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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Just Salad

Just Salad Outlines Its Goals to Send Zero Waste to Landfills by 2022

Fast-casual chain Just Salad aims to send zero waste to landfills by 2022, according to the company’s first-ever sustainability report, which was released this week. 

The report both recaps some of Just Salad’s efforts around sustainability and outlines the chain’s goals for 2020, many of which are about getting rid of single-use plastics and curbing and/or diverting food waste in its operations. These environmental commitments come under Just Salad’s Green Standard Initiative, which the chain launched last year and is already executing on in its 47 locations, which span five U.S. states as well as Dubai. 

Central to the company’s aim to get rid of single-use plastics is its popular reusable salad bowl, which customers can purchase for $1 (and get a free topping for their salad when they use it). According to the report, Just Salad diverted 75,000 pounds of single-use plastic from landfills in 2019 and plans to up that number to 100,000 pounds by 2022. 

The company says it will also implement a bring-your-own-cup program in 2020 that offers customers a $0.10 discount on beverages when they bring their own containers. As well, Just Salad says it is “evaluating all in-store supplies” and testing more sustainable options, including compostable to-go cutlery and cardboard containers for wraps in place of plastic ones.

Curbing food waste is the other big focus of the report. Last year, the company started a composting program at certain locations that separates food waste from other waste in the back of house. The company will continue that practice, which it says can divert an estimated 22,000 pounds of organic waste from landfills across its NYC stores alone. The program is currently active at Just Salad stores in NYC, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The company will include this food waste separation process in the front of house for certain locations in 2020. 

Many restaurant chains are now outlining major sustainability initiatives to address massive issues in the food industry around waste, whether it’s leftover food or single-use packaging that does not biodegrade. Major chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks have detailed programs in place to introduce reusable packaging, cut carbon emissions through alternative sources of energy, and curb food waste by diverting it from landfills (in some cases even using to to make automobiles).

But it’s not just the multi-national chains doing this work. Blue Bottle Coffee, for example, recently outlined an ambitious plant to make its stores completely zero waste by 2020. Company CEO Bryan Meehan was the first person to point out the initiative was an experiment that “may not work, that may cost us money,” among other things.

He has a point, and it’s one that more companies are starting to acknowledge as the dialogue around sustainable restaurant operations becomes more central, if at the same time more expensive. Just Salad’s founder and CEO Nick Kenner echoed a similar sentiment in the company’s sustainability report when he wrote that achieving sustainability is a challenge that requires logistics, money, and a change in consumer attitudes. “Affordability and sustainability are not at odds with each other,” he said. “While the sustainable path can cost more in the short run, it’s an engine for long-term value creation.” 

Chopt Is the Latest Restaurant Chain to Launch a Store Dedicated to Delivery and Pickup Orders

Chopt Creative Salad joins the growing number of restaurant chains building out brick-and-mortar stores completely dedicated to delivery and pickup orders. The fast-casual chain opened its first location for off-premises-only orders last week in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. 

Customers of the Chopt SoHo store can order online or via the chain’s mobile app, bypassing the need to wait in line and interact with a cashier. Delivery orders are handled by the major third-party services (Grubhub, DoorDash, etc.), while the SoHo location will also feature self-order kiosks for those walking in off the street. Those kiosks will be able to accept cash in addition to cards — an important feature in an age where the debate over cashless payments is heated and chains like McDonald’s have come under fire recently for kiosks that won’t take good old-fashioned greenbacks. 

Chopt hasn’t said whether its delivery- and pickup-only store will provide a new model for future locations. CEO Nick Marsh told Forbes that, “It will be a significant part of our growth going forward, though we can’t give a percentage on how many of them will open.”

Chopt isn’t the only salad chain in NYC to be experimenting with off-premises order formats. In October, Just Salad teamed up with Grubhub to deliver a virtual restaurant brand called Health Tribes to NYC customers. Sweetgreen, who raised another $150 million in funding in September, has expanded its Outpost service, which entails placing pickup stations in office buildings. The chain also just opened its Sweetgreen 3.0 store, a so-called high-tech location that emphasizes self service and orders destined for outside the restaurant.

It all makes sense. Salad travels well — better than, say, french fries. But — and this is the understatement of the week — salad chains aren’t alone in embracing this off-premises store model designed to fulfill more delivery and pickup orders. Chick-fil-A has operated off-premises stores since 2018 and just announced it’s also working out of DoorDash’s new ghost kitchen in Northern California. Starbucks has a to-go-only store in China and one planned for NYC. Masses of other chains following this trend is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

In a place like NYC (or San Francisco, for that matter), the model allows restaurants to utilize smaller spaces and cut down on the amount of rent they pay to be in business. And as demand for delivery increases along with the expectation for online ordering and self-service technologies, this to-go concept will become a de facto part of most major chains’ strategies.

Grubhub and Just Salad Partner for a Digital-Only Concept Restaurant

Grubhub just added another virtual restaurant concept to what’s quickly becoming a string of them for the third-party delivery service. Today, the company announced a partnership with NYC-based fast-casual chain Just Salad to launch a virtual restaurant called Health Tribes. Starting today, the Health Tribes menu is available exclusively for delivery and pickup orders placed via Grubhub or Just Salad apps and websites, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The overall concept of Health Tribes is around today’s most popular diet plans such as vegan, gluten-free, Paleo, and Keto. The virtual restaurant claims it will help customers more easily find delivery meals that meet those specific criteria eating needs and/or preferences.

It’s not clear in the press release if the meals will be made onsite at Just Salad locations or if Grubhub will use ghost kitchens for production, as it’s done with other virtual restaurants.

Health Tribes isn’t the first nutrition-focused delivery-only concept for Grubhub. The company teamed up with the Whole30 brand and restaurant company Lettuce Entertain You in August to launch a delivery-only restaurant based on the Whole30 diet. In the case of that “restaurant,” all food is made in a ghost kitchen run by Lettuce Entertain You.

Ditto for Grubhub’s other virtual restaurant concept, which it also runs in partnership with Lettuce Entertain You along with magazine-turned-digital food brand Bon Appétit. Bon Appétit Delivered, as it’s called, offers gourmet meals created by the folks at the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen.

Both that and the Whole30 concept are currently only available in Chicago. The Just Salad collab will be more widely available, as the chain has over 50 locations throughout Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, and other cities.

Health Tribes more or less confirms the idea that these digital-only concept restaurants are going to become a regular staple of Grubhub’s offerings. With ghost kitchens becoming more commonplace in the food world, third-party delivery services need to find new ways to differentiate themselves. Grubhub isn’t the only service trying ghost kitchen restaurants: Both Uber Eats and Deliveroo are testing out concepts as well. Where Grubhub stands apart slightly is with its focus on building virtual restaurants around specific diets and with food brands that aren’t necessarily restaurants. Expect that to be something we’ll see much more of from Grubhub in future.