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Why Restaurant Chains Are Betting on Smaller Formats
Lucas and Luna dig into the fast-casual industry's pivot to compact store formats. With real estate costs up 20 percent since 2020 and labor still tight, chains like Sweetgreen and Chipotle are opening units half the size of their legacy stores. Lucas breaks down the unit economics: a typical Chipotle now needs 18 percent less staff and pulls 12 percent higher revenue per square foot. Luna challenges whether the model works for full-service operators and points to a new study showing a 30 percent drop in dine-in satisfaction at crowded small-format locations. The hosts debate trade-offs…
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