sweetgreen — Restaurant in New York

"Locavore-friendly counter-serve chain specializing in organic salads, soup & bowls" - This description seems like a bad joke if you've ever been to the Columbia Location of sweetgreen in NYC (2937 Broadway).

Here is what I've experienced tonight. [The outcome was worse than usual, although the attitude I am describing on behalf of the sweetgreens staff is a constant here.]

...$12 gone, NO salad, and unacceptable customer service: I am usually a very tolerant person, have worked in many service jobs myself to finance my education, but what I experienced tonight at sweetgreen was so unacceptable that I question if the company (1) even knows who they are hiring or (2) just really does not care about its customer service. This evening (March 1, 2020, shortly after 10pm), I placed an online order ~ 45 minutes before the official closing time of the Columbia U branch of sweetgreen in New York City (11pm). Not only did I not receive my order when I arrived even before my official pickup time at 10:40pm, also did the staff yell at me to stay outside the moment I entered sweetgreen. This was half an hour before their official closing time. I used to eat at sweetgreen very frequently but the staff at this specific location has been so rude that I recently switched to pick-up orders to minimize my interaction with them. I also have multiple friends at Columbia who stopped eating from sweetgreen because the employees are acting, to say the least, seemingly very annoyed once they have to serve a customer. Not having prepared my order, which I had already paid for, the sweetgreen employees did not even apologize to me for the incident. When I questioned their closing half an hour before the official closing time, I was given the very unsatisfying answer that the opening hours are "just at the door" (?). I didn't know what to make of this statement even. At this time, there was nothing left behind the counter, they had already cleaned up everything, ready to close early to go home before the store officially closes. When I asked for a refund the employees just carelessly mumbled something about customer service. I said 'okay' and decided to leave. I turned towards the door (the one with the fake opening hours apparently), and when I started to walk out the employee would hiss a very sarcastic "good night" at me. Unbelievable.

Anyways, going to bed hungry after a long day of studying, I am really disappointed in such bad customer service and I will not continue to purchase salads from sweetgreen at this location. I reached out to sweetgreen because I request a full refund of my order, which I paid for and never received. Not to forget that I even walked all the way to sweetgreen and wasted my time.

After reaching out via email, I immediately received an automated answer, which does not seem very promising to begin with: "We are currently experiencing a high volume of messages and we hate to admit that we may be delayed in getting back to you. We really appreciate your patience as we work to respond to you as quickly as possible."

At this point, I really do expect a trouble-free refund, which I deem the least to make up for how I was treated after having paid for a service and relied on my order.

Overall, sweetgreen has a good product quality and I appreciate the option of eating healthy around campus. However, I am reluctant to recommend this specific sweetgreen location to anyone who appreciates being treated with respect and...

I never thought tipping culture in this country to become more laughable. So after I got my food and got my card out to pay, I noticed that Sweetgreen has, quite literally, blocked out their “No Tip” option on the screen with a sticker simply reading “Please use keypad”. They also covered the bottom-left “R” button with the same sticker, which is the key (on the keypad lol) for the No Tip option. I thought this was just plain funny, but as I was deciding what to tip, the cashier (who probably thought I was going to press R) lunged over the cash register to try to tap one of the tip buttons, essentially trying to deceptively charge me more than what I wanted. I quickly realized this and hit the covered-up “R” button because that was just messed up of her. Seeing this, the cashier shook up my bowl out of spite and slammed it in front of me. She kept the lid on… polite of her to mix my salad for me.

Now I go here sometimes, but it’s only been like 2-3 weeks since I last went… what exactly has been happening that would yield this kind of action? Well, I got my answer tonight. It’s no wonder Sweetgreen’s becoming one of the less popular places in the neighborhood.

But to play “devil’s advocate”… and I’m no economist, but if these employees have taken such an extreme measure when it comes to TIPPING out of all things, are they even being paid livable wages??? Why are server’s acting this erratically with what almost seems like desperation?? What is the manager there doing? I understand cutting costs, but if my hypothesis is true, that manager needs to rethink everything.

That being said, food was still good and it seems everyone dining in is happy… as...

I would give this location zero stars if I could. There is a lot to be unhappy with. I will start with the fact that they seem to close early quite often. Like this weekend, when they closed before 8 PM. I asked why they closed early and was told it was for Columbus day. I never heard of a restaurant closing early the day before a holiday. I can tell that the workers are regularly pushing to close early or as fast as possible, because I've been in there 1 hour before closing and they are cleaning the areas where the food trays sit while consolidating them and saying that they are out of many things. I see them spraying cleaning solution and using wash rags right next to the food trays that they are giving to customers. This is extremely unsanitary, and they could use a health inspection visit. When I saw what they were doing, I walked out. This place needs new management and workers extremely badly. Update: No improvements from my above reviews. Also, on the credit card payment scanner, you are prompted for tip, with the extremely poor service, I don't want to give a tip, the selection for no tip, says press F, but I couldn't find the F key, only to realize that the F key on both scanners had been covered by white tape, so no one could see it to select it. I'm pretty sure that illegal. This whole location needs to be investigated by...