Sweetgreen Is Banking On The Return To The Office

Salad-centric restaurant Sweetgreen has emerged from the depths of the pandemic triumphant thanks to its digital savviness.

Now, CEO Johnathan Neman feels that “Covid’s over” and is asking employees to return to its Culver City, California offices on July 19.

Sweetgreen customers largely include office workers in cities, especially younger generations. Moving forward, it is eager to ramp up its services to white-collar professionals in large cities like Los Angeles and New York, which experienced major turbulence during the pandemic.

“It has definitely been challenging, especially in the cities that had a full shutdown,” said Neman.

Prior to the pandemic, Sweetgreen had over 1,000 outposts, which are its pickup locations in places like corporate offices and hospitals. As the threat of Covid-19 subsides in some areas, the company now has around 250 operating.

Neman added he expects a bump in business as people return to the office, especially following Labor Day in September.

“The office is not dead — I do think that sitting behind a screen all day created burnout,” said Neman. “I land a little bit more in a moderate world, where the world’s probably not going 100 percent back to where it was, but I also don’t think the world is going full-on work from home.”