Consumer brands are reaching peak-transparency

Companies are adopting influencer strategies.

Good morning my sweet readers. Thank the lord, I am back in New York.

Sorry to leave you guys hanging over the weekend. In case you didn’t investigate on your own, the suspenseful Tweet about changing the future of food from Sweetgreen’s CEO was about robot salads. Sweetgreen “Infinite Kitchen” is their culinary automation technology that portions, dresses, and mixes salads for you.

If this is an efficiency effort, they could be onto something.

If this is a cost-cutting effort… I’m not so sure. “All prep and cooking done in house including making dressings from scratch. Bowls finished by our wonderful team and handed to you in person. Customers can also place orders with our host. This is simpler to run, creates better jobs and let’s us grow faster creating even more jobs.” according to CEO Jonathan Neman. I think this “finishing” thing is a PR thing for the launch moment, but I’m glad the prep cooks have job security. The machinery itself must be astronomically expensive and I reallllly want to know how often it breaks.

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I’m glad you guys liked my Summer Hospitality Trend Report! Should I do one on another industry? I wanted to share a reader response to one of the predictions (peak-transparency):