Sweetgreen Investment: Crypto Bull’s Unconventional Take on Food-Tech Disruption

Forget traditional metrics—this salad chain's digital transformation mirrors crypto's disruptive potential.

The Digital-First Revolution

Sweetgreen's blockchain-level supply chain transparency and app-driven ordering system bypasses legacy restaurant models. Their loyalty program operates like a well-designed token economy—creating sticky customer behavior that traditional analysts consistently undervalue.

Financial Reality Check

While Wall Street obsesses over quarterly same-store sales, they're missing the bigger picture: Sweetgreen's building infrastructure for the future of food consumption. Their tech stack adoption rate outpaces most fintech apps—proving consumers crave efficiency in every transaction, whether buying Bitcoin or kale Caesar.

The Verdict

Sweetgreen represents food-tech convergence at its finest. In a world where digital natives prioritize seamless experiences over tradition, this chain's positioned to eat Wall Street's lunch—literally and figuratively. Just don't expect conventional analysts to understand disruption until it's already priced in.

Image source: Getty Images.

Skip this meal

historically set the tone in the sector, proving that a fast-casual model could thrive. Sweetgreen followed this path, focusing on healthy salads and grain bowls. But it's been struggling mightily this year, so it's best that investors don't buy shares.

During the second fiscal quarter (ended June 29), Sweetgreen reported a worrying 7.6% year-over-year decline in same-store sales (SSS), which is a critical metric for restaurant and retail investors to follow closely. Annual unit volumes also fell to $2.8 million.

Macro uncertainty is hitting the consumer, who's being discerning with how they spend. And Sweetgreen is showing that it's much more sensitive to economic forces.

Cheap for a reason

Sweetgreen isn't profitable. It posted an operating loss of $26.4 million during Q2. It's generally a very risky proposition to invest in companies that aren't yet registering positive earnings on a consistent basis. It's anyone's guess when the business will reach this important milestone.

Management expects SSS to drop 5% (at the midpoint) for the full fiscal year of 2025. It could take some time for things to improve for Sweetgreen, which isn't encouraging.

Even though shares trade at a historically cheap price-to-sales ratio of 1.4, it's smart to avoid Sweetgreen.