Aiea Jamba Juice Buddies

When the new Stadium Mall Starbucks/Jamba combo opened, I had been waiting forever already. I even  showed up at the private opening party for the new employees and tried to buy coffee. “No, sorry, we open tomorrow. Come back then.”

So I did.

But I must backtrack a bit to further illuminate.

I had tasted my first Jamba Juice, an Orange Dream Machine, some two years earlier shortly after the Aiea Jamba Juice had opened. Up until then, I avoided the pseudo-hippie-healthy-drink places like the plague. I just didn’t believe in it. 

But Alex and I were at the Aiea Shopping Center getting haircuts when the kiddo asked if he could go get one. I said OK, to humor him and we went in. After forever looking at the confusing menu, we asked the person behind the counter what we should try as first-timers. They recommended the Orange Dream. We got one and split it. Mmmmmmmm! Good! Only complaint I had was that it ran out too soon.

The next day, I was back for another, and the next day, and the next day…

I started driving from Kamehameha to Aiea to have a Jamba for lunch. Every day. I did this for a year. The guys in Jamba all knew my name. They took my picture and stuck it on the wall-of-fame! I was like “Norm” in that place where “everybody knows your name.”

Then I came to the realization that Jamba contained more calories than I could burn in a day while sitting at my desk. I was gaining weight, even though I had no breakfast, a Jamba for lunch and a regular dinner. I cut it out for a while, but always missed it. The Jamba guys would see me on the street and go “Blaine! What happened? Where did you go??” I would apologize but explain that I was gaining weight and had to cut my consumption. The agreed and understood. I would still drop in occasionally for a smoothie, just not every day.

Then one day, Jamba came out with the Enlightened Smoothies. These used low-calorie substitutes for the regular ingredients. This produced a reduced-calorie product. There was one Enlightened Smoothie called the Matcha Green Tea Blast or something like that. I tried it. It tasted suspiciously like a “Green Tea Dream Machine.”  But there was no “Enlightened Dream Machine.”

So I asked them: “Where is the Enlightened Dream Machine?” Sorry…none. “Why?” I dunno.

After a few weeks of pondering it, one day I went in and asked the girl taking my order if she would try something for me. I asked her to make me an Enlightened Matcha, but to substitute all the green tea stuff with low cal orange juice, low cal orange sherbet. They were intrigued and tried it. The first try was pretty good, fairly close to an Orange Dream Machine, but with fewer calories.

The next night, we tried it again. But the guys behind the counter really took an interest. Troy took the order and made suggestions while Aaron made the smoothie. But as he was making it, he was thinking about how it would taste, and adjusting the proportions to taste.

Voile! The Enlightened Dream Machine was born! I could enjoy my smoothies once more.

But I saved a ton of gas when I stopped driving all the way to Aiea every day and I never did return to the daily drive routine. And eventually I changed jobs to my current night shift job. I had to have coffee, and I was a well-known coffee fiend, so it was natural that I started going to the Aiea Starbucks for my nightly java boost, and next door for my Enlightened Dream Machine. Those two powered me through my work shift and got me home safely every night.

All the while driving to Aiea, I had hoped for a Jamba/Starbucks closer to my house so I wouldn’t have to drive so far. I got my wish, eventually, when the Stadium Mall  branches of those two stores opened.

I bid my Aiea buddies a hui hou and switched allegiance to the new Jamba on the block.

Right away there was trouble. The workers were slow, in some cases even surly and unfriendly. In other cases, they seemed to have trouble focusing on what they were supposed to be doing. A customer could spend 10-15 minutes in the store standing around in a crowd waiting for their order.

One night, the last straw, I walked in and the surly kid behind the counter took my order, collected my money, then ran in the back, out of view. The other worker, the one standing by the mixers, who was apparently supposed to make the smoothie, decided it was time to sweep the floor.

This person conveniently ignored me, looked right at me, but ignored the order hanging out of the printer, and went about his business cleaning the shop.

I stood there 5, 10 minutes, watching this kid sweep the same spot on the floor for an eternity, while no smoothies were being made. Then I had had enough. I walked out. Didn’t ask for a refund, just walked out and never went back in. This was after 6 months of giving the new place a chance to break in.

Similarly for the Starbucks next door, there were a few nice people on staff, but far too many were of the mindless or surly, unfriendly variety. No matter how many nights in a row I went into their store and ordered exactly the same thing, at the same time, they always seemed to run out of coffee (!) when I ordered. Every night it was the same thing. “Uh, can you wait 10 minutes while we make more coffee?”

No.

And they always wanted to know if, “Uh, you want room for cream (in your black coffee)?”

No.

Frankly 6 months of the bad treatment at Stadium Mall Jamba followed by bad treatment at Stadium Mall Starbucks sealed it. I’ll occasionally go into the Starbucks when I really need a fix, but no more regular customer. And I’ll never go back into that Jamba.

I ran screaming back to my buddies at Aiea and gladly drive 2 miles out of my way to go visit them. If you get the chance, I have rated the Aiea Jamba Juice as the best one I have ever been in in any state I have visited. I even wrote to the corporate gushing about how good these guys are!

To illustrate, the other night, one of the Aiea Jamba managers was leaving the island. It was his last night. The crew set up tables in the business and covered them with food and desserts. They invited customers inside to eat, they went next door to Starbucks and invited the crew and customers over to eat. Former Jamba and Starbucks employees who no longer worked there came back to say goodbye. Kids ran everywhere playing with helium balloons while dazed customers still tried to order smoothies. The crew helped them with high energy and invited them to stay and eat, too!

The Aiea Jamba and Starbucks crews are filled with really good people who try to make their customers feel welcome and at-home.

Blaine