Raphael Stevens

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has successfully halted one airline partnership and another planned merger.
The decisions sparked questions of whether Alaska Airlines’ proposed merger with Hawaiian would suffer a similar fate in a likely antitrust lawsuit.
Analysts and legal experts say the pitfalls that brought down the Spirit-JetBlue deal may offer clues into how Alaska and Hawaiian could pass muster with regulators, or in court.

Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines planes takeoff at the same time from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California, United States on June 21, 2023.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has successfully had two airline linkups halted in court in recent months. That doesn’t necessarily spell doom for Alaska Air’s plan to buy Hawaiian Airlines.
U.S. District Court Judge William Young on Tuesday sided with the Justice Department and blocked JetBlue Airways’ $3.8 billion attempted takeover of Spirit Airlines, saying that the elimination of the budget carrier known for rock-bottom fares would “harm cost-conscious travelers” who rely on those cheap tickets.

The decision immediately sparked questions of whether an Alaska-Hawaiian combination would suffer a similar fate in an antitrust lawsuit. Shares of Hawaiian plunged in the minutes after the ruling was handed down, though they ultimately recovered.
“We’d be lying to ourselves if we thought the probability of a successful merger had not been lowered following [Tuesday’s] ruling,” Deutsche Bank airline analyst Michael Linenberg wrote in a note Wednesday.
Yet the pitfalls that brought down the Spirit-JetBlue deal may offer clues into how Alaska and Hawaiian could pass muster with regulators, or in court. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it plans to challenge Alaska and Hawaiian’s proposed deal.
“The court in the JetBlue case was plainly concerned that this merger was eliminating a low-price carrier,” said Herbert Hovenkamp, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School and a specialist in antitrust law.
“What that says about Alaska-Hawaii, their advisors [and] lawyers are going to have to make sure that they can avoid those problems,” he said.

JetBlue and Spirit jointly said they disagreed with the decision and were considering next legal steps, which could include an appeal.

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Different kind of deal

Alaska and Hawaiian executives have expressed confidence in their nearly $2 billion deal, which includes Hawaiian’s debt.
“The decision involving other airlines does not impact our plans to combine with Hawaiian Airlines,” an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday. “Our deal combines two airlines with complementary networks and we believe the transaction will enhance competition and expand choice for consumers.”
A Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said the carrier believes the combination with Alaska “offers compelling benefits to our employees, guests, communities and all stakeholders,” but declined to comment on the JetBlue deal.
Alaska agreed in December to purchase Hawaiian, which was reeling from a sharp drop in bookings in the wake of the Maui wildfires, increased competition in its home market from Southwest and a slow recovery in Asia travel.
JetBlue contended it needed to buy Spirit to better compete with the largest airlines, which control about 80% of domestic capacity, a dynamic that resulted from years of megamergers.
In the case of JetBlue and Spirit, Young took issue with scores of overlapping routes. The carriers had offered divestitures to solidify the deal, but to no avail.
While Alaska and Hawaiian’s combination won’t be a breeze with regulators, the two deals are quite different.
Alaska and Hawaiian said in an investor presentation last month that they would have less than 3% overlap in their combined networks, which would include more than 1,300 daily flights.
“From a competitive standpoint, I think that lands really, really well,” said Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci on a Dec. 3 call with analysts after announcing the merger.
JetBlue had planned to remodel Spirit’s bright yellow and tightly packed planes to look like its own, which offer fewer seats, more legroom and other amenities.
Alaska, in contrast, has said it plans to keep the Hawaiian and Alaska brands separate. Alaska did away with the Virgin America brand after it bought that carrier in 2018.
“Not a single material point raised by the court, in our opinion, in ruling against the JBLU/SAVE merger directly applies to the Alaska deal to buy Hawaiian,” JPMorgan airline analyst Jamie Baker wrote after the Tuesday ruling.

DOJ challenge

That doesn’t mean the Justice Department won’t launch the effort, however.
Biden’s DOJ is already two for two against airline deals, after a separate U.S. District Court judge in May sided with the Justice Department to undo JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines in the U.S. Northeast, an alliance that won government approval during the final days of the Trump administration.
That agreement allowed JetBlue and American to coordinate routes and schedules in the Northeast, where they contended congested airports and airspace made it difficult to compete against bigger rivals.
The Justice Department successfully argued the partnership was anti-competitive, and the airlines last year ended the agreement, though American has announced it will appeal the decision.
Still, the department is fresh from another victory in court, which Hovenkamp said may “invigorate them to try to challenge [Alaska-Hawaiian] as well.”
Minicucci said last month that the airlines expect closing the deal will take 12 to 18 months. Some analysts, however, say the Justice Department’s win against JetBlue-Spirit will cast a shadow on Alaska’s deal.
“The reality is, even if you think everything’s going to be fine, the probability of the deal has to be lower than it was” before the JetBlue-Spirit ruling, said Conor Cunningham, an airline analyst at Melius Research.
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December home sales were 6.2% lower than in the same month a year earlier.
Inventory fell 11.5% from November to December, but was up year over year.
Full-year home sales for 2023 came in at 4.09 million units, the lowest tally since 1995.

A delivery man delivers packages in a Los Angeles neighborhood on January 17, 2024. 
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

Sales of previously owned homes fell 1% in December compared with November to 3.78 million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were 6.2% lower than in December 2022, marking the lowest level since August 2010.
Full-year sales for 2023 came in at 4.09 million units, the lowest tally since 1995.

Regionally, on a month-to-month basis, sales were unchanged in the Northeast and fell 4.3% in the Midwest. Sales were down 2.8% in the South but rebounded 7.8% in the West. On a year-over-year basis, sales were lower in all regions.
The count of home closings is based on contracts likely signed in late October and November, when mortgage rates were considerably higher than they are now. The average rate on the 30-year fixed loan rose to about 8% in October before falling to the 7% range in November. It is now at 6.89%, according to Mortgage News Daily.
“The latest month’s sales look to be the bottom before inevitably turning higher in the new year,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a release. “Mortgage rates are meaningfully lower compared to just two months ago, and more inventory is expected to appear on the market in upcoming months.”
Inventory fell 11.5% from November to December, but it was up 4.2% from December 2022. There were 1 million homes for sale at the end of December, making for a 3.2-month supply at the current sales pace. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.
Tight supply continues to reheat home prices. The median price of a home sold in December was $382,600, an increase of 4.4% from December 2022. That is the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year price gains. The median price for the full year was $389,800, a record high.

Homes stayed on the market longer in December, at an average of 29 days, up from 25 days in November. The share of all-cash sales rose to 29% from 27% in November. Individual investors, who make up a large share of all-cash sales, bought 16% of homes, down from 18% in November.
That pullback in activity from investors may be one bright spot for buyers. Both higher home prices and higher financing costs resulted in fewer investor home purchases for the full year 2023, according to a recent Realtor.com study.
“With rents continuing to ease and more multi-family homes entering the market for rent, investors may continue to tread more cautiously in the housing market,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “This would mean one less source of competition for potential first-time home buyers who are approaching the 2024 market with optimism despite the challenge of trying to buy a home at a below-median price point, one that investors also often target.”
First-time buyers are still struggling, making up just 29% of December sales, down from 31% the year before. Historically they make up 40% of the market. More

Ford is increasing production of its Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup, while cutting production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning, the automaker said Friday.
The announced cut to Lightning production comes a month after CNBC and other media outlets reported Ford would slash planned production of the pickup roughly in half this year.
The automaker will be reducing production of the Lightning at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan to one production shift from two, impacting approximately 1,400 employees.

DETROIT – Ford Motor is increasing production of its Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup, while cutting output of its all-electric F-150 Lightning, the automaker said Friday.
Ford said the production changes are intended to match output with customer demand. They mark the latest cuts or delays to production of EVs amid slower-than-expected customer demand.

“We are taking advantage of our manufacturing flexibility to offer customers choices while balancing our growth and profitability. Customers love the F-150 Lightning, America’s best-selling EV pickup,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a release. “We see a bright future for electric vehicles for specific consumers, especially with our upcoming digitally advanced EVs and access to Tesla’s charging network beginning this quarter.”
The announced cut to F-150 Lightning production comes a month after CNBC and other media outlets reported Ford would slash planned output of the pickup roughly in half this year, marking a major reversal after the automaker significantly increased plant capacity for the electric vehicle in 2023.
The automaker will be reducing output of the Lightning at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan to one production shift from two, impacting approximately 1,400 employees. The reduction takes effect April 1.

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Ford declined to specify how the eliminated production shift will impact output of the vehicles.
Ford said roughly half of the affected employees will transfer to the Michigan Assembly Plant that produces the Bronco and Ranger. Others will transfer to nearby plants or are expected to participate in a “Special Retirement Incentive Program” agreed to in the 2023 Ford-United Auto Workers contract, the company said.

The Michigan Assembly Plant will add a third shift this summer to increase production of the Bronco and Ranger, according to Ford. The company plans to add 900 jobs at that plant.

Bronco SUVs in production at Ford’s Michigan Assembly plant, June 14, 2021.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

Sales of the F-150 Lightning were up 55% last year to more than 24,000 pickups. However, vehicles have not been selling as quickly as they were previously. Ford said it expects “further growth” in sales for the vehicle in 2024, but reportedly not as much as the 150,000 production rate it accounted for when it up-fitted the plant last year.
Sales of the Bronco and Ranger were both down 9.7% and 43.3% last year, respectively. The plant that produces the vehicles was heavily impacted by a six-week UAW labor strike.
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The annual World Economic Forum is wrapping up Friday in Davos, Switzerland.
Experts and business leaders at the conference did not believe the U.S. will fall into a recession this year.
Companies were touting their AI wares throughout the week, and many attendees downplayed the risks of the technology.

A person walks on the day of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Denis Balibouse | Reuters

The 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland will wrap Friday. Billionaires and world leaders are flying home from Zurich or taking long weekends to ski in the Swiss Alps.
Conversations at the annual gathering echoed the topics buzzing in the corporate world, from the promise or drawbacks of AI to the political risks clouding the global economy.

Here are some of takeaways from Davos after our week talking to business leaders and government officials at the conference.

Experts see no U.S. recession in 2024

Overwhelmingly, economic experts and executives privately said they don’t expect a U.S. recession in 2024. The Fed’s potential interest rate cuts in the coming months, combined with rising consumer confidence, have led to optimism about the health of the economy – barring another major geopolitical crisis.

Little talk about Israel-Hamas

Given its global importance, the Middle East crisis came up surprisingly little in breakout panels or at planned corporate events at Davos. Perhaps there are few obvious solutions, or maybe – as multiple conference attendees suggested – many people don’t want to speak out on the conflict in Gaza because they could irritate others or start a rhetorical conflagration.
Others gave this as a possible reason why so few U.S. executives – even privately — spoke up on the potential dangers of another Donald Trump presidency. Staying cautious may not be courageous, but it’s just better for business.
Several people pointed out the notable absence of conversations about the rise of global antisemitism at the conference, as Andrew Ross Sorkin noted in The New York Times.

Goodbye crypto, hello AI

Wipro Ltd’s slogan related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is displayed on a wall during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 16, 2024. 
Denis Balibouse | Reuters

Last year at Davos, crypto discussion dominated panels. This year, AI took over as the cool kid on the block.
Up and down the Promenade, the main street in Davos, a swathe of companies were advertising their AI wares. Technology leaders, banking executives and even musicians including Wyclef Jean and Will.i.am waxed poetic on the promise of AI. Willi.i.am even pitched his coming SiriusXM radio show featuring an AI co-host.

AI won’t kill us

Speaking of AI, the tone of panel discussions and cocktail conversations about the technology was decidedly optimistic rather than dystopian. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who had previously joined a chorus of voices warning AI could lead to human extinction, said during the week that AI will “change the world much less than we all think.”
Altman was referring to artificial general intelligence, or AGI. This is technology broadly defined as an AI system that can carry out tasks to the same level as, or better than, humans.
After a big year for labor unions, this may calm the nerves of workers. About 20% of all job postings are considered “highly exposed” to AGI, according to the hiring platform Indeed.com.
Even after AI took massive steps forward in recent years, job listings remain above pre-pandemic levels in most nations, according to Recruit Holdings, the parent company of Indeed and company review site Glassdoor. Altman said his thoughts on AGI have shifted: where he once thought robots will replace us all, he is now impressed by how companies are using it as a tool to supplement human work.

China fighting for cash

China’s Premier Li Qiang speaks during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 16, 2024. 
Denis Balibouse | Reuters

Chinese Premier Li Qiang told a Davos crowd Wednesday that China’s GDP grew 5.2% in 2023 — slower than its pre-pandemic growth. The country is fighting semiconductor trade war with the U.S., it’s losing foreign direct investment and India just overtook it in terms of population. There are real concerns in China about how to prop up growth as the U.S. looks to isolate Beijing.
That may have prompted Li to reveal the figure publicly to an international crowd looking for investment opportunities, said Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, in an interview.
“China is experiencing very significant structural economic challenges,” Bremmer said. “A lot of companies in the West are no longer investing what they used to invest, and they’re certainly not thinking about their growth strategies the way they have.”
“But even 3%, 4% growth in China is still fairly meaningful for a lot of companies that are attending the World Economic Forum this year,” Bremmer added. “I think what’s interesting about China’s reduced growth is the fact that it is not just a six-month blip. This is a sustained challenge, and it’s making the Chinese feel like they need to actually reach out much more constructively to the private sector.”

Davos is still popular — creating headaches

Several longtime Davos attendees commented on how the city’s infrastructure can barely contain the popular conference anymore. Shuttles and Ubers to ferry people from place to place were bumper-to-bumper at all hours of each day. The demand for hotel rooms is so high that the price exceeds the accepted expense threshold for Swiss government officials.
They also noted that they spent far less time in the Congress Center — the main event space — than in years past because of all the satellite events that happen around the World Econonic Forum.
Perhaps generative AI can start making some new roads and accommodations for the increased traffic. More

Spirit Airlines on Friday raised its financial forecast for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Shares soared, recovering from a rout sparked by a judge’s ruling blocked JetBlue’s plan to buy Spirit
Spirit said compensation from RTX unit Pratt & Whitney over forced engine inspections will be “significant source of liquidity” in the coming years.

Spirit Airlines jetliners on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Joe Cavaretta | South Florida Sun-sentinel | Getty Images

Spirit Airlines on Friday raised its financial forecast for the fourth quarter of 2023, sending shares soaring more than 20% after a rout earlier this week that followed a judge’s ruling that blocks JetBlue Airways from buying the budget carrier.
Spirit said in a filing that it expects revenue to come in at about $1.3 billion, at the high end of its earlier forecast, thanks to strong bookings at the end of the year. It estimated adjusted negative margins of 12% to 13%, improvement from a previous forecast for as much as a 19% negative margin for the last three months of the year.

The airline also credited lower fuel costs and other expenses in its improved estimates.
Prior to Friday’s premarket surge, Spirit shares had shed 62% and lost than $1 billion in market capitalization over the last trading week as the ruling raised questions about the airline’s future. Some analysts said the carrier could be on track to file for bankruptcy protection.
The two airlines said they disagreed with the decision and were assessing next steps, which could include an appeal.
Spirit confirmed on Friday that it is weighing options to refinance more than $1 billion in debt that matures in 2025. It previously sold and leased back some of its aircraft. The airline said in the filing that it had $1.3 billion of liquidity at the end of 2023.
The carrier had been struggling even before the antitrust ruling and had last year warned about challenges including higher costs, weaker travel demand and a Pratt & Whitney engine problem that would ground dozens of its Airbus planes this year.

Spirit said Friday it expects compensation from Pratt & Whitney, a unit of RTX, in connection with that engine issue.
“Discussions with Pratt have progressed considerably since October, and while no agreement has been reached to date, the Company believes the amount of compensation it will receive will be a significant source of liquidity over the next couple of years,” Spirit said Friday in is securities filing.
Spirit plans to hold a quarterly call with analysts on Feb. 8 to discuss results and its outlook. More

Wayfair is laying off 13% of its global workforce, including 19% of its corporate team, as it looks to streamline its business and cut out layers of management.
The restructuring – the third Wayfair has implemented since summer 2022 – is expected to save the company about $280 million, it said. 
The cuts come after Hasbro, Etsy and Macy’s announced layoffs over the last month.

Wayfair IPO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters

Wayfair is cutting 13% of its global workforce as the digital home goods retailer continues its efforts to trim down its structure, cut out layers of management and reduce costs after going “overboard” with corporate hiring during the Covid pandemic, it announced Friday. 
The company plans to lay off around 1,650 employees, including 19% of its corporate team, with a focus on people in management and leadership positions, the company said. 

The restructuring – the third Wayfair has implemented since summer 2022 – is expected to save the company about $280 million, it said. 
Shares of Wayfair surged 15% in premarket trading after the news was announced.
“The changes announced today reflect a return to our core principles on resource allocation,” Wayfair’s CEO and cofounder Niraj Shah said in a statement. “Although persistent category weakness makes revenue growth challenging, we remain encouraged by the share gains we continue to see.” 
The layoffs come after Hasbro, Etsy and Macy’s all announced cuts to their workforces as retailers contend with slowing demand and an uncertain economy. At the height of the holiday shopping season in mid-December, Hasbro and Etsy announced staff reductions of 1,100 and 225 workers, respectively, and on Thursday, Macy’s said it plans to cut more than 2,300 employees, or 3.5% of its workforce. The department store retailer also has plans to close five stores. 
Wayfair said the cuts were not related to fourth-quarter performance but were rather a proactive move to get the company back to its core structure.

During the pandemic, Wayfair saw its business explode as stuck-at-home consumers used stimulus dollars and savings to splurge on home goods like furniture and decor. It saw annualized sales go from $9 billion to $18 billion “almost overnight” and needed to boost its headcount to meet the demand, Shah said in a memo to employees Friday.
However, as the virus’s impact began to wane, the home goods sector overall started to see a pull back in demand. As a result, Wayfair has needed to make cuts to ensure its staffing levels are proportionate to how much business it’s doing. 
“By mid 2022 it was clear we were in a bust period. It was also clear that we had gone overboard with corporate hiring during Covid,” Shah explained. “As everyone here knows, we’ve had two significant corporate restructurings since 2022 to try to right-size this. Each time we used our best judgment, identified the cost target we needed to hit, and believed we were resizing to the right point.
“After each reduction we have gotten more of our goals done faster. I believe we need to stay focused as a company on what committed small teams can accomplish. In many ways, having too many great people is worse than having too few,” he said. “With too few, you get a lot done quickly, but you may not get everything done that you want. But having too many causes inefficiency, coordination costs, and investments in lower return activities. That is what we have been experiencing and what we need to end.”
In the latest reductions, the company sought to eliminate senior people in certain areas who had “too much time” and spent that time meeting with other senior leaders instead of actually executing, it said.
Wayfair also wants to rightsize the ratio of engineers to engineer partners, such as those in business, product, design, research and analytics roles, because an excess of those positions doesn’t “create better technology outcomes and rather will do the opposite,” Shah said.
“We are gaining forward momentum due to everyone’s dedicated efforts. Our toughest stretch is now behind us. And I think our best year is right in front of us,” Shah said.
The company does plan to rebuild portions of its headcount throughout the year but will focus on lower-ranking jobs and positions that execute on actions, rather than leadership roles that oversee those actions, the company said.
If revenue remains flat this year for Wayfair, the company expects it will bring in $600 million of adjusted EBITDA in 2024, up from a previous expectation of $450 million. More

Salad and Go wants to provide a healthier, cheap fast-food option with its $7 salads and wraps.
Founded in 2013, the salad chain is now run by former Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison.
Morrison said the chain has expansion plans that could mean thousands of locations eventually.

The drive-thru entrance to a Salad and Go location.
Source: Salad and Go

When Sweetgreen went public two years ago, co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman said the salad chain aspired to be the “McDonald’s of its generation.”
But another salad rival could beat Sweetgreen to the punch: Salad and Go.

Founded in 2013, the upstart chain is nearing its publicly traded rival’s store count, with more than 100 locations and counting. With backing from its owner, private equity firm Volt Investment, it has ambitious expansion plans for 2024 beyond its roots in the Southwest.
Salad and Go’s appeal comes in no small part from its affordability. One of its 48 ounce salads costs less than $7 and comes with chicken or tofu, while a comparable salad from Sweetgreen costs about $12.
As the chain plots an ambitious expansion path, its C-suite is packed with restaurant industry veterans, including former Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison. He joined Salad and Go’s board in 2020. Two years later, Morrison took over as chief executive, departing Wall Street’s favorite chicken wing chain after a decade in favor of a little-known salad chain that then had only 50 locations.
“The brand was designed around the idea of completely rebuilding the supply chain, and fixing what I believe is broken today,” Morrison said at the annual ICR Conference earlier this month.
Since Morrison became chief executive, Salad and Go has more than doubled its footprint, which is now around 130 locations across Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas. Last year, the chain opened about a restaurant every week, and it plans to keep up that pace in 2024 and enter new markets such as Southern California. For reference, Sweetgreen has 220 open locations, as of Sept. 24.

Morrison said the company is currently profitable in “established mature markets.”

How Salad and Go works

A salad or wrap from Salad and Go starts at one of the chain’s commissary kitchens, where its produce is washed and its proteins are prepared. Those ingredients are then shipped to its 750-square-foot locations, which are roughly the same size as a typical restaurant kitchen. The restaurants have drive-thru lanes, but no indoor seating.
Its small footprint has helped the chain expand quickly with relatively low rent. Other industry disruptors, such as ghost kitchens and the coffee startup Blank Street Coffee, have used a similar real estate strategy to cut overhead costs.
Salad and Go customers order online or in those drive-thru lanes, and a team of two employees makes their customized salads and wraps.
The simplified restaurant kitchen features a walk-in cooler and cooling counters underneath the make lines where workers assemble orders. A few ingredients, such as the eggs for its breakfast burritos and avocados for its salads, are prepared on site, rather than in its commissaries.
But the Salad and Go locations lack the freezers, broilers, fryers, hoods and fire suppression systems that typical fast-food restaurants need — and are often a culprit for delays as locations wait on equipment inspections ahead of opening.
On average, a Salad and Go customer exits the drive-thru line in under four minutes, according to Morrison. Increasingly, its customers are picking up orders for more than just one meal.
“The unique thing about Salad and Go against any other [quick-service restaurant] brands out there is that we enjoy a two-daypart single occasion,” Morrison said. “You can show up at 6:30 in the morning and get your breakfast burrito, get your cold brew coffee or hot coffee, and get your salad for lunch during the same occasion.”

Replacing burgers, not salads

Charlie Morrison, CEO of Salad and Go, speaking on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on Dec. 5 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

As Salad and Go enters new territory, Morrison is confident that the chain’s salads have universal appeal.
“We’ve been able to put these stores in these differentiated markets, with different income levels, different levels of diversity, different focal points, and found that great performance quite consistent,” Morrison said.
Salad and Go’s first customers in a new market tend to be regular salad eaters anyway, but Morrison said the chain has also been able to attract other consumers because of its cheap prices and tasty food.
“What we see with our fans, with our guests, is this very strong loyalty and affinity,” Salad and Go Chief Marketing Officer Nicole Portwood told CNBC.
Portwood previously helped turn Tito’s Handmade Vodka from a craft distiller to the nation’s most popular vodka. Like Morrison, she started at Salad and Go as a member of its board before being tapped as its CMO in October.
Other salad players, such as Sweetgreen, Just Salad or Salata, are usually in the same markets as Salad and Go. Salad and Go isn’t the only chain to prioritize convenience for on-the-go customers. Sweetgreen has been opening restaurants with drive-thru lanes dedicated to digital orders.
But Morrison told CNBC that the chain doesn’t worry about those options, which usually charge at least double what his company does for their healthy fare.
“Our concept is not tailored to compete against them. It’s tailored to compete against eating occasions that are unhealthy for you, but otherwise you couldn’t afford to eat well,” he said.
In other words, Salad and Go is looking to take down fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s, which pulled its salads off menus during the Covid-19 pandemic and hasn’t brought them back yet.

Ambitions for thousands of restaurants

Salad and Go is looking to emulate fast-food rivals in other ways, too.
“We have expansion plans that will carry us well into the thousands of restaurants,” Morrison said. “Ultimately, we believe this brand has the potential for a very large footprint.”
Similar to Sweetgreen, Salad and Go owns rather than franchises its restaurants. That approach requires more capital — so do its commissaries, or central kitchens, as Salad and Go calls them. But Morrison said the kitchens mitigate labor challenges, requiring less training for its workers and fewer employees in its actual restaurants.
Today, Salad and Go runs two commissary kitchens: one in Phoenix, and the other in Dallas. The Texas kitchen was Salad and Go’s original prototype, and the chain plans to upgrade to an improved facility by this spring that can service as many as 500 locations in the future, including potential restaurants as far away as Atlanta.
For now, Salad and Go’s goals for the future are focused on building more restaurants and spreading the word about its salads. When asked about long-term plans for the company, such as an initial public offering, Morrison said all options are in play.
“It’s less of a concern now. The concern for us is just expanding the footprint and getting into the market, fulfilling our mission,” he said. Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Macy’s will cut about 2,350 positions, or 3.5% of its workforce.
The legacy department store is trying to reduce costs and boost slowing sales.
The move comes as Bloomingdale’s CEO Tony Spring prepares to take over the Macy’s CEO role from the outgoing Jeff Gennette.

People cross the street outside Macy’s Herald Square store on December 17, 2023 in New York City. 
Kena Betancur | Corbis News | Getty Images

Macy’s on Thursday said it will cut about 3.5% of its workforce and close five of its namesake mall locations as the legacy department store moves to trim costs and turn around slowing sales.
The move will affect approximately 2,350 positions across its corporate office and stores, company spokesman Chris Grams said.

“As we prepare to deploy a new strategy to meet the needs of an everchanging consumer and marketplace, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 3.5% to become a more streamlined company,” the company said in a statement.
The company notified employees about the layoffs on Thursday and the last day for impacted employees will be Jan. 26.
Stores that will be shuttered are located in Arlington, Va.; San Leandro, Calif.; Lihue, Hawaii; Simi Valley, Calif. and Tallahassee, Fla. The stores will close in early 2024, Grams added.
Macy’s is the middle of an effort to turn the roughly 166-year-old department store into a brand that resonates with consumers who are shopping online, looking for value and turning to competitors including e-commerce retailers like Amazon and Shein, big-box players like Target and off-price names like TJX-owned T.J.Maxx instead of its stores. As part of that push, Macy’s is overhauling its private label brands, opening smaller shops outside of the mall and looking to its beauty chain, Bluemercury, and higher-end department store, Bloomingdale’s, to drive growth.
In the fall, the company said it would open up to 30 smaller stores in strip malls over the next two years. Macy’s has been better known for giant mall stores, but the company is trying to chase consumers in the suburbs who are going to outdoor shopping centers a short drive away for groceries or a new outfit.

Macy’s, the parent company that includes its namesake brand, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, will also get a new leader soon. Tony Spring, CEO of Bloomingdale’s, will step into the CEO role for Macy’s in early February as outgoing CEO Jeff Gennette retires.
On the company’s earnings call in October, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Adrian Mitchell hinted that Macy’s would take another hard look at its stores. He said the company had to “deliver relevant products, strong value and a more enjoyable shopping experience,” and some of that would include “optimizing our physical footprint.”
“We are committed to bringing more inspiration on a daily basis to our customers,” he said. “We look forward to sharing more on how that ladders to long-term profitable growth on our fourth quarter call.”
Mitchell also told investors on the call that Macy’s “anticipated closure of less than 10 locations in early 2024.”
Yet Macy’s sales and stock performance have lagged. The company has not yet reported its holiday quarter, but said in October that it expected same-store sales to decline by up to 7% for its fiscal 2023. It’s expected to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings in late February.
Shares of the company closed on Thursday at $17.93, down nearly 11% so far this year. That compares to the roughly flat performance of the S&P 500 during the same period.
Macy’s has 723 locations across the country, as of Oct. 28, the end of the most recently reported quarter. The majority of those — roughly 500 —are its namesake stores, followed by 158 Bluemercury stores and 56 Bloomingdale’s stores.
The department store chain’s footprint has gotten smaller in recent years, however. About four years ago, Macy’s announced another major layoff and wave of store closures. It made the announcement in February 2020, just weeks before the Covid pandemic led to lockdowns and the temporary shuttering of many malls and retail stores across the country.
At the time, Macy’s said it would shut 125 stores over the following three years and slash about 2,000 corporate jobs, as it closed its Cincinnati headquarters and tech offices in San Francisco.
The company is reconsidering its store count again.
In March 2023, Gennette said the company was “evaluating the right number and mix of on- and off-mall locations,” and added that the customer and retail backdrop had changed since the February 2020 announcement. He said since that 2020 announcement, Macy’s had closed about 80 namesake locations and had plans to soon close another five.
“We have shuttered our most significant underperformers, exited dying centers and improved the existing store experience, while delaying closures of others that are cash flow positive,” he said on the March call. “Today, roughly 99% of our mall base is profitable on a four-wall basis.”
The news on Thursday was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. More