team member

shift leader

general manager

assistant manager

store manager

Smoothie King

The place is a lot more relaxed compared to other fast food brands, mainly because of their sole focus on making smoothies as well as the pandemic causing the store to open only drive thru. Because business has been slow overall, me and my coworkers can spend more time on quality in general - ranging from cleaning the store to making smoothies. The latter is expected to be done in 3 and a half minutes because that is the average drive thru time, which is plenty enough for us workers to not feel overwhelmed from pressure from expectations. As a result, the workplace culture is a lot nicer and friendlier to newcomers. Me and most, if not all, of my coworkers hit it off really easily because we felt like we were given opportunities to get along well as a team, which really helped motivate us to work even harder to operating the store because I think we all have silently come to a realization that this type of culture is VERY hard to come by, especially in the food and retail industry.

However, that routine didn't last too long around the time I left. The managers eventually felt dissatisfied from the seemingly "lack of desired results" in terms of performance and so decided to change their goal to improving the drive thru times while maintaining quality at the same time.

But need I say that prior to working at SK, I used to work at Raising Cane's for years and let me tell you: the moment a company starts pushing people to work on their speed of service while maintaining high quality at the same time, that's an alarming sign. To me, that is an introduction of unspeakable abuse at the hands of management marred by mental distress from being led to believe that you were a failure in their eyes for not meeting their expectations. Expectations that were completely unrealistic and just straight up corrupt. Because you are now faced with managers who only know to talk and not take action, us workers are faced with a debilitating problem that falls on US to take responsibility for, which is inevitably followed be a severe lack of accountability in the workplace. No matter where you work, managers rarely ever hold themselves accountable. I know from experience because as a hard working person myself who constantly strives to maintain the peace in the team by being thoughtful and considerate of others' plight without complaint, I find myself taking the fall for a lot of mistakes that a normal person would have made. Most of that accountability unfairly placed on me is ALWAYS by the managers who, as far as I can tell, aren't any better than I am. I can admit that their customer service skills are top notch most of the time but their speed in drive thru is average, to say the least, and to me, that looks like hypocrisy when they can't follow through with the goals they placed on themselves. I doubt any of them will ever realize this but, having both speed and quality is impossible to achieve, no matter where you work. Mistakes will always happen and the obvious right thing to do is to accept them and move on so that we can improve ourselves for the better. But because corporate is greedy for money, kissing up to customers is the only thing they're good at.

When managers think it's okay to constantly chastise and criticize their workers for the sake of "accountability" and that their feedback is a way for us to be "teachable" (when really, they just want to look for people to submit to their authority and make themselves out to be righteous and fair), those types of people deserve the LEAST respect from me. Because those people do not truly have the qualifications to make business decisions.

And I was right. Because what happened next that led me to quit from SK was their choice in cutting my hours down to one shift while giving everyone else at least 2 or 3 shifts DESPITE being aware of my financial situation and willingness to work more hours. And this wasn't just a one-time occurrence from the management's side. No. They continued to do that for the next few schedules, even AFTER I brought this issue up with the owner of the franchise. Unfortunately, the owner was as much of a coward as the rest of the managers are because he wanted to avoid being held accountable as well. I would also like to mention that the owner and general manager were exes too. They even have a kid together that they co-parent. Another serious sign that indicates terrible business decisions because no matter how much they try to deny it, there will always be personal bias that gets in the way of managing a business. A disappointing development that I and so many other workers should've seen coming.

To the GM, you may think you can continue fooling more newcomers into thinking you're a respectable manager who will side with the workers through good and bad but you and I both know that's a lie. You backstabbed me and so many others that worked before me for absolutely no rhyme or reason at all. And that makes you the lowest of the people that I regret ever meeting because you're manipulative and downright childish who didn't have the courage to straight up tell me that I was no longer an important asset to the team when you decided to cut my hours like that. Though against my conscious, I still respect and admire you as a worker but it's a pity that you fell into the corporate scheme of playing around with people's lives as if their entire LIVELIHOODS don't depend on this job to make it through this pandemic while you can easily get a side job as a TA no worries. Good for you, I guess.

To the owner of the store, with all due respect, it shouldn't have taken DAYS for you to tell me that I was being discriminated against by your ex, a person that you CHOSE to be the manager of your store. But instead, you would rather beat around the bush and play dumb to the very end. Rather than worry about all the gossip and rumors you put yourself up to, maybe you should focus on treating workers right and managing businesses better before actually investing in them if you were going to be this ignorant of others' misfortune. But good luck with those business loans you signed up for. Sounds pretty tough.

I'd like to start off by saying that I worked in a drive-thru only store, and I started at the beginning of fall. I'd also like to say that I departed from the company during winter. This affects my experience from other's. I really enjoyed my time at the store. I thought it was a pretty easy job. Plus, you get 35% off and a free small smoothie each shift. (At Smoothie King the drinks are a size up from what you think they would be. So a small is like a medium and a medium is like a large etc.etc.) The main duties of Smoothie King was running one of the lanes, making smoothies, prepping ingredients and powders, and washing off blenders. Now on to the problems I encountered. Like I said in the title it's a pretty good job for teenagers which I am. That being said the store's employees consisted mostly of teenagers. I don't think I have ever worked in a place that was more cliquey than this job was. Basically if you were new and didn't have the best social skills than you would feel like an outcast. I was pretty shy at first and no one really cared about me or talked to me besides a few people who were really nice and extroverted. In particular it was one guy there who made me come out of my shell there. But even after that I didn't feel a part of everyone there. Some people still gave me a lot of attitude just for being new. Not only that but you couldn't talk about anything without it being spread to everyone in the store. There was actually a rumor that I was fired when I actually hadn't. Once I told someone in confidentiality that it was awkward working with two certain people because they hated each other and got into a lot of fights. A few days later one of them confronted me and told me that they didn't hate the other person. It was basically like that for everything you said no matter what it was. There was also an obvious favortism there. Someone was given a position that didn't exist so she could make more money, and around the same time her mom made assistant manager. To be fair the mom deserved the position but her daughter didn't. She was given trainer and she never even trained anyone. I was trained by the guy who helped me become comfortable in the store and by another guy who was chill. The real reason I quit however was because they hired a lot of people before winter even though they didn't need the employees since that was Smoothie King's off season. I barely made hours, and I still was being paid 8.50 because you had to wait a certain amount of months or day (never made clear) before you were tested to see if you deserved to be raised to $9. In one of these cases my friend was told she would make $9 to start out as but never did. Anyways, I never had hours because I was new. And I had already gotten a second job because I wasn't making enough. Then in October I was told to call back in February to see if I could get any hours?! It was obvious she didn't want to fire me but was giving me the choice to quit or wait for hours. I ended up leaving, and she never gave me the chance for a 2 week notice because she didn't allow me to work the rest of my shifts. I was pretty annoyed because I was told the other new people who started long after I did were fired, come to find out only one of them was and the one everyone liked stayed.

If you are a teen/young adult or someone in college then I'd consider applying for this job up to the year that you graduate high school or college. If you haven't had a job EVER, this is a great first time job. Also a great summer job.

If you are an adult and trying to work full time, I would not consider applying for this job. If you also are trying to get money to either A pay off any debt you have or B have a high quantity of bills to pay, this is not a job that you want. 

Smoothie King is the best average easy job to have. You serve customers, make drinks and (now) bowls, rinse out the blenders and stack them neatly to get them ready for the next customer. You learn how to clean and operate the store, interact with customers and your peers, answer any questions about the food or nutritional facts in the drinks, learn how to open and close the store in its proper manner. You also learn how to properly wash dishes. It was great seeing the repeat customers, when you actually get good reviews, and great to post the recommended combinations and add ons for each drink. 

The downsides of this job actually overweighs the upsides:

- Under the title Team Member, you'll see on the website that it says $9 -$15 dollars and that's completely misleading. You'll only reach $15 if you're the manager. You'll only reach $12 or $13 if you are a shift leader. You cannot live off the wages in today's world if you have stuff to pay for every month. Even with the tips given by the customers taxed or not, the wages are too low for today's economy.

- Management might be the biggest con. The district managers are laughable. They lie between their teeth saying they care about the stores that they own. They just want it operational, not correctly functional, just like every other higher up person or corporate. Are you open? Can you show up for work?  Then we're fine. Managers of the stores vary as some properly teach you the ways of being a team member of the store and walk you through situations. The attitude and demeanor of the manager effects the rest of the team. 

- Boosting. Now what is boosting? Taking receipts that customers didn't take or reprint receipts that they did take, and do a survey off the experience. But this is done in a slow manner, not too fast that it's noticeable. Example: Google Maps, the Smoothie Kings in some areas might have inflated reviews where its at a high star rating but has about 500 reviews and the 5 star ratings with short comment or responses outweigh the real reviews that are 5 or 1 star ratings. Is this the only place that does this? I doubt it.

- Each store's equipment varies and one is better (or more resourceful) than the other. It solely depends on who runs the store and how much it produces in sales. One store might have outdated equipment or filters and that falls on management.

- Labor costs is another issue because the managers don't allow everyone to work their own hours, causing them to either mismanage the schedule or leave openers or closers short handed in case of a callout. 

A typical day is opening the store at 8 o'clock. Putting out scoops and ladles, making sure powders and fruits are filled, adding ice to the icebox. Then counting cups and the safe the make sure they match the previous night. Turn on the open sign, and serve customers. 
At midday, do the shift change chores, like mopping, cleaning the bathroom, sanitizing blender bowls, and taking inventory of retail. Two hours before close, we do pre-close, which involves washing most of the scoops and ladles, doing the dishes, giving the fruit bar new containers, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, and bringing in signs and umbrellas. 
When we close, we take out the trash, wash and sanitize the blender bowls, put lids on all the fruits and powders, do the rest of the dishes, and count the drawer and cups. We lock the doors, arm the security system, and go home.
I learned how to effectively manage employees, as well as customers and even inventory. I also learned how scheduling works.
The management is a bit two-sided. The general managers are kinder, and more understanding if you mess up or are late, but the owners will fire you if you don't show, don't call, don't have a doctor's note, or challenge any weird decisions they make.
My co-workers were mostly young adults or teenagers. They're usually pretty nice, but because of the incredibly strict policies of the owners, they usually end up quitting or getting fired.
The hardest parts about this job were the hours, the events, and the new rules. The hours are almost random, and I once opened every other day and closed every other day for two weeks. The events are random, from a 5k run at 7 o'clock in the morning to a LGBT BDSM masquerade party at 10 o'clock at night. The new rules made it nearly impossible to stay anymore, because the percentage of sales The most enjoyable part was meeting a lot of nice people at the store and while at events. Also, getting free smoothies now and then.

At Smoothie King, a typical day on the job consisted of making smoothies for customers, washing dishes, preparing different foods and making sure retail products were lined up and looking presentable.  
While working for this company, I have learned how to talk to and relate to customers and fulfill their needs.  I have learned the importance of forming lasting relationships and strong connections. 
Management was always understanding of whatever situation you may be in; willing to work around different schedules and offer valuable advice in coachable moments.  
The work environment of Smoothie King has become focused around selling extras and enhancers to each smoothie.  It would be a fine model if the cost of the menu wasn't already super expensive.  Paying $7-$8 for a medium smoothie was not ideal for a majority of the customers, so adding on 1 or 2 extra items (priced at $.99) did not seem worth it.  Other than that, the culture is based around finding products that best suit the custom needs of every guest that walks in the door.  There are plenty of options to choose from, so there is definitely a smoothie/supplement for everyone.  
The hardest part of my job was working unexpectedly long hours at times.  There have been plenty of times where I was forced to work a shift where I opened the store and then had to close as well, due to the inability to find another able employee to cover the shift; this usually happened on the busiest days of the week.
The most enjoyable part of the job was definitely the regular customers and the relationships I got to form with them.  My fellow employees also made this a much more enjoyable experience.

I feel very strongly that the location that i am at has headed south in so many aspects of the word. I recently returned to my city from a 9 month stint at a residential facility and needed a job to fit the hours because I was no longer going to be going to school. I applied and was offered the job on the spot. The first impression was that I would get $8. This turned out to be a lie. During a few weeks time, several of my coworkers turnef in their 2 weeks notice or had quit. At first, I was confused, but after staying there and becoming the one constantly being called in and working upwards of 37 hours,(my employer doesn’t do overtime) I have been the 3rd most employees person. After only the general manager and someone who has been there since the store opened. During this time, suicidal thoughts became to come back as I felt that I couldn’t use my own brain in the work place even though I already was limited in the household, keep in mind that with this many hours, pressure and intensity, I am only 17. I felt very abandoned at times and wished that my workspace would respect some of my request for new changes for me. As I got the promotion to Team Lead, I was told that I would get a raise to $10. Once again, this was a lie. While I was “under training”, I received $8.50 an hour. A substantial improvement from my previous salary. After completing all of my training, I was informed that I would make $9 for a month at least before I could get to $10, the salary I was promised. This has been a lot and I feel that the employers only really care about the money even when they say they have the employees best interest in mind. I have felt alone in many moments trying to balance a new life and chase my dreams. I can’t do this if my employer is holding me back as such and I have no reason to believe it would be different for anyone else or myself after time.

If you're into working in a fast-paced environment, this job will definitely be for you. Unless it's a rainy day, the amount of customers showing up is pretty non-stop. It seems to me that most of the employees at my location are getting paid 10-12 an hour. I believe, for the kind of work this is, the owner should pay a bit more than this. Especially considering that every other food place in the area are paying 14-16 an hour. The most hours you will probably receive will be 60 hours for every two weeks (30 each week). Training seems less important to the company, even though they expect you to be able to be fast-paced and create the smoothies all at the same time. While being there, the most training that you'll probably receive is watching/reading a weeks worth of content about the company. Other than that, you'll probably only be shown (told) how to greet customers. Even though they express how training is so important to them, they definitely could improve in that area. Fortunately enough, we are able to get 15 and 30 minute breaks (well, you pick the amount of time). Though I will say, when there's only two employees there, no one will be able to take their break. Now onto the topic of overtime, it seems like overtime is only offered whenever an employee (or employees) request time off for vacations and such. And lastly, they definitely could improve at having more than two employees working the floor. Unless it's an expected slow day due to rain or the cold, they should make sure they have at least three employees there at all times. That way, each employee gets to take their break.

1.) Currently, business is steady, so it makes time and work go by quickly. Some employees enjoy keeping the store sanitized and clean. Usually, we take the customers order, make the smoothie, process payment, and deliver the smoothie.
2.) From working at Smoothie King, I've learned the importance in remembering regular visitors. Promptly preparing each customers order. & appreciating a laid back environment.
3.) Management is currently underway since our most recently store manager is away on a Christian event in Alaska. However, due to my relocation back to Charlotte, I will soon be trained to be the manager.
4.) All of my co-workers are young teenagers. Most are either in high school or just beginning college. Since it is their first job, most employees appreciate working at Smoothie King.
5.) The hardest part of the job is difficult customers sometimes. As well as lazy employees. You don't want to step on any toes, but you also don't want your co-workers to think it's okay to be lazy all day either. Difficult customers are expected. I attack all customer complaints with care and plans of satisfying the guest concerns. However, I strongly believe in the terms: " You can't make everybody happy."
6.) The most enjoyable part of the job is how upbeat the stores atmosphere is. I know you are probably thinking, "how can an atmosphere be upbeat?" Well almost ALL Smoothie King's are extremely colorful. A lot of colors almost demand happiness. I love the fact that the environment demands those feelings because they create a standard for having positive vibes at work.

I enjoyed the people I worked with, and overall I think if you like staying busy and working in a fast-paced environment, this job can be a good fit. I worked there during December, so it was not as busy, but I imagine during summer it gets much busier. I actually enjoyed when there were rushes because it made work go by faster and kept everyone moving.

One thing I did not enjoy was that when the store was slow and all tasks were already completed, management would watch the cameras closely just to make sure employees were constantly doing something, even when there was genuinely nothing left to do. I was eventually fired for supposedly “not doing my job,” even though I always completed my work and did what was expected of me. It honestly felt like an excuse because management seemed to have personal issues with certain employees.

Another issue I experienced was pay. I was told I would be paid a certain hourly rate when I was hired, but I ended up being paid less. I brought it up and was told management would address it, but nothing ever happened.

I also noticed favoritism in the workplace. During busy rushes, a manager’s family member who worked there would spend time on their phone in the back, even while the store was busy, but nothing was said. Meanwhile, I was closely watched and later fired for reasons that did not match the reality of the work I was doing.

The most enjoyable part of the job was working with coworkers and handling busy rushes. The hardest part was dealing with inconsistent management, favoritism, and feeling like employees were not treated equally.

Manager never was there, never picked up the phone (we called all at once quite a few times!) or bothered to help out. Had us work in conditions such as no air working with no doors allowed to be opened. Rotten molded food in the back that I refused to prepare so we were short stocked. Would continually fib by saying they would be there or putting themselves on the schedule, only to never show up. Very small pay for doing basically everything, with little to no staff to help. You and one other person on a busy day in Midtown with 0 assistance from anyone else. No limit per the amount of customers on the store, which is especially dangerous and hectic considering $5 Friday’s. Terribly poor management and get fired over little things even though they’re the desperate ones who need help and more staff. Pay pennies for a plethora of work instead of hiring the amount of people they need at one time. No break room and you have to work 6+ days a week for over 7+ hours to make any sort of decent paycheck that isn’t even all too good compared to many other jobs in the grocery and food field (so if you’re looking for any decent money doing part time, you’re out of luck). Paid biweekly but don’t mind waiting a week after your pay period to get your check if you get this job, not just a few days. Lack of responsibility and manager barely knows what her employees are doing. Got fired whilst sick, job doesn’t appreciate nor value employees. Turnover rate EXTREMELY HIGH!!! Average amount people stay is 2 months! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Team member 1110 salaries reported	$11.47 per hour
Shift leader 442 salaries reported	$13.35 per hour
General manager 99 salaries reported	$46,429 per year
Assistant manager 119 salaries reported	$15.74 per hour
Store manager 79 salaries reported	$18.62 per hour

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