The sad desk salad hits the suburbs

A rosier-than-expected forecast from Sweetgreen triggered a series of analyst upgrades.

Matt Phillips

3/25/24 4:11PM

Forget semiconductors, perhaps the real technology of the moment is salad.

Shares of Sweetgreen, the salad and grainbowl spot urban professionals flocked to in the before times, are on a tear.

They’re up more than 100% this month and have more than tripled over the last year.

Sweetgreen executives forecast first-quarter — and full-year — sales would be above where Wall Street analysts were expecting, when they reported results on Feb. 29.

Interestingly, while the company was once associated with the lunchtime rush of young workers in major urban centers, Sweetgreen’s better-than-expected outlook doesn’t really suggest any kind of return-to-office upswing.

Rather the company has been gaining traction by shifting its strategy to the ‘burbs.

“What we're doing with Sweetgreen is we're broadening our footprint and broadening into new markets,” the company’s chief financial officer told an conference of analysts earlier this month. “We certainly have left the urban centers in a large way and have, yeah, grown much more in the suburban markets.”

For the record, the shares are still below their November 2021 IPO price of $28.

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American Airlines joins the flock, hiking bag fees amid higher jet fuel prices

American Airlines on Thursday announced that it, too, will be hiking the fees it charges customers to check luggage.

With the move, all four of the major US airlines, which together control about 80% of the US market, have now hiked their baggage fees in recent days amid surging jet fuel prices.

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Since late March, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Canada’s WestJet, and Southwest have hiked their fees. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.

American Airlines updates bag fees and Basic Economy fares

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

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Less than a year after implementing them, Southwest is also hiking its bag fees

Southwest Airlines has joined the growing list of airlines opting to hike their bag fees amid sustained higher jet fuel costs.

Starting today, the first checked bag at the carrier — which implemented bag fees less than a year ago — will jump from $35 to $45, and the second from $45 to $55. Southwest quietly disclosed the change Tuesday.

Southwest assigned the decision to “part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop.”

As of Wednesday, jet fuel prices dropped to $4.16 a gallon, per the Argus US Jet Fuel Index, down from $4.81 on Tuesday following President Trump’s ceasefire announcement, which sent travel stocks soaring. Major airlines have shed some of those gains in premarket trading Thursday.

With the move to hike bag fees, Southwest joins JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Canada’s WestJet, all of which also boosted fees this month. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.