It’s summer, when a young man or woman’s thoughts turn to….smoothies. Especially if you’re an HR manager or a sales team leader in a corporate office filled with overheated employees who were waiting for the R train this morning or were delayed on the LIRR on the one car that didn’t have air conditioning.

So, you start thinking about how to do something special for your people, or maybe for a special client. “Smoothies!” comes to mind. And then you think, “I’ll have smoothies delivered by the local takeout juice place a few blocks away. Let us tell you why this is a bad idea and why you should plan a smoothie event featuring Maui Wowi’s mobile smoothie bar.

Why Takeout Smoothies Don’t Work

We commend you for your creative thinking and wanting to do an employee appreciation gesture.  But there are a few problems with the takeout approach.

1. Deliveries can be slow. Yes, you can ask the local juice bar for 50 smoothies, but that’s not what they’re set up to do. If they take your order at all, they will have a hard time making them and getting them to you fast. And fast is important in the smoothie biz. Even if they can make them, getting into buildings these days is not so easy. There’s security, then the line at the freight elevator, and getting the receptionist to call you, and you having to get everyone together. Delays are bad for smoothies! If you’re not drinking your smoothie within minutes of its being blended, it will start breaking apart and lose its appeal. Yuck.
2. Bad for the earth. Many delivered smoothies come in Styrofoam cups to preserve the cold. We don’t have to tell you this is a disaster for the planet. We make ours in compostable cups. These cups can’t be delivered because they’ll literally melt in the sun! 
3. A gesture is not an event. Even if you manage to get smoothies delivered to your office, what then? Your people grab and go. Like the virtual tree falling in the forest when there’s no one around. Your gesture didn’t make a sound! Why? Because you didn’t create an event around it.
4. Takeout means not customized. If you order a bunch of smoothies for the office in different flavors, there’s going to be someone who wanted strawberry but there was only a pineapple smoothie left. Sad!

The list goes on. But there’s a better way.

A Maui Wowi mobile smoothie bar offers a number of great features:

1. Maui Wowi is an event for your employees or special clients. We come to your office with our mobile tiki bar and custom-make smoothies in flavors of your employees’ choice (we usually offer three or four).  Our bar and servers create a fun atmosphere.
2. People hang out….and talk. Ever notice people texting from 12 inches away? Give their thumbs a break and let them hang out at the tiki bar and socialize! It’s good for productivity if people talk and like each other more.
3. What if you don’t have space or don’t want the tiki bar? We only need a small space and an electric outlet for our bar. We can set up in a break room or conference room. But if you don’t want the bar, no problem. We can use a kitchen area and make our smoothies fresh, put lids and straws in them (and a colorful parasol) and have them ready to drink. No delivery delays.

BTW, the same applies for takeout coffee drinks from FourBucks. (I think they have renamed it FiveBucks). Those lattes are not gonna be hot, folks. How about having a mobile espresso bar at your office with expert baristas, all the customization your people want, a choice of syrups, sauces, whipped cream, milks and sweeteners.  Spare them your break-room coffee and make a coffee event with a mobile Maui Wowi espresso bar.