The Salad Project co-founder James Dare has admitted the brand’s ‘Spaces’ click & collect concept is “not something we’re going to explore moving forward”.
The salad chain first launched the concept, which gives customers the option to order their salad or bowl online and collect in store, at its Mansion House site in London in April 2024.
It features a minimalistic look with numbered boxes where the bowls can be collected directly.
At the time of the launch, co-founder Florian de Chezelles told The Grocer the new concept saved customers an average of 13 minutes, enabling them to “get their salad in two minutes versus about 15 when queueing in the traditional stores”.
However, speaking at the Lunch food-to-go show today (24 September), Dare said this first site was “extreme”.
“We wanted to explore the opportunity to be able to take sites into much smaller footprints, especially in the city, where there are lots of options to do that.
”Cannibalisation is real amongst yourselves and competitors, so the idea that, in theory, you can get a site where the costs are a fraction of one of the bigger sites is really appealing,” he explained.
While the store sells “400 or 500 salads a day from 11am to 2pm”, which Dare hailed as “pretty great”, he added that the concept asks customers to “go into a green box where there’s nowhere to sit”.
”You have to order on your phone, and there’s no one to speak to, and it’s pretty cold in there – there’s no heating,” he explained.
Despite a move away from the concept, The Salad Project opened its second Spaces site just last month on Southwark Street, offering a different customer experience.
Dare explained: “At this site, we didn’t think we could fit a full Salad Project bar, so we said, let’s make it a Spaces but with kiosks so you don’t have to use your phone, let’s make it a glass box so you can actually see people making your food.
“The beauty is when you merge a tech platform and a busy, interactive customer experience,” he added.
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