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On November 6, Sweetgreen announced that it was selling Spyce, its division that developed and made its Infinite Kitchen technology to automate the assembly of its bowls and salads. The acquirer is Wonder, the restaurant and mealtime superapp, as Fast Company dubbed it earlier this year. With that, its time to eulogize Sweetgreens star-crossed life as a tech company. No more dreams of AI, blockchain, or robots. Sweetgreen receives $100 million in cash and $86.4 million in Wonder stock, a positive return given that it acquired Spyce in 2021 for a total cost of $70 million. Wonder, which is privately held, was valued north of $7 billion in May after it raised another $600 million. Sweetgreen, which went public four years ago, has a market cap under $750 million. After Sweetgreens disastrous Q2 2025 earnings report, I wrote that Infinite Kitchen represented the first effort by the company to use technology to solve its biggest problemoperationsrather than mere magic dust sprinkles to make the company look like something its not. Now the companys latest earnings are worse, and it doesnt own what had felt like a competitive advantage. A lot of other companies are trying to figure out how to add automation to their experience and are not willing to start over, Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 while showing off his first restaurant equipped with an Infinite Kitchen. Im willing to blow the whole thing up. The question, though, is when did Neman light the fuse thats blown up Sweetgreen? Was it two years ago? Was it just November 6? Or was the bomb planted in the companys earliest days and it finally detonated? Sweetgreens stock is down another 12.5% as of Friday afternoon. (In response to queries, Sweetgreen directed me to Nemans public statements.) In this piece, well explore: What we still dont know about the sale of Infinite Kitchen Whether Neman could have taken a page from Pixar or Tesla to alter Sweetgreens course Why Neman has even harder decisions ahead to make Sweetgreen profitable How Sweetgreens positioning as a tech company ultimately failed it Infinite Kitchen has been working Sweetgreen remains committed to deploying Infinite Kitchen; it opened eight restaurants in Q3 and six included the tech. More are planned for 2026. Rather than be responsible for developing and making the systems, Sweetgreen will buy them from Wonder at cost plus 5%, which Neman said was about $25,000, putting the Infinite Kitchens cost at $500,000. In turn, Sweetgreen promised investors that the sale will shave $8 million annually from its general and administrative expenses. Those G&A costs are high. As the veteran restaurant operator and consultant Rick Vanzura noted on LinkedIn, Sweetgreens overhead was 17.9% of sales compared with Cavas 10.8%. But $8 million is just over 1% of expected 2025 revenues, meager savings for proprietary technology that Neman lauded again this week as having: consistently proven its ability to deliver faster throughput, improved accuracy and consistency, and elevated food quality. In Q3, restaurants with an Infinite Kitchen continue to realize approximately 700 basis points of labor savings and nearly 100 basis points of [cost of goods sold] improvement compared to restaurants of similar age and volume. Why give up control of the tech driving 7% labor savings per quarter and 1% in food costs, while its improving the product itself? Why Sweetgreen sold its big tech bet The Occams Razor explanation appears to be that Sweetgreen really needed the money. Look at its cash on hand: Q3 2025: $130M Q2 2025: $168M Q4 2021: $472M In August, I anticipated that Sweetgreen would soon require fresh capital. I wondered whether the parties providing it would demand company control from Neman and his two co-founders in exchange. This move cleverly sidestepped that possibility (for now) by selling the most valuable thing Sweetgreen owned that it could part with to a private company, buying Neman and company time to turn things around. Neman still likely needs to do a more wrenching corporate restructuring that vastly reduces its overhead (read: major layoffs). The company’s new CFO reported that she’s launched a full review of the company’s restaurant expenses as well as its G&A. Well see if Neman can make some hard decisions to reinvent Sweetgreen. The logic underpinning the Spyce sale may be irrefutable, but theres still a lot we dont know. To wit: Whether Wonder can also license the Infinite Kitchen tech How long Sweetgreens cost-plus deal lasts Whether those terms also apply to future Spyce innovations I don’t expect we’ll get direct answers but this is what investors in particular should be thinking about and monitoring. Sweetgreens Sliding Doors moment No. 1: The Pixar path In 1989, Pixar, six years before the debut of Toy Story, decided to sell its RenderMan technology to other companies. Pixar needed cash, especially if it was going to fulfill its vision of making feature-length computer-generated animated movies. The gambit worked. Pixar retained control of the tech, has enhanced it repeatedly over the years, and major motion pictures from other studios still rely on RenderMan. Could Sweetgreen have decided to license the Infinite Kitchen tech to competitors rather than selling it to one and being the licensee? Doing so could have helped bring down the costs of Infinite Kitchen and spurred further innovation, as Wonder now hopes to do. Given how hot the private markets are for robotics tech, could Sweetgreen have engineered some complex financial deal to get funding for Spyce to scale it without having to sell it? I don’t think that’s too outlandish an idea. Alas, public market investors havent been patient with Neman (the stock is down almost 90% since it went public). This would have been bold and visionary in 2021 after Sweetgreen acquired Spyce, r in 2023 when Neman talked of his willingness to blow the whole thing up and energized investors with the Infinite Kitchens potential. Making that call in late 2025 when consumers appear to be cooling to bowl-based meals (the “slopcession,” or “slopapocalypse,” as it were) would have been risky. But the siren call of those labor and cost savings could have won it some customers and allowed it to control its destiny. Sweetgreens Sliding Doors moment No. 2: The Tesla way In 2014, Elon Musk open sourced Teslas electric vehicle patents. This, too, was a bold move for a still shaky, unprofitable company. Musk did it to accelerate the auto industrys adoption of EVs, which it did. At the time, Teslas market cap was approximately $28 billion. Today its $1.4 trillion. What if Sweetgreen had open sourced Spyces patents? Would it have sparked a wave of innovation in automated restaurant tech? This is less likely than if it merely licensed systems to rivals, as the restaurant industry is far more atomized than the car business. But the move would have been a bravura stroke that at the least would have bolstered Nemans narrative that Sweetgreen is a different kind of company. Live by the tech narrative, die by the tech narrative Not long after Sweetgreen went public in November 2021, Kristen Hawley, a Fast Company contributor, wrote in her food and tech newsletter, Expedite, the uncomfortable truth that salad doesnt scale like software. Now we can confirm that restaurant automation hardware to make salads and bowls doesnt scale like software either. Companies need a story, a vision to sell investors, media, and customers. Its why Tesla backers voted to give Elon Musk his potential $1 trillion pay package this past week. For Sweetgreen, its story has long been that this was a tech companyno, a platformthat sold healthy salads and bowls rather than a restaurant company that used tech like, um, every other restaurant chain. I wanted to find the first instance of Sweetgreen publicly presenting itself as a tech company, and I believe it initially did so on the occasion of its 2011 Sweetlife festival thanks to a planned integration with a then buzzy social app: We look at ourselves less as a restaurant group than a think tank, co-founder Nathaniel Ru told Mashable. Were more of tech startup than a restaurant business. Fourteen years later, Sweetgreen is a restaurant business. Its future success will be determined by continuing to improve its operations, developing new menu items, and marketing itself as a lifestyle brand, as Neman told investors, focused on creating culture through distinct brand moments. Again, like every other restaurant chain. As I understand it, the company still has a tech team, but so does everyone else. The tech dream may die hard at Sweetgreen HQ but die it should. In other words, the troubled companys tech Cinderella story is over. Sweetgreens enchanted digital coach has become a garden variety analog pumpkin.
Category:
E-Commerce
Since 1818, loyal readers of the Farmers Almanac have turned to the publication for weather predictions, gardening tips, astronomy calendars, and more. But, on November 6, the Farmers Almanac announced that the 2026 edition of the magazine will be its last. The news came through a post to the Farmers Almanac website by editor Sandi Duncan and editor emeritus Peter Geiger. It is with a great appreciation and heartfelt emotions that we write to share some sad news, the note reads. After more than 200 years of sharing a unique blend of weather, wit, and wisdom, weve made the very difficult decision to write the final chapter of this historical publication. Per the post, readers will be able to access the Farmers Almanac website until December, and they can find the last edition of the magazine on its website, Amazon, and in certain local stores. The shuttering of this legacy publication is yet another blow to a beleaguered print media landscape. “Tell your kids how grandad always swore by the ‘Almanac'” The Farmers Almanac was founded by Jacob Young, a poet, astronomer, and teacher who ran the publication for 34 years. Its long-range weather predictions, which have been trusted by some American farmers over other forecasts for decades (despite the publication being notoriously cagey about how it devises said predictions), predate the creation of the National Weather Service by more than 50 years. During its 207-year run, the Farmers Almanac has had just seven editors. Its become particularly known for its Best Days section, which offers readers suggestions on the ideal timing to garden, go fishing, kill plant pests, or even cut hair and quit smoking. Farmers Almanac did not immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for further details on the reasoning behind its closure, but the writing has likely been on the wall for some time now. Over the past several years, print media has become a notoriously difficult business as readers turn to digital publications and social media for their news. Print publications that have either gone fully digital or shut down entirely include O: The Oprah Magazine, Life Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, and, most recently, Teen Vogue. Print magazines have seen something of a revival as a luxury good among young consumers in recent months, but theyre unlikely to see a return to the heyday of publications like the Farmers Almanac. Already, dedicated fans are taking to the comments of the Farmers Almanac announcement, as well as social media, to mourn the loss of the annual publication. Oh no, I buy this every year & my friends & family call to ask if we have any storms coming! one person commented under the publications post. The Almanac is so accurate, Ill be lost without it. Another follower on Instagram wrote: This is so sad! I just got land to start growing herbs and food, and planned to get a membership just as my dad always had. In their note to readers, Duncan and Geiger expressed their gratitude for supporters, contributors, and partners, adding that though the Almanac will no longer be available in print or online, it lives on within you. So go aheadplant your peas when the daffodils bloom, Duncan and Geiger wrote. Watch for a red sky at night. Tell the kids how granddad always swore by the Almanac. Thats how our story stays alive.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration isnt backing down from its refusal to fully fund the SNAP program even after being ordered to by a judge on Thursday. The federal government asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block a judges order directing the Trump administration to fully distribute Novembers SNAP benefits by the end of the day. In the U.S., 42 million people 12% of Americans rely on food stamps to buy groceries and afford food. Nearly 40% of SNAP recipients are children and another 20% are over the age of 60. On Thursday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the government to release the full amount of federal funds for food stamps set to be distributed in November. People have gone without for too long, U.S. District Judge John McConnell said during the Thursday hearing. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable. On November 3, the Trump administration said in a court filing that it would pay out half of Novembers benefits to SNAP recipients, tapping into a USDA contingency fund, after being ordered to distribute funds by two federal judges. A day later, Trump declared that SNAP benefits will only be restored after the shutdown. SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Bidens disastrous term in office will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before! Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this week. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the SNAP program on the federal level, said that it would not deploy a $6 billion contingency fund to cover the cost of food stamps, in contrast with a version of a shutdown funding plan that was later removed from its website. SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits, a USDA memo stated in late October. The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists. Picking up the SNAP slack The SNAP program has found itself on the chopping block as the federal shutdown drags on, but the Trump administration has found ways to keep other programs funded without court intervention. In the shutdowns early days, Trump ordered the Pentagon and the White House to use all available funds to pay active-duty members of the military, avoiding the fallout of service members going unpaid. In contrast to the fight over SNAP, the White House also chose to fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC, using money collected from tariffs. The Trump White House will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats political games, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios. In many cities, food banks and restaurants are scrambling to pick up the slack from the lapsed food program. In Portland, one coffee shop raised over $300,000 to provide free meals to people who have seen their SNAP benefits dry up. Many other local businesses followed suit, offering free special meals for residents in need. The USDA has warned grocery stores offering special deals for SNAP recipients that they might be breaking the law. You must offer eligible foods at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions to SNAP-EBT customers as other customers, a USDA notice confirmed by Fast Company reads. You cannot treat SNAP-EBT customers differently than any other customers.
Category:
E-Commerce
Wendys announced plans to close a “mid-single-digit percentage” of its underperforming U.S. store locations, or 200 to 350 of some 6,000 locations, during its quarterly earnings call on Friday. The news comes as the fast-food giant reports third-quarter profits of $44.3 million and $549.5 million in revenue, beating analyst expectations by 2.71%. The company’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at 24 cents, versus expectations of 20 cents. International business delivered strong system-wide sales growth, with international net unit growth expected to come in over 9% in 2025. Shares in Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) were up about 2% in midday trading on Friday, after Wendys stock surged 11.66% in pre-market trading. On the earnings call, Interim CEO and CFO Ken Cook said the shutterings will begin this year and continue through 2026, but did not give a list of specific locations. (Reached by Fast Company, Wendy’s declined to provide a specific number or list of locations.) Cook said Wendy’s will approach underperforming restaurants on a case-by-case basis. He explained some current restaurants “do not elevate the brand” and are “a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective.” The goal is to address and fix those restaurants by improving operations, through additional technology or equipment. In other cases, closing the restaurant “will put money back in franchisees pockets and enable them to reinvest both capital and resources in their remaining restaurants.” The bottom line: “Closures of underperforming units are expected to boost sales and profitability at nearby locations,” Cook said. One year ago, in November 2024, Wendy’s also announced it was closing 140 “outdated” restaurants.
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E-Commerce
As artificial intelligence enters its dating era, it has taken on an increasing number of roles: cupid, wingman, even romantic interest. Where once peoples biggest concern was being unfortunately catfished by old photos and flattering filters, now if a person seems too good to be true, well, they might not even be human at all. Hily’s Dating App T.R.U.T.H. report surveyed 1,559 U.S. daters and found 82% of Gen Z and 87% of Millennials are already turning to AI in their dating lives. Up to 95% also plan to use it in the future. Just as in traditional dating, there are some double standards at play. For Gen Z, 62% say they’d be turned off if they discovered their match was using AI during the talking stage, despite being happy to use it themselves. This number increased to 70% for Millennials. As one Gen Z dater on Hily said: Id be less attracted. Its lazy and unnecessary. Demonstrates a lack of creativity and care. Another added: It feels less authenticand also a lot less fun. Isnt dating supposed to be fun, not an imitation of the weird arms race we see in work? The ick is understandable. It brings up questions like, if someone needs the help of AI to carry a conversation, are they even that interested? If they arent willing to put in the work, why should you? And ultimately, if you hit it off, are you falling for the person or the algorithm? The most common uses of AI are to generate a dating app bio based on information provided and to offer suggestions for conversations. If it generated their bio, thats fineif its accurate, one Millennial dater on Hily said. But not if it made things up or used misleading photos. Daters are burnt out from endless swiping, ghosting and a transactional dating culture. Chatfishing is one way to optimize and outsource some of the emotional labor of finding love (who said romance was dead?). After all, most have enlisted the help of the group chat in crafting a risky text or handed over full control to a friend to spice up a conversation. Some chatfishers take things a step further, having ChatGPT conduct entire conversations. A 2025 study from Norton found six in 10 people who use dating apps believe theyve encountered at least one conversation written by AI. Its also getting harder and harder to tell if the person youre messaging is human or bot. A 2025 preprint paper showed that human judges who spoke with both OpenAIs model GPT-4.5 and a human simultaneously, mistook the AI for a human 73% of the time. While AI can be an effective wingman when it comes to clinching a first date, when its finally time to meet face-to-face, problems arise. Of the daters Hily surveyed, 53% of Gen Z and 66% of Millennials say theyd feel less confident on a real-life date after using AI to communicate with a match. People tend to turn towards AI due to the fear that theyre not good enough and need to outsource to be better liked and well received, Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, relationship expert at Hily Dating App and Harvard-trained clinical psychologist, told Fast Company. This has a paradoxical effect as AI often white washes over the personality traits, uniqueness, and small touches that make them special. And if your AI persona is smarter, wittier, and funnier than you, you are only setting yourself up for failure.
Category:
E-Commerce
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