Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a fast casual restaurant franchise that serves smoothies, sandwiches, wraps, and other nutritious foods. They have over 900 locations across the United States. Tropical Smoothie is known for their flavorful smoothies and food with a tropical twist.
One question that Tropical Smoothie customers often ask is whether the cafe has special promotional days like “flip flop day” where customers get a discount for wearing flip flops or get a free smoothie. Flip flop day promotions are popular among smoothie and juice chains as a way to increase foot traffic and sales during warmer months.
What is Flip Flop Day?
Flip flop day is a promotional event where customers receive a free or discounted menu item for wearing flip flops to their local cafe or restaurant. Many smoothie and juice chains have offered flip flop day specials during spring and summer months.
On flip flop day, customers simply have to wear flip flops into their local participating store and mention the flip flop offer to get their free or discounted menu item. Flip flop days are hugely popular, often resulting in long lines and increased sales for the businesses.
The flip flop promotion allows brands like Tropical Smoothie Cafe to capitalize on the warmer weather when flip flop wearing is more common. It’s a great way to boost customer traffic and engagement during slower seasons.
Does Tropical Smoothie Cafe Have Flip Flop Day?
So does Tropical Smoothie Cafe have an official flip flop day? The answer is no, Tropical Smoothie Cafe does not offer a chainwide flip flop day promotion currently. Some individual franchise locations have run local flip flop day specials, but it is not a national promotion handled by the corporate office.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations are all franchise owned and operated, which allows individual locations some flexibility with local store marketing and promotions. So a few cafes may have a flip flop discount during the summer, but there is no set national flip flop day.
That being said, Tropical Smoothie Cafe runs other national promotions seasonally. They offer bonus rewards during their Flip the Script promo in winter and fan favorite Sunshine Saturday deals in spring and summer. But flip flop day has not been one of their official promotional events so far.
Popular Flip Flop Day Promotions
While Tropical Smoothie Cafe doesn’t offer an official flip flop day, many other smoothie and juice chains have popularized flip flop day specials including:
- Smoothie King – Has offered customers a free 20 oz smoothie for wearing flip flops on a designated day.
- Planet Smoothie – Has done Flip Flop Day with BOGO free smoothies with any purchase.
- Jamba Juice – Has offered $2 off any menu item for wearing flip flops.
- Robeks – Has done flip flop discounts like $4 medium smoothies when wearing flip flops.
These promotions draw big crowds of flip-flop clad customers looking to get in on the savings. Smoothie King saw a huge turnout on their first Flip Flop Day in 2010 with over 250,000 free smoothies given away.
The success of other smoothie chains’ flip flop days show the potential benefits if Tropical Smoothie Cafe did decide to offer the promotion. A Tropical Smoothie flip flop day could attract new customers and help increase sales during warmer low-traffic months for franchises.
Why Tropical Smoothie Cafe Doesn’t Do Flip Flop Day
Tropical Smoothie Cafe is one of the few major smoothie chains that doesn’t offer a flip flop day promotion. There are a few factors that may contribute to this:
- Decentralized franchising model – Since stores are all individually owned/operated, coordinating a chainwide promotion is more complex for Tropical Smoothie vs a company-owned chain.
- Focus on other promotions – Tropical Smoothie may strategically focus marketing resources on their other seasonal events like Sunshine Saturday instead.
- Prefer steadier customer flow – Large one-day spikes in customers from flip flop day can be hard for stores to manage. Tropical Smoothie may prefer steadier customer flow.
- Don’t need the added sales – As one of the largest smoothie chains, they may not rely on events like flip flop day to boost sales.
Additionally, flip flop day events often see very long lines and wait times. Tropical Smoothie may prefer promoting a positive cafe experience with good flow vs overcrowded stores.
While reasons exist why Tropical Smoothie hasn’t offered an official flip flop day, customer interest is clearly there. With strategic planning, it could likely become a popular annual promotion for the chain in the future if they chose to do it.
How Tropical Smoothie Could Offer Flip Flop Day
If Tropical Smoothie Cafe did decide to activate a flip flop day promotion, here is how they could implement it:
- Set an annual national date for flip flop day ie. the first Friday of June each year.
- Offer a BOGO deal on menu smoothies when wearing flip flops.
- Create TV ads, social media, and in-store marketing to promote the event to customers.
- Provide franchisees with flip flop day signage, operations guidance, and extra staffing.
- Offer a limited smoothie flavor just for flip flop day.
- Donate $1 per smoothie sold on Flip Flop Day to a charity partner.
With planning and support, franchise owners would likely welcome the extra summer business and marketing from a Tropical Smoothie flip flop day. The BOGO smoothie deal would make the offer extra enticing to draw crowds.
Benefits of Tropical Smoothie Flip Flop Day
If executed successfully, here are some of the benefits Tropical Smoothie Cafe could expect from launching a national flip flop day promotion:
- Drive awareness – Increase brand visibility and introduce Tropical Smoothie to new customers.
- Boost summer sales – Flip flop day would attract a sales surge during warmer months when sales are slower.
- Engage customers – Interact with customers in a fun memorable way they look forward to each year.
- Social buzz – Customers will generate social buzz and photos about their flip flop day experience.
- Franchisee support – Provides turnkey marketing campaign and added customer flow for franchise owners.
- Charitable opportunity – Chance to partner with a charity and donate a portion of sales.
Executed strategically with a big customer reward like BOGO smoothies, a Tropical Smoothie flip flop day could become an annual tradition generating major sales and brand excitement.
The Future of Flip Flop Day at Tropical Smoothie
While Tropical Smoothie Cafe doesn’t currently run an official national flip flop day promotion, it seems like an opportunity the brand should consider testing in the future based on its popularity with other smoothie chains.
With strategic planning and franchisee support, a Tropical Smoothie flip flop day could attract devoted fans and introduce new customers to the concept. The BOGO smoothie reward would entice people to take part and generate store traffic on an otherwise slow summer day.
Smoothie King, Jamba Juice, Planet Smoothie and others have certainly generated buzz and spikes in sales from their flip flop events over the years. As a leading smoothie brand, Tropical Smoothie has the scale and marketing resources to execute a very successful flip flop promotion.
If logistics allow, flip flop day seems like a fun engagement opportunity that would resonate well with Tropical Smoothie Cafe’s loyal customers. The brand is known for their twist on classic smoothie flavors, and they could put their own creative twist on flip flop day to make it a unique tropical experience.
While Tropical Smoothie hasn’t offered an official flip flop day yet, never say never. We may just see excited flip-flop clad customers lining up at their local Tropical Smoothie for a BOGO smoothie deal in the coming years if the brand decides to test the popular promotion.
Conclusion
In summary, Tropical Smoothie Cafe currently does not offer a nationwide flip flop day promotion, but some franchise locations have run local flip flop specials before. Competitor smoothie chains like Smoothie King and Jamba Juice have seen great success with their flip flop day events drawing crowds of customers sporting flip flops.
While Tropical Smoothie has so far focused their marketing efforts on other seasonal promotions, a strategic flip flop day offer could attract new customers and provide a sales surge for franchise owners during slow summer months. If logistics and planning allow for it, a flip flop day featuring BOGO tropical smoothies could become an annual tradition and major event for the brand in the future.
