The Sweetgreen healthy restaurant chain has 31 stores so far, but with more than 62,000 Instagram followers it already averages about 2,000 per location. Burger innovator Five Guys, for instance, only has 18,000 Instagram followers with over 1,000 locations. USA Today reports that Chipotle has 200,000 Instagram followers, but also 1,700 stores. Customers apparently think Sweetgreen is the most picture perfect fast food out there.
The number of Instagram followers a restaurant has might just be a good modern metric for gauging customer loyalty. (Sure, old school bean counters want to look at the day’s receipts, but still…) Sweetgreen, still a mostly East Coast operation, is due to open stores in Santa Monica and San Francisco soon, too. Those California locations alone will probably double its iPhone-happy followers.
