\n But the big three slop slingers \u2014 Cava, Chipotle and Sweetgreen \u2014 all reported similar problems in their recent earnings: Younger customers, particularly those aged between 25 to 35, are pinching pennies and choosing to forgo the $15 (or $20) warm bowls.\n <\/p>\n
\n Instead, they are packing their lunches or gravitating toward fast food chains offering deep discounts<\/a>, thus hurting the trio\u2019s bottom lines.\n <\/p>\n \n The fast-casual restaurants face several issues, in particular that the \u201csofter wage and spending growth\u201d that had been affecting lower-income consumers \u201cseems to be creeping up into the middle income and young professional consumer,\u201d according to Brian Vaccaro, restaurant analyst at Raymond James.\n <\/p>\n \n Anxiety around political issues, such as the government shutdown, as well as increased competition from value meals at fast food rivals, are also affecting their customer bases, Vaccaro said.\n <\/p>\n \n Cava, which serves customizable Mediterranean-style bowls, is one chain that\u2019s feeling the effects. The stock, which surged 162% in 2024, has fallen nearly 60% this year.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe know our Gen Z consumers are certainly facing headwinds this year that may not have existed last year,\u201d Cava CEO Brett Schulman told CNN, citing the resumption of student loan repayments, record-low consumer sentiment<\/a> levels and Gen Z unemployment that\u2019s \u201cdouble the national rate.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Last week, Cava (CAVA<\/a>) revealed that its traffic was flat for the second consecutive quarter, so it cut its same-store sales outlook to 3% – 4% (from 4% – 6%) for the rest of 2025.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen you look at the (fast-casual) industry since 2019, while sales have grown, transactions are actually down 7%,\u201d he said. \u201cThe industry has gotten too expensive for consumers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As a result, some of those once reliable customers are now buying more groceries to save money, said R.J. Hottovy, a restaurant analyst at data analytics firm Placer.ai.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThese consumers are simultaneously shifting visits to grocery chains like Trader Joe\u2019s and other alternative food retailers as they seek more affordable options,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n That was pointed out during Chipotle\u2019s earnings report, which showed miserable results<\/a> at the end of October. The chain cut its sales-growth forecast for the third-straight quarter, and shares are down 50% this year.\n <\/p>\n \n CEO Scott Boatwright said younger consumers<\/a>, particularly those aged 25 to 35 who make up a quarter of Chipotle\u2019s sales, \u201cpulled back meaningfully.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re not losing them to the competition; we\u2019re losing them to grocery and food at home,\u201d he told analysts during Chipotle\u2019s latest earnings call. \u201cIt is one of our core consumer cohorts. They feel the pinch and we feel the pullback from them as well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He argues that Chipotle (CMG<\/a>) is still more affordable than its competitors.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe fast-casual sector is just out of favor and has been deemed unaffordable and we are lumped into that,\u201d he said, bristling at criticism that Chipotle has become too expensive<\/a>. \u201cBut I will still tell you, we are still at 20% to 30% discount to our fast-casual peers in the sector.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Vaccaro agrees that Chipotle\u2019s value proposition \u201cremains very strong with an entry-level price point of less than $10 in most markets (excluding higher-cost markets like New York).\u201d But he thinks some consumers might have forgotten, since the chain typically avoids advertising around its prices.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, Chipotle is faring better than Sweetgreen, the once high-flying salad and warm bowl chain whose stock finished nearly 200% higher in 2024.\n <\/p>\n \n Shares have, however, nosedived 83% this year, and the company\u2019s market cap is hovering at $680 million \u2014 a steep fall from its nearly $5 billion valuation when it went public in 2021<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Sweetgreen (SG<\/a>) revealed in its earnings last Thursday that same-store sales slid 9.5% and visits fell nearly 12%. That caps off a tough year for the brand, which ended a salad subscription program<\/a> and axed selling fries after just five months.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe 25 to 35 (year old) consumer is the most under pressure, and they make up about 30% of our consumer base,\u201d said Sweetgreen CFO Jamie McConnell on a call with analysts, adding that their spending declined about 15%.\n <\/p>\n \n To lure back value-conscious customers, Sweetgreen this week will begin promoting that it has boosted protein portions by 25%.\n <\/p>\n \n Despite the current problems, analysts say the chains are well positioned for the future. That\u2019s because there will always be consumer appetite for \u201chigh quality, fresh ingredients at reasonable price points,\u201d said Vaccaro.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Purveyors of the so-called \u201cslop bowl\u201d just had another messy quarter. What was once the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-134105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gettyimages-1980610688.jpg\")
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