Sweetgreen Guides to Q4 Turnaround as October Sales Flip Positive

Sweetgreen's same-store sales grew 5% in October, with traffic up 4%, and the fast-casual chain now expects fourth-quarter same-store sales and transaction growth of 4% each — its strongest quarter since a cyclospora outbreak derailed a planned turnaround earlier this year.

The October numbers mark a sharp reversal from the September 27-ended third quarter, when same-store sales fell 6.4%. That decline broke down into a 4.9% traffic drop and a 2.1% decrease in product mix, partly offset by a 0.6% benefit from menu price increases. Management attributes roughly 500 basis points of the traffic hit to the cyclospora outbreak. Sweetgreen was never implicated, but consumers shied away from salads and fresh produce for several weeks.

Once the outbreak left the headlines, momentum built fast. CEO Jonathan Neman told investors the chain had raised its full-year outlook: same-store sales are now expected to be down 5.5%, versus the 7% to 8% decline projected earlier this year.

"There's a lot more work to do, but this quarter offers meaningful encouragement that our strategic priorities are starting to translate into better performance," Neman said during Thursday's earnings call.

What's driving the recovery?

Menu engineering is doing much of the work. Next week Sweetgreen rolls out a new line of plates built around rotisserie chicken, designed to build dinner traffic and attract new guests.

The chain has run this play before. A protein-centric plates platform launched in 2023 boosted dinner sales and drew more male consumers. Plates now represent about 17% of the menu mix. The new "knife-and-fork" chicken is about 50% bigger than the current option, though it requires more infrastructure — ovens, tools and kitchen leadership — to execute.

Wraps, launched earlier this year, have increased frequency among existing and lapsed guests, Neman said, with more wrap innovation in the pipeline. A collaboration with influencer Molly Baz was a particular hit. With wrap prices starting around $10, Neman said Sweetgreen's price-value perception is the best it has been in years.

A pricing experiment in progress

The chain is also testing a new price architecture for customizable bowls in about 70 units. Early results are encouraging — Neman said guests are responding to the transparency — but the company wants to study the test longer before committing to a broader rollout.

The unit and margin picture

Revenue rose 2.1% to $176 million for the quarter, driven largely by the 30 units opened last year. Sweetgreen narrowed its net loss to $30.7 million, from $36.1 million a year ago — an improvement of about $5.4 million in a single quarter.

The company opened a net three new restaurants in the quarter and plans to slow growth next year, with 10 net new locations planned — half the 2026 rate — though that figure reflects expected closures as leases expire. Nine restaurants closed permanently this year.

So what does this change for Sweetgreen? For the first time since the outbreak, the chain is guiding to positive traffic, not just positive pricing — the difference between a recovery bought with menu increases and one driven by actual guest counts.

With the rotisserie chicken plates, continued wrap innovation and a potential new pricing model still in test, Sweetgreen enters 2026 with its Sweet Growth Transformation Plan showing measurable traction in both traffic and loss reduction.