Jamba Juice

 Jamba Juice: The best smoothies. The freshest juices. The friendliest employees (partly because most of them are always high). Plain and simple, there is no greater smoothie joint in the country. Some will object to this and swear by Smoothie King. These are the same people who enjoy tasteless smoothies and 5 dollar brownies loaded with so much protein that they might as well be eating a leather shoe.  These are the same people who have never stepped into a Jamba Juce. They have never experienced what it is like to watch that big industrial machine pulverize an orange in a matter of seconds. They have never sat by the bar and taken a "wheat-grass shot." No, that's not what cow's drink to get wasted. It is a detox agent, and it'll start your morning off way better than a box of Wheaties. 

 

   That being said, Jamba Juice has let me down. Every morning, I order the exact same thing, a chunky strawberry topper. This parfait includes: granola, frozen strawberries, ice, two scoops of peanut butter and a layer of ripened bananas. To my great dismay, Jamba Juice ran out of ripened bananas on three separate occasions in two of the stores nearest to my office and loft. To make things worse, the lady behind the counter asked me if I'd rather have a mango topper instead. That is like ordering a Papa John's pizza and having the delivery guy come to your house with a box full of dead pigeons. I declined her offer immediately.

 

  Instead, I wrote a letter to the Jamba Juice corporate headquarters asking them how in their right minds they couldn't have timed the inventory appropriately so that each store will always have ripened bananas. How many of you reading this think you could make yourself a smoothie every morning with ripe bananas at your disposal if you really tried? I think tying your shoe-laces would be just as difficult. In fact for me, it's a lot harder.

 

  About a week later, Jamba Juice sent me a letter in the mail. Below is the letter. My reaction to their apologies are in parenthesis for your convenience.

 

 

 "Dear Thomas, Thank you for taking the time to contact us to bring this situation to our attention. I would like to offer you our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience we caused you by running "out of stock" on ripe bananas (They put that in quotes to mock me. I think the manager actually believes he was not out of stock). We really appreciate you allowing us the opportunity to address and fix this issue (Of course I was allowing them to address it. How could I not? It's not like my letter said DON'T YOU DARE BRING A RIPE BANANA BACK INTO THAT STORE CAUSE I WONT EAT IT). Most people will take their business elsewhere and never give us the chance to improve. (awwwwww, this made me feel kinda sad for them.) I will alert the field management team for review and action (this sounds more like a military operation now).

 

  Many of you probably think I am just like the old retired guy that points out the spot they missed after he's done with the car wash. I like to consider myself a consumer advocate of sorts, or at the very least a consumer advocate who was desperately attempting to get free smoothies out of Jamba Juice. And in the end it worked...

 

 "I have taken the liberty of sending you two complimentary beverage cards for you to use on your next visit. We will address this out of stock situation right away so that we can ensure this does not happen again. Please keep us posted if situations warrant."

 

 

   Today I walked into the same Jamba Juice, and I kid you not, the bananas at the top of my smoothie were so ripe, even Bo-Bo the monkey would hesitate to eat that shit. My letter worked. My topper had taste. Jamba Juice was alive and well.

 

     An old-man at the car wash? Or the guy who just saved your breakfast?

 

 

 

- Tommy