Sweetgreen

Three Georgetown students set up a salad booth at a festival on the National Mall. Every other vendor sold hot dogs and beer. They sold bowls at thirteen to fifteen dollars. People bought them because nothing else was healthy. The demand was invisible until someone created supply. The booth worked, so they opened a restaurant in Washington DC. The menu didn't say mixed greens—it said Lyonsville Orchard lettuce. Not tomatoes—Striped Zebra tomatoes from Miller Farm. The farm name was on the board. A five dollar salad became a fifteen dollar experience because customers were buying a specific place and person who grew the food. The transparency was radical. Most chains minimized sourcing. Sweetgreen made it the story. Food cost ran thirty to thirty two percent per bowl. Labour and occupancy consumed another fifty to fifty five percent. Store-level margins landed at ten to fifteen percent. Revenue per location averaged two point five to three million a year.