Sweetgreen is on the move. The customers at its latest concept will be, too.

The fast-casual salad chain plans to open four new locations in New York City this fall, including one on Friday without indoor dining.

“We’ve evolved our customer experience with new safety standards that focus on crowd management and minimizing contact points,” Nicolas Jammet, Sweetgreen cofounder and chief concept officer, told Fortune. “We are building our stores with the flexibility to transform through the day to provide our customers and team members a safe environment.”

Catch me outside: Sweetgreen’s newest restaurant, located at the World Trade Center, will be 2,360 square feet and have a pick-up station for mobile orders. As Fortune notes, almost all Sweetgreen’s 140 locations nationwide have indoor dining, but the chain is banking on a speedy option for those heading back to the office.

• Other forthcoming locations will be in Manhattan’s Midtown and Financial District.

Sweetgreen is far from the first chain to experiment with concepts that rely less on indoor dining and hype up their digital ops. Wendy’s recently announced a partnership with Google to enhance mobile ordering capabilities using AI and cloud tech like text-to-speech and maps. Blaze Pizza revamped its mobile app in September so that customers can watch their pizza being made.

• IHOP’s fast-casual concept Flip’d, which opened in July, leans into its takeout and delivery offerings. Same goes for a new Panera location that comes with a two-lane drive-thru, upgraded kiosks, and mobile ordering.
• Almost 60% of digital orders over the past 18 months were placed via mobile apps, according to a PYMNTS study of 4.3+ million restaurant orders. While on-premise dining has crawled back, digital revenue still accounts for 50% of restaurant sales.

Zoom out: Sweetgreen filed an IPO on Monday and announced plans to double its footprint in five years. While the company ended its fiscal year on December 27 with a net loss of $141.2 million on $220.6 million in revenue, same-store sales have risen 21% as of September 26.

Mobile ordering has been a focus for Sweetgreen via digital channels like its app. The company’s digital revenue, as a total percentage, has grown to 75% as of fiscal year 2020, up from 30% in 2016, per the S-1 filing.—KM

Robots are all the rage this year. Over the summer, Instacart signed a multi-year deal with the startup Fabric to use its software. Now, Fabric has announced $200 million in fresh funding, valuing the company at $1+ billion, to support retailers with micro-fulfillment centers and robotics.

• Singapore’s Temasek led the Series C round, with participation from Koch Disruptive Technologies, Union Tech Ventures, and Harel Insurance & Finance, among others.
• In addition to Instacart, Fabric’s customers include Walmart and FreshDirect.

Everything now: Elram Goren, Fabric’s CEO and cofounder, said the funding will be used to dive deeper into the grocery sector and e-commerce retailers across America and Israel (where it was founded). “Essentially, we are using the same tech stack for both groceries and e-commerce,” he told TechCrunch in an interview.

• This year, online grocery sales are expected to exceed $100 billion, making up 12.4% of US e-comm sales.

Fabric’s hardware and software are designed to operate within its customers’ own warehouses—or the startup’s provided spaces—to automate picking and packing processes. According to Goren, this slashes fulfillment costs by 75%.

• Fabric has noted that a 6,000-square-foot center can process 600 orders per day, including one-hour deliveries.

When we spoke to Brittain Ladd, chief supply chain and marketing officer for tech solutions provider KPI, about rapid grocery delivery, he predicted speedy fulfillment expanding into other categories.

“Consumers will start asking, ‘Why is it that I can get my groceries in 15 minutes, but I can’t get a pair of shoes or a blouse?’ Retailers need to be prepared,” Ladd said. “This has a big potential to be much more disruptive than many retailers understand.”—JG

Supply-chain issues are toying with everyone. Yesterday, Hasbro said in its earnings report that a whopping $100 million worth of orders went unfilled during Q3 of this year (though they were eventually completed in Q4).

The usual suspects: Capacity shortages and port congestions were the culprits. Shipping delays and rising freight costs also impacted operating profits within Hasbro’s consumer products segments, which fell 7% in Q3, per the company.

• Despite persisting supply-chain issues, the retailer showed off an 11% surge in Q3 revenue over last year, surpassing estimates from Wall Street.
• Higher revenues in the company’s entertainment division made up for the drop within consumer products, interim CEO Rich Stoddart, noted in a statement.

Looking ahead: While some companies have warned of delays, Hasbro reassured customers (and investors) that its production and manufacturing operations are in overdrive so its toys won’t be in short supply this holiday season.

• “Our teams continue to work around the clock to secure transport for our goods to meet the robust demand for Hasbro brands," Stoddart said.
• Mattel, which reported earnings last week, also projected confidence.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

Zooming in: At just 26, Frédéric Arnault leads operations at TAG Heuer and may be the youngest CEO of a luxury watch brand. But the scion is not done yet. (New York Times)

Full stop: Canceled product orders, shipping delays, and longstanding Covid restrictions chart the impact Vietnam has had on the supply-chain crisis. (Retail Dive)

New horizons: Amid pandemic-induced shortages, consumers are up against an unexpected competitor for holiday gifts: bots. (Bloomberg)

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Racheal Brown is the VP of marketing at furniture brand Floyd. She took an early interest in digital marketing, and when she realized there weren’t any programs specializing in it, she decided not to finish her college degree and dive right in. Today, Brown credits her success to a “learning by doing” mentality.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I foster Floyd’s relationships with customers by sharing product knowledge and telling meaningful stories—and I put a little science behind it, to boot.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile: I spend about 60% of my time on spreadsheets and data. It’s not the sexiest part of the job (to most), but it is so necessary.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Floyd x Thing Thing, a Detroit collective, which reimagined the Floyd Side Table using recycled plastics. Literally turning tires and plastic toy manufacturing scraps into art.

One emerging retail trend you’re most excited about this year: Recommerce/circular-market initiatives. Retail brands across all industries are launching programs that focus on sustainability by way of reuse and prolonging life, whether it’s in-store worn-jean-drop programs, used-product buy-backs, or bringing vintage goods back to market. I think we’re going to see more and more customers demanding these types of activities and brands offering them up.

Your favorite retail account to follow are...Reformation for brand voice. East Fork Pottery for eye candy. Guess on TikTok—loving that right now.

While we can’t make the decisions that define your business’ customer experience, we can work to provide some useful tips to transform your strategies. On Wednesday, November 10, at 12:00pm ET, Ulta Beauty’s Karla Davis will join Retail Brew’s The Checkout to chat about customer centricity’s reign and transforming your CX. Register here.*

*This event is brought to you by Bolt.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Retailers are readying for a flurry of returns during this holiday season
• A look inside Neiman Marcus’s gift-guide strategy
• Ultra-cheap and super current: Alibaba’s new fast fashion platform eyes Western consumers