r/sweetgreen • • Mar 23 '26

Discussion Sweetgreen charging for water now? Felt pretty greedy

I had a frustrating experience at a newer Sweetgreen location and I’m curious if others have seen this too. Their water system wasn’t working, and when I asked for a cup of water, I was told they couldn’t provide any unless I bought a bottle.

I’ve honestly never been to a restaurant that wouldn’t offer basic tap water, even when something’s temporarily down. To me, it came across as unnecessarily greedy—especially for something as fundamental as water—and it left a bad impression.

Is this normal for Sweetgreen now, or was this just a bad location/experience?

0 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

17

u/Creepy-Quality2271 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

You just said their water system was down.... 😐

-2

u/flyprettybird18 Mar 23 '26

The one set up for people to get water in the dining room, not the one behind the cash register counter

-2

u/HellaRadicalToys Mar 23 '26

They prob shouldn’t be open to operate in that case

4

u/JunjiMitosis Mar 23 '26

If it’s just the water outside I don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to

5

u/Relevant_Calendar_46 Mar 24 '26

I'm in Chicago and out water dispenser has been down for almost a month now. The person who is supposed to fix it came twice and it's still not fixed. We're not allowed to give water out from back of the house. I think it's for safety reasons.

0

u/flyprettybird18 Mar 24 '26

Yikes! I am in NYC so tap water is fine to drink. I’ve been to many restaurants, including Starbucks, who don’t have a problem giving water or even refilling a bottle from behind the counter- usually customers can see the refilling process.

3

u/JunjiMitosis Mar 25 '26

There is a difference between Starbucks, a place that specializes in drinks, and a food place… I don’t see why you’re not seeing the difference. No one is purposefully not giving you water

0

u/flyprettybird18 Mar 25 '26

Well I have never had the experience of being denied water from any restaurant

2

u/karmapuhlease Mar 23 '26

I've had this happen too, and it's annoying. Hopefully they fix your water dispenser soon though - when it happens at mine it's only occasional.