little bit less high tech.

630
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 4: I guess yeah. I think there will be a number

631
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 4: of solutions from small, discrete tasks that are automated to

632
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 4: larger you know, full concepts automated or the next couple years.

633
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 4: And you know, like I said, you're seeing that today,

634
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 4: which is exciting. Over the past decade, there was a

635
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 4: ton of funding that went into so many of these startups,

636
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 4: and I think the environment's a little tougher today obviously

637
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 4: in that world. That's what we were really excited to

638
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 4: partner with and acquire the Spice team because they're brilliant

639
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 4: and the technology they had built was really wonderful, and

640
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 4: so marrying that with our brand and our food has

641
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 4: really been an incredible combination. But you know, today the

642
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 4: Infinite Kitchen does do assembly, dressing, dispensing, and mixing, so

643
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 4: it has it does the majority of the process and

644
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 4: then a few things are finished at the end by hand.

645
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 4: But it's been really incredible to watch that experience and

646
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 4: how consumers are interacting with it.

647
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more about the

648
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: labor market, and I think I read in your last

649
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: earning call, Munch like much of the economy things you're

650
00:30:57,400 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: getting a little bit easier, looks like on the hiring side,

651
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 1: on the wage side, etc. But what I'm curious about

652
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 1: in particular is during the sort of peak of the

653
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: labor market Titaness maybe twenty one early twenty twenty two,

654
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: when so many companies were expressing frustration about hiring, how

655
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 1: do you sort of keep up a minimum quality expectation.

656
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: You talked about that hospitality and people having a certain

657
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: expectation of what it's going to be like when they

658
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: go into a sweet green and at the time of

659
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: high churn, difficulty hiring, et cetera. Talk to us about

660
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: the process of maintaining that When I imagine an employee who's

661
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: been there three years is much better than the person

662
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: who's been on the job three days, how do you

663
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: maintain that quality at a time of a lot of

664
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: I guess, very green, fresh employees.

665
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 4: Great question, you know, I think the last couple of

666
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,320
Speaker 4: years was really challenging in so many ways. I think,

667
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 4: you know, obviously, at the peak of COVID, so much

668
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 4: of the operation and the experience for a team member,

669
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,680
Speaker 4: not only the customer, but for the team member was

670
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 4: totally flipped around, right, wearing masks while you're working, having

671
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,920
Speaker 4: these plexi screens, and having all this different like safety protocol,

672
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 4: which was all there for a reason, and like you know,

673
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 4: we had to move fast on so much of that stuff,

674
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 4: but it did alter and shift the team member experience

675
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 4: pretty radically. And I forget the exact number, but our

676
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 4: industry did lose millions of workers during that time, and

677
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 4: so it was really challenging. What's really been exciting about

678
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 4: this year is as we have seen labor markets ease

679
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 4: is you know, we have seen our turnover come down,

680
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 4: which has been really exciting and to your point, having

681
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 4: team members that are here and passionate about the mission

682
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 4: and you know, being developed and growing in the organization

683
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 4: is just a wonderful thing for both sides. But whenever

684
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 4: the labor markets are hard or even now, the focus

685
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 4: for us is really on just like we listen to

686
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 4: our customers, spending as much time listening to our team

687
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 4: members and understanding how we can better the team member experience.

688
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 4: And that's everything from uniforms to wage, to training modules

689
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 4: to physical experience in the restaurants, and so we spend

690
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 4: a lot of time really understanding how we can consistently

691
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 4: improve the team member experience and just continue to invest

692
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 4: in them.

693
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 2: So the other thing that seems to get people worked

694
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 2: up on the internet, aside from seed, oils and beats,

695
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 2: is tipping.

696
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,240
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, an iPad.

697
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 2: Yes on a screen, And I think this is something

698
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 2: you recently started incorporating into the business model. So I

699
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 2: have so many questions on this issue, and we've been

700
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 2: meaning to do an episode exclusively on tipping for a while,

701
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 2: but we haven't quite gotten around to it. But first

702
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 2: of all, why did you decide to do that? Second

703
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 2: of all, what's been the customer response? And I guess

704
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,959
Speaker 2: like third of all, the question that everyone asks on

705
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 2: this issue is always why are the customers subsidizing the

706
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 2: labor costs of a company?

707
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 4: Great question? And when I talk about spending a lot

708
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 4: of time understanding and talking to the team members and

709
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 4: just understanding the landscape out there, tipping was the number

710
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 4: one thing we really heard from our team members that

711
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 4: they value and that you know quite often have at

712
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 4: other places. And so you know, the back end of

713
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 4: how you actually bring that to life can be pretty complex.

714
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 4: It's different state by state, different channel by channel, with

715
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 4: whether you know whether it's on the app or and

716
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:02,080
Speaker 4: person or so integrating all the different technology behind the

717
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 4: scenes to bring that to life is pretty complex. So

718
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 4: I mean shout out to our tech team and our CTO,

719
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 4: but it was a pretty big project. And what was

720
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:11,279
Speaker 4: the change tipping adding?

721
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 2: They didn't have it before where you could optionally adding.

722
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 4: Tipping for our team members and keep going, Yeah, show.

723
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,240
Speaker 2: Does this mean you're not tipping your sweet green makers?

724
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 2: You haven't noticed?

725
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: Can I don't listen? So I haven't been going on

726
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 1: the sweet green light. It's just anyway, keep going. That's

727
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: the only reason I hadn't.

728
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 4: Noticed have to get you back to try to play.

729
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: It will come back from the Yeah, keep going.

730
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:36,399
Speaker 4: And so, you know, this is something we constantly heard

731
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,240
Speaker 4: from our team members when we wanted to round tables,

732
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,400
Speaker 4: and we just you know, spend time with them understanding

733
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 4: how we can improve the team member value, prop and experience.

734
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 4: And so we spent a year building thiscent And like

735
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 4: I said that, the back end of how this comes

736
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 4: to life is pretty complex.

737
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 2: Uh. I had no idea it was that complicated because

738
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 2: I always assumed like it was something provided by like

739
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 2: the payment vendor, and you could just like plug and play.

740
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 4: You know, it depends what you're existing tech infrastructures of

741
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 4: who your payment provider is, who the pos is, you know,

742
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:06,840
Speaker 4: what your at, what your app is built on. You know,

743
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:08,879
Speaker 4: state We're in twenty states, so the state by state

744
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 4: regulation makes it all so more complex. But you know,

745
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 4: it's it's a pretty hairy thing to build, but our

746
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 4: team built it. They did it brilliantly. We spent a

747
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 4: lot of time talking to team members and customers to

748
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 4: understand even the details of the experience of what are

749
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 4: the prompts, what you know, how these would make you feel,

750
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 4: and did a test and it's been really incredible to

751
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 4: see the results so far. I mean, our team members

752
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,840
Speaker 4: are really pleased. It's adding you know, a great amount

753
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 4: to their to their wage. And the most exciting thing

754
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 4: is we do believe there is inherently like a service flywheel.

755
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 4: Hear right, So team members know that, you know, the

756
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 4: hospitality is incentivized, and so it makes them care about

757
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 4: that customer experience even more.

758
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 2: But I guess the thing I don't get about optional

759
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:50,399
Speaker 2: tipping for something like a bowl or a salad chain

760
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 2: is like, first of all, you know, you talked about

761
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,720
Speaker 2: the importance of hospitality training anyway, so presumably like everyone

762
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 2: should be really friendly. But then I'm also tipping, first off,

763
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,759
Speaker 2: before I've even eaten it, and it's hard for me

764
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,840
Speaker 2: to judge like the quality of the salad bowl construction

765
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 2: before I've actually tasted it. So I guess probably, like

766
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 2: a lot of people, I feel guilty enough that I

767
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,439
Speaker 2: will do the optional tipping, but like I also feel

768
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,840
Speaker 2: a little bit annoyed about it because I'm not sure

769
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 2: what I'm tipping for.

770
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 4: You know, that's a great point. I think for us,

771
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 4: the experience is built in a way where you know,

772
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 4: consumers can self select into tipping or not tipping, and

773
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 4: we didn't want to add that pressure. And so you know,

774
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:31,320
Speaker 4: one of the prompts is no tip, and it's you know,

775
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 4: I think you go to some places today and it's

776
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:34,399
Speaker 4: like thirty thirty five.

777
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, the minimum is now like forty percent

778
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 2: or I.

779
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,360
Speaker 1: Saw one where it was like twenty five twenty thirty

780
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 1: and so they like switched up the order or something

781
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: like that. So the button were you into, it would anyway.

782
00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so for us, there's a lot of intentionality

783
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 4: and all the details there. And funny enough, we're also

784
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 4: getting a lot of requests from customers that wanted to

785
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,839
Speaker 4: tip that right, we're going into their sneakering every day,

786
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:57,360
Speaker 4: that had their favorite team member that had you know,

787
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 4: they were there were just regulars and they said, I

788
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 4: wanted to I want to, like I want to connect

789
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 4: with my team members and reward them for the incredible

790
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 4: service and they make my day. And so for us,

791
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 4: this was just something we you know, we were really

792
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 4: excited to launch, both for team members and customers, and

793
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:12,879
Speaker 4: we think the experience we built around it is really

794
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 4: thoughtful and intentional to let customer self select into whatever

795
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 4: journey they want there.

796
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:18,920
Speaker 1: You know, as Tracy mentioned, this is one of those

797
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:21,359
Speaker 1: things that on the Internet people are really annoyed by.

798
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised that the employees would like it because

799
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: it seems like almost total, you know, pretty straightforward goes

800
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: right to the wage line. Have you seen any pushback?

801
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:36,200
Speaker 1: Did the whining online translate into any less activity?

802
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 4: You know, it's still pretty It's still pretty early for us,

803
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,399
Speaker 4: so we are still learning and watching. So far it's

804
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 4: been really positive. Like anything we were all out, whether

805
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,560
Speaker 4: it's menu or features like tipping or you know, we're

806
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 4: learning and evolving as we need to. But so far

807
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 4: it's been really positive.

808
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:54,000
Speaker 2: I recently learned there's an actual terminology for the idea

809
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 2: of companies becoming more sophisticated with their pricing options. It's

810
00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 2: called price pack architecture.

811
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 1: I never heard of it.

812
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hadn't heard it either, But I do feel

813
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,800
Speaker 2: like this is becoming more of a thing for companies,

814
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 2: where like the goal is to offer a suite of

815
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:13,000
Speaker 2: price options so you have a cheaper thing for people

816
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 2: who want that, but you also have the premium products.

817
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 2: You also now have the option to add twenty percent

818
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 2: onto you know, the cost in return for service is

819
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 2: that something that you're you're mindful of as a growth company.

820
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:31,240
Speaker 4: It is, And as we really expand all these different

821
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:34,320
Speaker 4: places around the country and really get excited about welcoming

822
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:37,720
Speaker 4: new customers into Sweet Green into the funnel, the pricing

823
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:39,840
Speaker 4: strategy is really built on just having that range of

824
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,440
Speaker 4: prices so entry points for different people. You know, we

825
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 4: have a bowl on our menu that starts under ten

826
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 4: bucks in every market, So if you want to self

827
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 4: select into that, you can. If you want to do

828
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 4: triple protein and add everything into your bowl or plate,

829
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 4: you can get you know, a very expensive plate that

830
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 4: fits your needs and fits what you're looking for. But

831
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, it also does come

832
00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 4: back to the idea of price value that I talked

833
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 4: about so often. Customers, you know, what we hear and

834
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,359
Speaker 4: what we know is that regardless of the price they're paying,

835
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,879
Speaker 4: it's more about was it worth that price? And so

836
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 4: but the range making sure that you know, consumers can

837
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 4: self select into whatever price they want, and you know,

838
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 4: it also connects their frequency. We have customers that are

839
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 4: coming to Spee Green quite often. We have a loyalty

840
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 4: program that has a subscription piece as well for those

841
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,879
Speaker 4: highly frequent guests. That creates some value there as well.

842
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 1: Tracy, now that you're getting into deadlifting, you got to

843
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:28,960
Speaker 1: get the protein plate with the triple protein.

844
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 2: I'm not getting into deadlifting at all right now. My

845
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 2: capacity to deadlift is absolutely zero. So for people who

846
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 2: don't know, I have like a tendonitis type thing that

847
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:42,400
Speaker 2: is flaring up again and I can barely like lift

848
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 2: my phone, let alone weights. But I appreciate all the

849
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 2: guys online who are telling me to use straps when like,

850
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,360
Speaker 2: just to be clear, I am not going to be

851
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,240
Speaker 2: deadlifting at all in the foreseeable future.

852
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I guess you don't need the triple protein.

853
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:02,359
Speaker 1: Let's talk about introed this conversation by saying, what's great

854
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: about a bowl of anything is I can eat it

855
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 1: at my desk in my office while and sort of

856
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 1: just stare at the screen and consume calories. What have

857
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: you seen in terms of work from home offices. I'm

858
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,400
Speaker 1: sure you did not anticipate the degree of working from

859
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 1: home and the changing of urban centers and delivery, all

860
00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 1: these different things when you started it, And obviously the

861
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,560
Speaker 1: work environment in twenty twenty three is very different than

862
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:28,960
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. What does that meant for Sweet Green in

863
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:30,040
Speaker 1: the business model?

864
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 4: You know, over the last couple of years, we have

865
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:34,360
Speaker 4: seen our consumer shift around a lot, just like everyone

866
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,439
Speaker 4: in the industry. What was fortunate for us was, even

867
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:40,359
Speaker 4: pre COVID, we had started shifting a lot of our

868
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,440
Speaker 4: pipeline and our growth into suburban centers. And for the

869
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 4: past few years, the majority of our growth and openings

870
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 4: have been in more suburban residential areas, so our footprint

871
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 4: has become more balanced. And over the last couple of years,

872
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 4: there's been certain assumptions that you know, everyone has made

873
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 4: around return to work and what's going to look like,

874
00:40:57,600 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 4: and I think the world is kind of we've all

875
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 4: been wrong. So I think we've just accepted that where

876
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 4: it is today is maybe where it's days, and we're

877
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 4: building our business around that. And what's really exciting is

878
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 4: seeing I think, as we brought in our menu and

879
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 4: we have all these channels, things like delivery and pick up,

880
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 4: just seeing people fall into their new rhythms and behaviors

881
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 4: wherever they are working or living, and so it's been

882
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 4: really exciting to see the strength of our suburban restaurants

883
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 4: and seeing people really incorporate that into their routine versus

884
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 4: before it might have just been the place they get

885
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:27,320
Speaker 4: lunch in their office.

886
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 2: So we started this conversation talking about hatred for seed oils,

887
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 2: and you mentioned that proteins are becoming a thing as hot. Yeah,

888
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 2: they're very hot. Right now, what's the next thing on

889
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,759
Speaker 2: the horizon, like the next food related matter that we

890
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 2: can all obsess over.

891
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 4: You know? For us, I do think oils and the

892
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 4: fat quality. I think it will be a huge conversation

893
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:49,359
Speaker 4: that will grow, and that's why we decided to make

894
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 4: the investment. I think if you look at even the

895
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 4: data of the caloric consumption and how much of the

896
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 4: average person's daily calorie intake is coming from these highly

897
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 4: processed oils, it has increased so much in the past

898
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:02,759
Speaker 4: couple of decades, and it's in everything. So I think

899
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 4: that visibility and transparency for consumers is going to be

900
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,320
Speaker 4: a huge topic of conversation. And obviously, when you connectet

901
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 4: to like just the metabolic state of things in this

902
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 4: country and chronic disease, I think there's a much bigger conversation.

903
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I had the same thought when you

904
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:21,360
Speaker 1: said metabolic. But how are you thinking about anticipating the

905
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,880
Speaker 1: world in which more and more of your customers may

906
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 1: be on ozempic or a gop one? And I have

907
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 1: to imagine, unlike some other you know, you're probably a

908
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 1: higher end consumer, typically people who can perhaps afford it

909
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 1: more easily at the current price points. Have you seen

910
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: anything now or more importantly, perhaps, are you thinking of

911
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,879
Speaker 1: anything strategically in terms of a world in which many

912
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 1: more people are on these drugs, you.

913
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 4: Know, just like anything that grows really quickly, we're watching

914
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 4: it and learning and trying to understand. I think what

915
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:50,799
Speaker 4: it's really exciting for the type of food we serve

916
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 4: is whether you're on something like ozembic, or you're you know,

917
00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:55,759
Speaker 4: just trying to create a different lifestyle, or just you

918
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:57,839
Speaker 4: want food that makes you feel good. Sweet green kind

919
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 4: of fits all those use cases. I think folks that

920
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 4: are on a product like ozempic or probably cutting out

921
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 4: more of the higher chloric less you know, clean food options.

922
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 4: And so we're watching it, we're learning, we're you know,

923
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 4: we're trying to understand how our consumer is shifting. But ultimately,

924
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:16,280
Speaker 4: I think what's really exciting is as our menu gets broader,

925
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 4: I think it creates more reasons for customers to come

926
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,279
Speaker 4: to Secred, not just for health or for you know,

927
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 4: caloric or metabolic reasons. But that ends up being like

928
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 4: a plus on the back end. They eating something that

929
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 4: is cravable and that you know, satiating, but that also

930
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:29,399
Speaker 4: is good for you.

931
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 2: I feel like we have to get Sweet Green for

932
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:33,520
Speaker 2: lunch now, it's like mandatory.

933
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 1: Definitely. Yes, I'm sorry, I haven't been to one a

934
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:37,600
Speaker 1: few years. I'll start going, So where.

935
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:38,200
Speaker 4: Are you going to lunch?

936
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 1: There's a knockoff Cova a couple of blocks away. I

937
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: forget what it's called. It's just it's like the same thing,

938
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: it's a little worse. And I go to the Dig.

939
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 1: The dig it is so mainly because it's like literally love.

940
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I want to I'll check out.

941
00:43:58,280 --> 00:43:59,720
Speaker 4: I'll go to this. I say that as a broader

942
00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 4: common of the rest of the industry, a.

943
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: Little subtweet of the industry. Now, that was a lot

944
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 1: of fun.

945
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, of course, Tracy.

946
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:20,240
Speaker 1: That was fun. We should go we definitely we should

947
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 1: go to a Sweet Green to and test it out.

948
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 1: I'm going to get one of those triple protein bowls

949
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 1: to max it out.

950
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 2: I have a real craving for protein now.

951
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a major protein craving right now, and

952
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,400
Speaker 1: I'm going to put the max tip option.

953
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 4: Yeah.

954
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 2: That was a really interesting conversation and we kind of

955
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 2: hit a lot of the big talking points in consumer goods. Well,

956
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 2: is it a good in food right now? Yeah, like

957
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:48,279
Speaker 2: the idea of labor costs, the addition of tipping, and

958
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 2: how maybe that helps a little bit on the labor

959
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,880
Speaker 2: market tightness. Although, as Nick said, like the worst of

960
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 2: that seems to be over the sophistication in pricing. I

961
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:01,120
Speaker 2: feel like that's a real trend, and it is true.

962
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:04,280
Speaker 2: I don't know how many of the apps you've signed

963
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:06,880
Speaker 2: up for, but it is true that you can get

964
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,239
Speaker 2: a lot lower prices through like the loyalty programs for

965
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: a lot of chains.

966
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 1: Right now, just so lazy put in your email.

967
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 4: You should do it.

968
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:17,839
Speaker 1: It's it's download an app. It's worth it. Joe, all right,

969
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 1: maybe maybe I will no, But that was that was

970
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 1: a really fun conversation. You know, it is pretty striking

971
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 1: to switch to olive oils given that chart yeah, a

972
00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 1: wild chart.

973
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, it will be interesting to see whether or not

974
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:32,280
Speaker 2: it normalizes and how quickly.

975
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: Also, I want to do more tracy on the roboticization

976
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:41,960
Speaker 1: of services, especially at a delivery Uber Eeds, Seamless, all

977
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 1: of these different grub hub whatever it's called. You know,

978
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 1: you don't care about the hospitality experience in those conditions. Intuitively,

979
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,319
Speaker 1: you would think that there's a lot of opportunity and

980
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 1: demand from the business side to find ways to automate

981
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: the creation of people's lunches. But it really just like

982
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: has not taken off so far at all. And like

983
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: I said, I went into a coffee shop. Coaffee I

984
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: would think should be really like the easy one, and

985
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: it is a terrible experience. So I wanted to have

986
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: a better understanding, like what really is the constraint? Is

987
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 1: it scale? Is it the fact that there's nothing off

988
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:13,879
Speaker 1: the shelf? What isn't Just to.

989
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 2: Be clear, it hasn't taken off in the US. I

990
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:20,239
Speaker 2: mean I remember, like twenty years ago in Tokyo you

991
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 2: had robotic servers like you would actually order through. It

992
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 2: wasn't an app back then, but it was like a

993
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 2: little machine at the table and then someone would bring

994
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:32,320
Speaker 2: it out to you, and that was like a fairly

995
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:35,760
Speaker 2: normal thing at Izakayah's, but it's taken a lot longer.

996
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: The assembly side st Yeah.

997
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 2: The assembly side seems difficult, but again, like there's gradations

998
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 2: of assembly. So you can have like a giant mixer

999
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 2: that's mixing salad dressing and that seems fairly easy to do,

1000
00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:51,800
Speaker 2: versus like an actual, you know, Jetson style robot that's

1001
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 2: like washing and cutting up the lettuce.

1002
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 1: We gotta do more robotics. I feel like service. Like

1003
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 1: this is a sort of fact about the economy, which

1004
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:05,400
Speaker 1: is that manufactured goods tend to see productivity gains over time,

1005
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:08,719
Speaker 1: and services tend to have stagnant productivity, at least as

1006
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 1: far as the best we can measure them. But if

1007
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:13,280
Speaker 1: we had like a sort of chat GPT of robots,

1008
00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: an actual Google, an actual good robot, which I don't

1009
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,000
Speaker 1: think many exist so far, but if we had one,

1010
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 1: maybe we would actually see some productivity games.

1011
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 2: It is true there does seem to have been this

1012
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:25,879
Speaker 2: like huge gap between the amount of money going into

1013
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:28,320
Speaker 2: robotics versus the amount of money going into AI.

1014
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 4: Right, so we have all this.

1015
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,919
Speaker 2: Artificial intelligence, but we don't actually have the like physical

1016
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 2: machinery to put some of it to use.

1017
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 1: Johnny five, Yeah, not feeling all right?

1018
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:38,799
Speaker 2: Shall we leave it there?

1019
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: Let's leave it there.

1020
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 2: This has been another episode of the All Thoughts podcast.

1021
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,320
Speaker 2: I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway.

1022
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:48,280
Speaker 1: And I'm Joe Wisenthal. You can follow me at the Stalwart.

1023
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 1: Follow Nicholas. He's at Nicholas where he is monitoring your

1024
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: tweets about seed oils. Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at

1025
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 1: Carmen armand Dash Bennett at dashbod and Kale Brooks at Kalebrooks.

1026
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:04,839
Speaker 1: And thank you to our producer Moses Ondam. From our

1027
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,919
Speaker 1: Odlots content, go to Bloomberg dot com slash odd lots,

1028
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,759
Speaker 1: where we have a blog transcript and the newsletter, and

1029
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,680
Speaker 1: check out our discord Discord dot gg slash odd lots.

1030
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,359
Speaker 2: And if you enjoy odd Lots, if you want us

1031
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 2: to do more episodes on either seed oils or robots,

1032
00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:23,480
Speaker 2: then please leave us a positive review on your favorite

1033
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:25,560
Speaker 2: podcast platform. Thanks for listening.