Starbucks, Watch Out

Here are some photos of one of the new Maui Wowi stores opening around the country. This one's in Poplar Bluff, MO.

So far this year, Maui Wowi stores have opened in Hazelwood, MO; Watertown, SD; Dulles Airport, VA; Charlotte, NC; Hernet, CA; Glendale, CA; San Jose, CA; Houston; St. Charles, IL; Surprise, AZ; Anaheim, CA; Bethany Beach, DE; Deerfield Beach, FL; Montrose, CO; Corrolla, NC; Henderson, NV; Katy, TX; and El Paso, TX. Stores are being built in Waipahu, HI; Redwood City, CA; Fort Worth, TX; Anaheim, CA; Chicago, IL (2); Mesquite, TX; San Diego, CA, Wimberly, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Corona, CA; Stockton, CA; Temecula, CA; San Jose, CA; Claremont, CA; San Leandro, CA; Encino, CA; and Philadelphia. And there are bunch more getting ready to start construction or in other stages.

When I joined Maui Wowi as a franchise owner four years ago, there were no stores, there was no coffee line, but there was a lot of entrepreneurial spirit among the franchise base and the company's management. It's really going into overdrive these days. The stores have more personality than any other franchise I know of. They're not just a place for coffee or a smoothie. They are really warm, friendly places. Consumers are liking what they are seeing and tasting. It's very cool to be part of a franchise system where people pursue their visions, take risks and commit to making their dreams happen.

112 Degrees in the Shade

The temperature reading on my truck's thermometer hit 112 degrees in Manhattan yesterday. It was unreal. Al Gore, you were right! At least the folks at The Princeton Review's uptown office were chillin' with Maui Wowi smoothies. We were invited in to do our blending magic for 200 or so of their staff, following a visit two days earlier to their downtown office. As you can see, these folks stayed cool despite the heat!

We're Havin' a Heat Wave!

It It was 100 degrees plus yesterday and in anticipation of the heat wave, the Princeton Review contacted Maui Wowi Hawaiian Smoothies to come in to its offices on Varick Street and the upper west side to cool down the staff.

HIA Cools Off with Maui Wowi

Maui Wowi sponsored the summer picnic of the Hauppauge Industrial Association this month. More than 100 business leaders from the industrial park came and enjoyed our smoothies and great food from The Garage Eatery. Best burger I've had all summer, Don!

Maui Wowi Rubs Shoulders with American Idol!

News12 Long Island invited Maui Wowi to be on camera for their Beach Week feature this morning at Cedar Beach in Babylon--at 5am! We'll do anything for 15 minutes (more like seconds!) of fame, so we packed the trailer and arrived for a beautiful sunrise. We were interviewed by Elisa DiStefano (first photo), one of News 12's reporters--and man, can she take charge of a group! Definitely must have been president of her senior class. Elisa did live remotes from the beach to tell viewers what they can do for their own summer beach-theme party. Make smoothies, have a clam bake, great music/DJ (my friend Echo from Fantasy Music was on hand). Then Kevin Covais--the Long Island boy who made it big on American Idol--showed up for a guest appearance. He and his dad came down to the beach, and Kevin sang his signature number from Idol, If I Fall in Love. He is a classy kid and of course had the good sense to down a Strawberry Banana Maui Wowi before singing, and then a Pina Colada afterwards.

Jones Beach Theatre/Nine Inch Nails

I wish I were a better photographer so you could see the amazing show from Nine Inch Nails at Jones Beach last night. Not the show that was on stage--I'm talking the people. It was a tatoo fest--more ink than the Sunday NY Times! Girls in shoes that looked like something Herman Munster would wear. Lots of black fishnet. And a guy who's T-shirt says, "F*ck you, you f*ckin' f*ck." Alrighty then! But whoever they are, whatever their music, they like Maui Wowi smoothies. So they can't be all bad!

Happy 35th Anniversary, Southwest Airlines!

Southwest Airlines, which knows a thing or two about how to have fun and deliver great customer service, did both today at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, NY. They hired Maui Wowi to provide smoothies for their customers in appreciation of their business. About 2,700 passengers go through the Southwest terminal at Macarthur each day -- and more than 500 of them stopped by for a Strawberry Banana or Pina Colada Maui Wowi.

One Busy Weekend

It was quite a weekend for Maui Wowi in the NY/LI area. The Belmont Stakes took place yesterday and one of our NYC franchise owners did very well there with smoothies and coffee--with the cool weather it was mostly a coffee crowd. Mairim Garriga, our franchisee, had eight people working at the event. Up in Newburgh, NY, our new Connecticut franchise owner Stephanie Simmons was doing a bar mitzvah party. I was also doing a bar mitzvah last night in Manhattan (Maui Wowi's smoothies are KOF-K Kosher.) At the same time, my employees were working at the opening night of the Friends of the Arts Summer Festival in Oyster Bay, LI. We sold about three smoothies but about 300 cups of coffee--it was cold! Meanwhile, another crew of mine was over at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre at the Rob Thomas/Jewel concert. And today we topped off the weekend with a house party in Bellmore, LI. A laid back pool party for 60 people.

The SOAPnet Upfront Promotion

One of our favorite corporate clients is ABC-TV. Each June for the past three years, we have worked with them on a promotion we call the Smoothie Tour. ABC is promoting SOAPnet, its soap opera cable network, for the upfront media buying season. We go to eight ad agencies in Manhattan over the month and set up our smoothie bar. We pour our smoothies in SOAPnet logo cups, and there's a video promoting SOAPnet's programming running. It's a lot of fun for everyone and a great break for hard-working media planners. We make about 100-200 smoothies at each event over the course of two to three hours. Here we are at Universal McCann, the first stop on the tour.

Maui Wowi at Blind Tug-a-Jet Corporate Challenge

We attended a really fun event on June 4 -- the annual Blind Tug-a-Jet Corporate Challenge at Republic Airport on Long Island. It is sponsored by the Foundation for Sight and Sound, which supports charities aimed at the sight and hearing impaired. Corporate teams do a variety of competitions that help them empathize with the blind or deaf. The teams pull a Lear Jet blindfolded in a timed competition! Maui Wowi franchisees often do charity events at which we donate some or all of our proceeds to the charity. It's a fun way to meet new people and support great causes. And sometimes it's also a great way for my son to eat prodigious amounts of great food, in this case from Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que.

Hauppauge Industrial Association Annual Expo

This week was the annual Hauppauge Industrial Association trade show at Suffolk County Community College, and the smoothies were flying out of the blenders! Thousands of business people from across Long Island came to the annual event to visit more than 400 exhibitors and attend seminars. As you can see from the photos, I think it's fair to say that Maui Wowi was the most visited booth in the joint! That shows the good taste of Long Islanders :-)

Maui Wowi at Denver Convention Center

Maui Wowi operates at dozens of convention centers around the country. These shots are from the Denver Convention Center where we have several carts. As you can see from the photos, teens are one of our best customer segments. There are cheer competitions around the country and when we open for them in a convention center, it's non-stop from 8am til 8pm.

We're Not in the Fulton Fish Market Anymore

NYC & Co. (otherwise known as the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau) invited Maui Wowi to its annual Member Appreciation Night celebrating National Tourism Week. The event was held at Bridgewaters, an awesome venue located at the old Fulton Fish Market. We were set up on their wrap-around terrace with views of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a very cool place to have an event. The food was amazing....almost as amazing as the pina coladas and strawberry daquiries that Maui Wowi franchisee Paul Branca and I were blending!

Five Towns College Spring Picnic '06

One of the things I love about Maui Wowi is meeting students from different colleges. Every college has its own personality. Today we went to Five Towns College on Long Island to be part of their Spring Picnic event. The college focuses on the music industry, drama and media. Interesting people and fun to be around.

Nikon Health Fair

Here we are at a health fair that Nikon USA sponsored for its employees at its Melville NY office today. We've done many health fair events--for Allied Capital, Glaxo Smithkline and others. Companies want their employees to attend these fairs to learn about insurance programs, eye care, employee assistance programs, Weight Watchers, and other benefits offered by the company. Employers hire us as a way to give employees an extra incentive to come to the health fair and visit all the exhibitors. A fantastic orange mango, strawberry banana or pina colada smoothie was reason enough for 200+ Nikon people to visit us in two hours!

Baruch College Spring Fling

Just like New York itself, the Baruch College Spring Fling '06 was vibrant, colorful, loud, fun and densely packed. We were invited to make our frozen coffee drinks (which we call Maui Wowi "Chillin'). We use our proprietary Kona-blend coffee and add our Mocha, Cookies and Cream and Chocolate Chunk flavors to create a perfect complement to an 82-degree day. The kids were fantastic and had a blast. Want to see the rest of the photo album? Click here.