SWEETGREEN (Union Square, 870 Broadway, Manhattan) — Healthy / Bowls. Case study #14. Prices compared between sweetgreen’s own first-party pickup menu and the same store’s Uber Eats storefront, both for 870 Broadway, captured the same day.
A Kale Caesar — sweetgreen’s most-ordered salad — is $13.75 if you order it for pickup from the Union Square shop on sweetgreen’s own app. Order the same salad, from the same kitchen, on Uber Eats and it is $16.95, before a cent of delivery or service fee. We priced 48 of the store’s items side by side and found the gap almost everywhere: the Harvest Bowl runs $14.65 to $17.50, the Miso Glazed Salmon plate $17.25 to $20.25, a kids’ Ranchy Chicken + Rice $8.35 to $9.95 — and a bottle of Still Water, which sweetgreen neither cooks nor assembles, from $2.85 to $3.50. The average markup across the whole menu is about 20%.
The markup
Across all 48 matched items the markup ran from 16.1% to 27.4% — a mean of 19.8% and a median of 19.6%, clustered tightly around 20%. A basket of all 48 items costs $466.60 on sweetgreen’s own menu and $559.00 on Uber Eats — 19.8% more for the identical food. The premium is not reserved for the labour-intensive bowls: the biggest markups we found were on the cheapest, simplest things — a $10.95 Super Green Goddess salad up 27%, packaged chips and a $2.85 bottle of water up about 23% — while the priciest steak and salmon plates were marked up the least, around 16-17%.
One check rules out the obvious explanation. On Uber Eats we switched the storefront from Delivery to Pickup — no driver, no delivery to pay for — and every price held: the Kale Caesar was still $16.95, the Harvest Bowl still $17.50. If the 20% were paying for delivery, it would vanish when you collect the order yourself. It does not. The markup is attached to the food, not to the trip.
What the restaurant nets
When a customer orders through Uber Eats, the platform keeps a commission on the sale — a figure that can reach roughly 30% at the top of its fee structure. Apply a 30% commission to these prices and the roughly 20% markup no longer covers it: a $16.95 Kale Caesar returns sweetgreen about $11.87, below the $13.75 a pickup customer pays; a $17.50 Harvest Bowl returns about $12.25 against $14.65 at the counter. To fully break even against a 30% commission a restaurant would have to mark a dish up about 43%. On that basis sweetgreen’s ~20% leaves it netting a couple of dollars less per item, and it comes out behind on all 48 of the 48 items we checked.
But the more revealing number is New York’s own. The city caps the core delivery commission at 15%, and the markup a restaurant needs just to break even against a 15% cut is about 17.6%. Sweetgreen’s average markup, ~20%, sits just above that line. In other words, if sweetgreen is on New York’s capped 15% commission, this markup is tuned almost exactly to recover it — the restaurant would roughly break even, and the customer would be quietly paying the commission on sweetgreen’s behalf. That is the textbook definition of what this series calls a pass-through (Type A): the app’s cut is set as the floor, the restaurant lifts the menu to clear it, and the person tapping “order” pays it without ever seeing a line item for it. Which commission tier sweetgreen actually pays is a private contract term the platform does not disclose; at the 15% cap this markup roughly passes through, and at any higher effective rate the restaurant slips behind.
The New York context
New York City caps the core commission a delivery app can charge a restaurant at 15% for delivery, plus 5% for other listing and marketing services and 3% for card processing — limits the City Council first made permanent in 2021. A 2025 amendment, signed into law after the platforms sued and settled, now lets restaurants opt to pay an additional up to 20% for “enhanced services” such as wider delivery zones, top-of-search placement and promotions, which can push the total a restaurant pays toward roughly 43%. None of those caps touches what you pay in the app: the menu markup and the consumer-side fees sit entirely outside the commission the law regulates. So the cap that was meant to protect restaurants ends up, in a case like this one, describing the size of the markup passed on to the customer. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection continues to review delivery-app fees; the gap between what the law caps and what the customer actually pays is what this series keeps measuring.
| Item | Counter / first-party | Uber Eats | Markup | Restaurant nets @30% (vs counter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer Menu | ||||
| Picnic Bowl | $14.75 | $17.75 | +20.3% | $12.42 (-2.33) |
| Summer Market Bowl | $15.75 | $18.95 | +20.3% | $13.26 (-2.49) |
| Alice Waters’ Peach & Goat Cheese Salad | $14.55 | $17.50 | +20.3% | $12.25 (-2.30) |
| Wraps | ||||
| Classic Chicken Caesar | $11.95 | $14.75 | +23.4% | $10.32 (-1.62) |
| Cali Chicken Club | $13.95 | $16.75 | +20.1% | $11.72 (-2.22) |
| Chicken Jalapeno Ranch | $12.95 | $15.50 | +19.7% | $10.85 (-2.10) |
| Saucy KBBQ Chicken | $12.95 | $15.50 | +19.7% | $10.85 (-2.10) |
| Bowls | ||||
| Chicken Avocado Ranch | $14.65 | $17.75 | +21.2% | $12.42 (-2.23) |
| Shroomami | $14.45 | $17.50 | +21.1% | $12.25 (-2.20) |
| Fish Taco | $16.95 | $20.50 | +20.9% | $14.35 (-2.60) |
| Chicken Pesto Parm | $15.25 | $18.25 | +19.7% | $12.77 (-2.48) |
| Harvest Bowl | $14.65 | $17.50 | +19.5% | $12.25 (-2.40) |
| Steak Honey Crunch | $16.65 | $19.75 | +18.6% | $13.82 (-2.82) |
| Crispy Rice Bowl | $15.45 | $17.95 | +16.2% | $12.56 (-2.88) |
| Salads | ||||
| Super Green Goddess | $10.95 | $13.95 | +27.4% | $9.76 (-1.19) |
| Kale Caesar | $13.75 | $16.95 | +23.3% | $11.86 (-1.89) |
| BBQ Chicken Salad | $14.45 | $17.50 | +21.1% | $12.25 (-2.20) |
| Hummus Crunch | $13.65 | $16.50 | +20.9% | $11.55 (-2.10) |
| Buffalo Chicken | $15.75 | $18.95 | +20.3% | $13.26 (-2.49) |
| Chicken Sesame Crunch | $14.65 | $17.50 | +19.5% | $12.25 (-2.40) |
| Guacamole Greens | $14.65 | $17.50 | +19.5% | $12.25 (-2.40) |
| Protein Plates | ||||
| Hot Honey Chicken | $16.25 | $19.25 | +18.5% | $13.47 (-2.78) |
| Steak Mezze | $16.85 | $19.95 | +18.4% | $13.96 (-2.89) |
| Miso Glazed Salmon | $17.25 | $20.25 | +17.4% | $14.17 (-3.08) |
| Caramelized Garlic Steak | $17.65 | $20.50 | +16.1% | $14.35 (-3.30) |
| Kids Meals | ||||
| Ranchy Chicken + Rice | $8.35 | $9.95 | +19.2% | $6.96 (-1.39) |
| Little Harvest | $8.35 | $9.95 | +19.2% | $6.96 (-1.39) |
| Mini Mezze | $8.35 | $9.95 | +19.2% | $6.96 (-1.39) |
| Honest Kids Apple Juice | $2.15 | $2.50 | +16.3% | $1.75 (-0.40) |
| Sides | ||||
| Hummus + Focaccia | $4.45 | $5.50 | +23.6% | $3.85 (-0.60) |
| SG x Siete Green Goddess Ranch Potato Chips | $2.85 | $3.50 | +22.8% | $2.45 (-0.40) |
| Siete Sea Salt Potato Chips | $2.85 | $3.50 | +22.8% | $2.45 (-0.40) |
| Olive Oil Tortilla | $1.45 | $1.75 | +20.7% | $1.22 (-0.23) |
| Rosemary Focaccia | $2.45 | $2.95 | +20.4% | $2.06 (-0.39) |
| Roasted Sweet Potatoes + Hot Honey Mustard | $4.25 | $4.95 | +16.5% | $3.46 (-0.79) |
| Roasted Sweet Potatoes + Green Goddess Ranch | $4.25 | $4.95 | +16.5% | $3.46 (-0.79) |
| Dessert | ||||
| Hu Cashews + Vanilla Bean Hunks | $3.35 | $4.25 | +26.9% | $2.97 (-0.38) |
| Crispy Rice Treat | $3.35 | $4.25 | +26.9% | $2.97 (-0.38) |
| Hu Salty Dark Chocolate Bar | $6.35 | $7.50 | +18.1% | $5.25 (-1.10) |
| Drinks | ||||
| Still Water | $2.85 | $3.50 | +22.8% | $2.45 (-0.40) |
| Spindrift Raspberry Lime | $3.35 | $3.95 | +17.9% | $2.77 (-0.58) |
| Spindrift Lemon | $3.35 | $3.95 | +17.9% | $2.77 (-0.58) |
| OLIPOP Lemon Lime Soda | $3.85 | $4.50 | +16.9% | $3.15 (-0.70) |
| Harney & Sons Organic Lemonade | $3.85 | $4.50 | +16.9% | $3.15 (-0.70) |
| OLIPOP Root Beer | $3.85 | $4.50 | +16.9% | $3.15 (-0.70) |
| Just Ice Tea Peach Oolong | $3.85 | $4.50 | +16.9% | $3.15 (-0.70) |
| Just Ice Tea Original Green | $3.85 | $4.50 | +16.9% | $3.15 (-0.70) |
| Health-Ade Kombucha Blueberry Pomegranate | $4.25 | $4.95 | +16.5% | $3.46 (-0.79) |
| All 48 matched items (basket) | $466.60 | $559.00 | +19.8% | $391.30 |
By the numbers
- Items matched: 48 (same description and portion; sweetgreen’s “Create Your Own” build-your-own option and four in-store fountain drinks not sold on Uber Eats were excluded)
- Markup: mean 19.8%, median 19.6%, range 16.1%–27.4%
- Basket: $466.60 at the counter, $559.00 on Uber Eats (+19.8%)
- Pickup on Uber Eats costs the same as delivery — the markup is on the food, not a delivery charge
- Break-even markup at a 30% commission: ~43%; at New York’s capped 15% commission: ~17.6%. Sweetgreen’s ~20% clears the capped-rate break-even but not the top-rate one
- Items on which the restaurant nets less than dine-in at a 30% commission: 48 of 48
- Story type: A (pass-through) — the markup tracks New York’s capped commission and is borne by the customer
Method
On 15 July 2026, USA Times captured sweetgreen’s own prices from its first-party pickup ordering site (order.sweetgreen.com) for the Union Square store at 870 Broadway — the same prices a walk-in pays. The same day, we captured Uber Eats list prices for the same store from the rendered storefront, and confirmed in the app that the Pickup price equals the Delivery price for every item. We matched only items with the same description and portion, used list prices rather than promotional prices, and excluded sweetgreen’s “Create Your Own” build-your-own option and four fountain drinks (Strawberry Mint, sweetgreen Lemonade, Hibiscus Berry Tea, Ginger Greens) that are not sold on Uber Eats. The “restaurant nets @30%” column is an analytical estimate that applies a 30% commission to the Uber Eats price; it is our interpretation of the economics, not a figure disclosed by Uber, and the true commission tier for this restaurant is not public. Delivery fee, service fee, any New York regulatory fee, tax and tip are added at a logged-in checkout; this automated audit does not place orders and did not capture them. Prices can change and can vary by address; figures reflect the moment of capture.
Right of reply
USA Times contacted sweetgreen and Uber for comment and will update this report with any response. Sweetgreen was asked the one question that decides this story — after Uber’s commission, does it net more, less or the same as a walk-in, and how does it set its in-app prices — and Uber was asked about its commission tiers in New York and whether it tracks the gap between in-store and in-app menu prices.
Sources
- Sweetgreen counter / first-party prices — sweetgreen Union Square pickup ordering menu, captured 15 July 2026.
- Sweetgreen Uber Eats list prices — sweetgreen (Union Square) on Uber Eats, captured 15 July 2026 (Pickup price confirmed equal to Delivery price).
- NYC delivery fee caps and the 2025 amendment — NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, delivery fee caps, reviewed July 2026.
This report is part of a USA Times series auditing food-delivery pricing. Prices were collected by USA Times on the date noted, compared item by item against the restaurant’s own current menu, and reviewed by an editor before publication.
