As we are all human, people make mistakes and get mixed up.  At Smoothie King, we are on the receiving end of these mix-ups, but we also mix things up as well.  Often times, these mix-ups do not have detrimental effects and result in laughs and funny stories.

At the Smoothie King that I work at, it is a stand-alone building with its own entrance.  The entrance next to it is for Dunkin’, which is also a stand-alone facility. When coming in off the highway, Dunkin’ customers often turn into the Smoothie King entrance instead of Dunkin’.  Some people realize, loop around the building, and head to the actual Dunkin’ entrance. However, some people are so oblivious and actually think they are at Dunkin’. One time, I had a customer rattle off a full order for a dozen donuts!  When he asked for six glazed donuts, I thought he was just messing with me, but when he threw in a request for a Boston Kreme, I knew he had no idea. The most concerning cases of this are when people actually park their car, walk into the store, and start ordering at the counter before they realize they are not at Dunkin’.  We always say that we are concerned these people are driving if they are truly so oblivious and unaware of their surroundings.  

The most oblivious customer story I have ever been a part of was with a lady who not only made the Dunkin’ / Smoothie King mistake but also got into the wrong car.  She drove into our lot in a black BMW. When she went back out to her car after realizing she was in the wrong place, she approached my best friend’s car, who also works at Smoothie King.  My friend leaves her car unlocked, so she watched anxiously as this woman went up to it. The woman opened the unlocked door and got into the car before realizing it was not hers. Now, this would be understandable if my friend drove a black BMW or even just a black car, but she does not.  She drives a royal blue Chevy which clearly has nothing in common with the black BMW. To this day, we still wonder how this woman was so out of it.

On the working side, we have our fair share of mix-ups as well.  There are two of mine that I remember very clearly! In a past blog, I wrote about the Peanut Power Plus Chocolate, a very popular post-workout smoothie.  When this man ordered one and I asked if he wanted any extras or enhancers, I heard “green tea” through the drive thru headset. I thought to myself, “Hmmm strange combination but okay.”  I handed his smoothie out the window and said, “Here you go! Peanut Power Plus Chocolate with green tea.” He looked bewildered and concerned and went, “Ummm I asked for creatine, not green tea.”  As you can imagine, that was pretty embarrassing, but we got a good laugh out of it.

There was also the time that I accidently made Artie Burns, cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a Mangofest smoothie out of bananas instead of mangoes.  We were in the midst of a huge rush of customers, so I was going turbo mode in making the endless line of smoothies. Bananas are the first ingredient in so many smoothies, so I must have just went with my instincts and scooped the bananas instead of mangoes.  Again, it was also pretty embarrassing when Artie Burns’ wife told me that his mango smoothie tasted like bananas. I still hope that he’s not allergic to bananas!

This could be an endless post with all of the stories of mistakes at The King, but I’ll leave you with these few stories for now.  Hopefully, they gave you a glimpse into some of the innocent mistakes that gave us all a good laugh at Smoothie King.