But even as it's sold millions of these bowls to customers, Sweet Green has been losing millions of dollars a month.

但即使在向客戶售出數百萬個這種碗的同時，Sweet Green 公司每月也要虧損數百萬美元。

With over 200 locations, Sweet Green is a fast casual restaurant trying to broaden the fast food market to include salads made with fresh ingredients.

Sweet Green 是一家快餐店，擁有 200 多家分店，它試圖拓寬快餐市場，將新鮮食材製作的沙拉也納入其中。

But building the infrastructure and logistics to accomplish this goal hasn't come cheap.

但是，為實現這一目標而建設基礎設施和物流的成本並不低。

They've always sort of branded themselves as a tech company.

他們一直把自己打造成一家科技公司。

And so they talked a lot about changing the food system.

是以，他們談了很多關於改變食品體系的話題。

At one point, they said that they wanted to be the McDonald's of better eating.

他們曾一度表示，要成為 "吃得更好的麥當勞"。

Now they've had to translate some of those lofty ambitions into reality.

現在，他們不得不將這些崇高理想變為現實。

And that's, that's challenging.

這就是，這就是挑戰。

This is the economics of Sweet Green.

這就是甜綠的經濟學。

Sweet Green brought in hundreds of millions of investment before going public in November 2021.

在 2021 年 11 月上市之前，Sweet Green 已獲得數億美元的投資。

In an SEC filing, it reported having about 1.35 million active customers.

在向美國證券交易委員會提交的一份文件中，該公司稱擁有約 135 萬名活躍客戶。

After its IPO, its stocks surged to bring the company's value to over $6 billion.

首次公開募股後，公司股票一路飆升，價值超過 60 億美元。

But its market cap has since fallen to almost one quarter of that.

但此後，其市值已跌至該數字的近四分之一。

While individual Sweet Green locations are profitable, the company has struggled to overcome high overhead costs.

雖然 Sweet Green 的各個分店都在盈利，但公司一直在努力克服高昂的管理費用。

In its last quarterly report, the company announced net losses of more than $27 million.

在上一份季度報告中，該公司宣佈淨虧損超過 2700 萬美元。

The company's costs begin with its salads.

公司的成本從沙拉開始。

There's a few things that drive the cost of what we do.

我們所做工作的成本主要取決於幾個方面。

We buy really, really high quality food from farmers we know and trust.

我們從我們熟悉和信任的農民那裡購買非常非常優質的食品。

Most restaurants source their food through distributors, which give them access to a wide range of food at low prices.

大多數餐廳都通過分銷商採購食品，這樣就能以低廉的價格買到各種食品。

And on top of that, these distributors handle the transportation logistics.

除此之外，這些分銷商還負責物流運輸。

Sweet Green, on the other hand, works directly with farms.

而 Sweet Green 則直接與農場合作。

Another major cost is labor.

另一項主要成本是勞動力。

Sweet Green has staff assemble meals and also do a significant amount of food prep.

Sweet Green 的員工負責組裝飯菜，並進行大量的食物準備工作。

Most restaurants process their food centrally and ship it out around the country.

大多數餐館都是集中加工食品，然後運往全國各地。

In order to maximize the taste and the freshness, we believe food should be made closer to where the guests are eating the food.

為了最大限度地保證食物的美味和新鮮，我們認為食物的製作地點應該離客人用餐的地方更近。

So we actually make our food every day in our fresh prep kitchen.

是以，我們實際上每天都在我們的新鮮預製廚房裡製作食物。

Beyond restaurant-level expenses, Sweet Green has also put a lot of money into technology.

除了餐廳層面的開支，Sweet Green 還在技術方面投入了大量資金。

We've built out from just having a pickup channel to building our own native delivery, partnering with some marketplaces, and even building catering and our outpost business.

我們已經從最初的取貨管道發展到建立自己的在地配送、與一些市場平臺合作，甚至建立了餐飲和前哨業務。

We've also been able to integrate machine learning and AI in order to personalize a lot of the recommendations that we give you, as well as things like our loyalty program.

我們還整合了機器學習和人工智能技術，以便為您提供個性化的推薦，比如我們的忠誠度計劃。

Sweet Green hasn't just built tech for customers.

Sweet Green 不僅僅為客戶提供技術。

It's also built apps for employees to plan out how much food to make at different times of day, so food is fresh but ready when they expect customers.

它還為員工建立了應用程序，讓他們計劃每天不同時間段要製作多少食物，這樣食物就能在顧客期待時新鮮出爐。

I would say that the founders are trying to be more disciplined now.

我想說的是，創始人現在正努力變得更加嚴謹。

They've also earned a lot in stock compensation, and I think there is a certain amount of tech alignment thinking there, but, you know, they are coming down to earth a bit and trying to trim expenses where they can and try to become more efficient, but again, it's going to take time.

他們在股票補償方面也賺了不少，我認為這裡面有一定的技術對標思維，但是，你知道，他們正在腳踏實地，努力削減開支，提高效率，但這同樣需要時間。

The question is, how to do that without changing the parts of the business that customers care about?

問題是，如何在不改變客戶關心的業務部分的情況下做到這一點？

Our path to profitability on a net income basis comes from a few levers.

我們實現淨收入盈利的途徑來自於幾個槓桿。

The first is continuing to grow our footprint.

首先是繼續擴大我們的足跡。

This year we're opening about 35 new restaurants.

今年，我們將新開大約 35 家餐廳。

Second is growing sales in existing stores, where a huge portion of that increase goes to lifting the profitability of those restaurants.

其次是現有門店銷售額的增長，其中很大一部分用於提高這些餐廳的盈利能力。

The third is being very disciplined on our cost structure to make sure that the incremental profit we're making is flowing through the bottom line.

第三是嚴格控制我們的成本結構，以確保我們所賺取的增量利潤能夠流向底線。

Sweet Green has closed some restaurants in cities like Boston and New York.

Sweet Green 在波士頓和紐約等城市關閉了一些餐廳。

It's also had some layoffs.

它還進行了一些裁員。

One of the challenges for the business has clearly been the pandemic and the recovery from the pandemic.

大流行病和大流行病後的恢復顯然是企業面臨的挑戰之一。

In 2019, Sweet Green stores were concentrated in urban centers, but recently it's been focused on expanding outside cities.

2019 年，Sweet Green 的門店主要集中在城市中心，但最近它一直專注於向城市外擴張。

I think we're going to continue to build out in the markets that we currently operate in and looking to open up one or two new markets a year for the next several years.

我認為，我們將繼續在目前經營的市場開展業務，並希望在未來幾年內每年開拓一到兩個新市場。

Sweet Green recently hired two former Chipotle executives to help make its menu appeal to a wider range of customers, especially as it expands past major cities.

Sweet Green 最近聘請了兩位 Chipotle 的前高管，以幫助其菜單吸引更多顧客，尤其是在向大城市擴張的過程中。

That's important because its path to profitability centers on having enough profitable restaurants to offset overhead.

這一點很重要，因為其盈利之路的核心是擁有足夠多的盈利餐廳來抵消管理費用。

To make each restaurant more profitable, it's also counting on increasing loyalty and leveraging technology.

為了讓每家餐廳都能獲得更多利潤，它還指望提高忠誠度和利用技術。

Sweet Green has experimented with loyalty programs for years, and its most recent effort is something called SweetPass.

多年來，Sweet Green 一直在嘗試開展忠誠度計劃，其最新的嘗試是名為 SweetPass 的項目。

There are a few tiers in the program.

該計劃分為幾個級別。

In the paid version of SweetPass, customers pay $10 per month to get $3 off one salad per day.

在付費版的 SweetPass 中，顧客每月支付 10 美元，每天一份沙拉可優惠 3 美元。

So a customer would have to spend at least $40 on salads per month to come out ahead.

是以，顧客每月至少要花 40 美元購買沙拉，才有可能賺到錢。

In general, restaurants are really pushing these loyalty programs because it makes a lot of sense to try to get someone hooked.

一般來說，餐廳都會大力推廣這些忠誠度計劃，因為讓顧客上鉤是非常有意義的。

You know, it's harder to advertise to a new customer than it is to try to just keep current one coming.

要知道，向新客戶做廣告比努力留住老客戶更難。

But, you know, if you're going to eat that every day for lunch, that is going to add up.

但是，你要知道，如果你每天午餐都吃這個，那加起來也是一筆不小的數目。

Sweet Green hasn't shared how many people have signed up for its loyalty program, which it still considers a pilot.

Sweet Green 還沒有透露有多少人註冊了它的忠誠度計劃，該計劃仍被視為試點項目。

Another key strategy moving forward is automation.

另一項關鍵戰略是自動化。

In 2021, Sweet Green bought Spice Food Co., a startup that makes automated food assembly lines.

2021 年，Sweet Green 收購了 Spice Food Co.

And earlier this year, it opened its first so-called Infinite Kitchen in Naperville, Illinois, where salads are assembled robotically.

今年早些時候，該公司在伊利諾伊州內珀維爾開設了第一家所謂的 "無限廚房"，在那裡，沙拉是由機器人組裝的。

That enabled it to hire one-third fewer staff without sacrificing efficiency.

這使它能夠在不影響效率的情況下減少三分之一的員工。

Sweet Green plans to continue rolling this out to new locations and hopes to retrofit an existing location in late 2024.

Sweet Green 計劃繼續在新的地點推廣，並希望在 2024 年底對現有地點進行改造。

Probably the biggest improvement for our customers is much faster throughput.

對於我們的客戶來說，最大的改進可能就是吞吐量更快了。

Typically, you can order your salad and have it ready in under three minutes, even in a very busy store.

通常情況下，即使在非常繁忙的店裡，您也可以在三分鐘內點好沙拉。

We believe what this will allow us to do is provide a superior economic model.

我們相信，這將使我們能夠提供一個卓越的經濟模式。

This will significantly impact and improve our unit economics, which will allow us to continue to scale in a profitable way and, over time, may even give us some pricing power as we think about creating healthy food that is truly accessible for everyone.

這將極大地影響和改善我們的組織、部門經濟效益，使我們能夠繼續以盈利的方式擴大規模，而且隨著時間的推移，我們甚至有可能獲得一定的定價權，因為我們正在考慮創造真正讓每個人都能獲得的健康食品。

Sweet Green has made some progress towards profitability.

Sweet Green 在盈利方面取得了一些進展。

Last quarter, the company announced it was profitable for the first time, though this comes with some qualifications.

上一季度，該公司宣佈首次實現盈利，但這是有條件限制的。

Sweet Green is only profitable based on a measure called EBITDA, which excludes a variety of costs such as taxes, acquisition costs, restructuring costs and stock-based compensation.

甜綠公司只有在 EBITDA（息稅折舊攤銷前利潤）的基礎上才能盈利，EBITDA 不包括各種成本，如稅收、收購成本、重組成本和股票薪酬。

It's a measure that's popular with tech companies, but doesn't follow generally accepted accounting principles.

這是一項受科技公司歡迎的措施，但並不遵循公認的會計原則。

It's a pretty heavy list of things that aren't included.

不包括的東西還真不少。

But by doing this, I mean, they can say that they just had their first profitable quarter, which is in Q2, and they want to show some progress to investors.

但通過這樣做，我的意思是，他們可以說，他們剛剛度過了第一個盈利的季度，也就是第二季度，他們希望向投資者展示一些進展。

And I think that does show a certain magnitude of progress, but it's not all the way there.

我認為，這確實顯示出了一定程度的進步，但還不是全部。

The company, though, is confident that it can become a national business based on three things.

不過，該公司堅信，基於以下三點，它可以成為一家全國性企業。

It creates a new category in the market, has capital to expand and maintains a loyal customer base.

它在市場上開創了一個新品類，擁有擴張的資本，並保持著忠實的客戶群。

We see Sweet Green as having all three of those ingredients as we move forward.

我們認為，在我們前進的道路上，Sweet Green 將具備所有這三個要素。

I think there will continue to be challenges as we scale, whether it be how we scale our supply chain, how we scale our technology, how we scale our leadership.

我認為，隨著我們規模的擴大，無論是如何擴大供應鏈、如何擴大技術、如何擴大領導力，都將繼續面臨挑戰。

But I think the big thing is proving that this type of offering can work all around the country.

但我認為，最重要的是要證明，這種服務可以在全國範圍內發揮作用。

I think they're pretty honest that they're trying to become a more mature business now.

我認為他們很坦誠，他們正在努力成為一家更成熟的企業。

And for a young company founded by young founders, that makes sense that that's a little bumpy.

而對於一家由年輕創始人創立的年輕公司來說，有點磕磕碰碰也在情理之中。