Every food trend eventually runs its course, or just recedes to become part of the culinary landscape. That’s arguably what has happened to build-your-own-salad or grain bowls, the once-hot office lunches that are now often and perhaps unfairly derided as “slop bowls.” That shift in taste leaves companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Sweetgreen, and Cava, which built large businesses on the popularity of bowl-based food, scrambling to reinvent their offerings.
So-called bowl fatigue and high menu prices have led to often softer business at companies forming the vanguard of this food movement. This week, Sweetgreen, where business has been slow, said it was introducing wraps in select U.S. markets, touting the food trend you might remember from the 1990s as a “handheld format designed to deliver the portability and satisfaction guests crave.”
“We expect wraps to be a huge moment for our brand,” Sweetgreen cofounder and CEO Jonathan Neman told Wall Street analysts on Thursday afternoon on a call to discuss financial results. And wraps are on offer up at a number of the chain’s rivals, too: Chopt, Just Salad, and even McDonald’s and Popeyes.
With its shrinking customer base, Sweetgreen has a lot riding on these wraps: chicken Caesar, chicken jalapeño ranch, and chicken salad bacon club. On Thursday, Sweetgreen posted an 11.5% year-over-year decrease in same-store sales (including restaurants open for at least one year) in its most recent quarter. Its shares have fallen 90% since its IPO in 2021.
