Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Virginia

Interesting that I just read a review about how the store doesn’t open on time, because apparently they close more than 30 minutes early also. The sign said open, saw the girl inside hiding in the back, even called from outside and she said they were closed. It’s 8:33pm at the time I’m positing this and even the sign on the door says they are open till 9pm. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take 30 minutes to make a smoothie and then clean it up. I’ve run plenty of retail stores by myself and the door stays unlocked till the last min, and if you happened to show up 2 minutes till close, you’ll be served and I’ll get overtime.

But of course I don’t work here so I guess I can’t expect the same quality of service.

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So I keep coming back, but the service is just getting worse. Always out of something usually a main ingredient of the majority of smoothies and other food items also. My husband and I come here for one specific smoothie and that’s usually the one they can’t make. Who is in charge of maintaining inventory or making sure there is enough product on hand? Also disorganized when taking or placing orders for other customers. Seems they don’t verify the order before filling either. It’s summer now, and this is the time that a smoothie establishment will be most busy. I guess I’ll be taking the 15-20 min drive further...

Wow, what an incredible experience I had at Tropical Smoothie today! I mean, who doesn't love being told they can't enter a store with an open sign on? It's not like I have better things to do than stand around and watch the employee lock the door after I've already walked in.

So, here's how it went: I arrived at 7:45 AM, saw the worker get dropped off, and watched as she opened the store at 7:50 AM. I strolled in at 7:57 AM, only to be told they weren't open. I politely replied, "Okay," because who argues with someone who clearly knows what they're doing?

Then, I took a front-row seat in the parking lot to watch the magic happen. She turned off the open sign and locked the door. I just had to call the store to confirm that they weren't open because, apparently, having one staff member isn't enough to run a business.

As a regular customer, I've never felt so disrespected in my life. It's not like I've ever had a bad experience anywhere else, but this one takes the cake. Or should I say, it takes the smoothie?

To Tropical Smoothie, I say: Please, for the love of all things customer service, do better. Train your staff, manage your schedules, and maybe, just maybe, keep your open sign consistent with your actual operating hours. Until then, I'll be taking my business (and my smoothie...

I hate to give 3-stars because there are some good employees here. The drinks are usually great and come out on a timely manner.

I was picking up a customer's order through a delivery app. The cashier saw me watch her waiting for her to say "How may I help you?" Many delivery drivers are rude, so I understand her possible frustration, and I wasn't going to rudely interrupt her job or cut in front of people. However, after she had a second from helping walk-in customers, she promptly walked into the back and sat down drinking something in plain view, which she did after I said "excuse me." All I was going to ask was if they had any rubberbands that I could put around my customer's drinks to prevent them from falling.

As someone who has experience working in that kind of environment, I understand how busy and challenging it can be, but it just takes two seconds to ask "How can I help you?" I wasn't rude, didn't interrupt the flow of her job, and waited until she was done, but she chose to deliberately ignore me.

Thankfully, one of the other employees who was busy making food in the back came up to ask me if I needed anything. She was polite, nice, and she was the saving grace from the poor service the...