I received a customer letter at the corporate offices that made me chuckle. It seems a girl and her friend decided to go to their local DQ® restaurant’s drive-thru after a basketball game. Not surprisingly, they needed to peruse the drive-thru menu board for a few seconds before ordering. What was surprising though was that once they placed their order, the employee kept saying “excuse me?” as if she couldn’t hear the order.
The girl and her friend repeated their order a few times, but still the employee couldn’t hear them. Finally, the customer heard a much larger male voice loudly say, “Ma’am, you are speaking into the bird house. Could you please pull ahead 10 feet and repeat your order into the intercom?”
The girls says she and her friend were so embarrassed and laughing so hard, they just pulled out of the drive-thru lane and drove away. Have you ever had an embarrassing DQ moment?
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s. . . not Superman either. But it is the new Superberry Premium Fruit Smoothie, and although it doesn’t fly, it really is super! This March and April, participating U.S. Orange Julius® locations are featuring the new Superberry Premium Fruit Smoothie. It’s blended fresh with a pomegranate juice blend, blueberries, Sambazon® açai and low-fat frozen yogurt for a smoothie that is nothing short of, you guessed it, SUPER. It won’t be around for long, so try one today before the goodness is gone!
P.S. – For the many of us who have struggled to pronounce açai, it’s “ah-sigh-ee”.
Posted by Beth F under Eats & Treats on March 10th, 2011
Spending all day in Dairy Queen® corporate headquarters means that burgers are everywhere. Well, not literally everywhere, that’s the problem. We talk about burgers in meetings, there are pictures of burgers everywhere. By lunch time, we’re starving for a DQ® GrillBurger™, but most of the time, to get an ACTUAL burger, we have to leave the building and visit the DQ Grill & Chill® restaurant that is about a block away.
Soon there will be two new reasons to make the trip, because we’re introducing a couple of new GrillBurgers this year. In April and May we have the ¼ lb. Crispy Onion BBQ GrillBurger. A 1/4 lb. 100 percent all-beef burger topped with melted American cheese, thick-cut tomato, leaf lettuce, pickles, crispy onions and a hickory smoked BBQ sauce, and served on a home-style bakery bun.
In June and July we are introducing (and this is MY favorite) the ¼ lb. Fajita Ranch GrillBurger. A 1/4 lb. 100 percent all-beef burger topped with pepper jack cheese, crunchy tortilla strips, a fajita vegetable blend and a spicy ranch sauce, all served on a home-style bakery bun.
These burgers are delicious, and you don’t have to take my word for it. Try them and you’ll see for yourself. They will be limited-time offers though, so if you really like them and think they should be on the menu forever and ever, you need to go and get one every single day. No, seriously, that’s how restaurants determine if a product should stay or go.
Everyone appreciates cards, letters and flowers when they’re staying in the hospital, but one DQ customer received something a little different many years ago after a tragic car accident—a $1 DQ Cone coupon—and still remembers that interesting gift today.
It seems the customer was a good friend of the local DQ store operator. When that operator heard about the car accident, he sent a card to his loyal customer and friend in the hospital. It had been a serious accident. The customer had been pronounced dead at the scene, but was fortunately resuscitated only a few minutes later and was in the hospital recovering from a broken neck, reconstructed hand, stitches upon stitches, two black eyes and many other injuries.
This DQ operator wanted to lighten the mood during the difficult recovery process, so he included a coupon for a $1 cone to encourage the customer to get better and visit the DQ store soon. According to the customer’s daughter, this was the first time her father had laughed since the accident.
Many DQ operators become close friends with their customers, and often their locations become an important part of the community. Can you think of a time when you helped someone or someone helped you create a positive memory in the middle of a difficult time?
The DQ system has many loyal customers. One recent letter to the corporate headquarters was from a self professed, “Fudge Bar Fanatic.” It is easy to understand why people fall in love with this product—at 50 calories per no-sugar-added bar, and with zero calories from fat, and zero grams total fat, saturated fat and transfat, not to mention six grams of dietary fiber—what’s not to love?
This woman’s family now buys 8-10 boxes of these delicious DQ novelties at a time so they won’t run out. The best part for this customer is that they have little or no affect on her blood sugar so she can frequently enjoy one after dinner.
By the way, I talked to my co-workers in the corporate Consumer Relations area and found out a DQ Fudge Bar is considered one point for the Weight Watchers program. Another great reason to visit DQ stores!
Last year I committed to joining a gym and to stopping using text messaging as my primary form of communication. I can proudly say that one of those two actually lasted! This year I’ve taken the plunge along with millions of other Americans to shed some pounds and become a healthier person. Boring, I know, but necessary nonetheless.
The odds are still against me. Statistics show that only 64% of people make it past the one month marker. And? I work at the DQ® corporate headquarters. I mean, who would pass up the chance to try new eats and treats? It wasn’t until I recently became calorie conscious that I realized DQ and Orange Julius® locations both offer a handful of tasty, calorie-conscious items. Below are a few of my favorites!
I love, LOVE the Orange Julius Light Smoothie,s and for the month of January and February you can get my absolute favorite flavor, Pineapple Berry Daylight™. It’s blended fresh with pineapple, strawberries and orange juice, and only has 120 calories in a 12 oz. size. It’s featured for a limited time, so enjoy it while you can! I would consider any of the other Light Smoothie flavors tasty snacks too.
One of my all-time favorite DQ treats, the DQ sandwich, has only 190 calories. Other lighter treat options include the Cherry StarKiss® bar at 80 calories and the No Sugar-Added Fudge Bars, which are only 50 calories each (but they taste like they have a lot more). And if I simply MUST have a Blizzard Treat, the new Mini Blizzard Treat lets me indulge in my favorite flavor without over-doing it.
Cheers to the new year and to hoping you stick to your goals as long as I stick to mine!
You can check out the DQ nutrition calculator at dq.com or visit orangejulius.com for more information!
WOW! We absolutely delighted to hear how much everyone loves the Yule Flip Peppermint Chip and Candy Cane Chill Blizzard Treats we’ve offered in the past. AND we are so sorry to have disappointed all our peppermint fans! I know we’ve responded to several of you individually and on a few of the blog threads.
We want all of you to know that we hear you, loud and clear.
Right now we do have the Mint Oreo® Blizzard® treat available in stores (although we really do understand that it isn’t the same…) and have plans to feature a mint-flavored Blizzard of the Month in December 2011.
I was back in the Chicagoland area this past September, and had a chance to take my youngest daughter to the DQ store my family used to go to when I was a girl. Such memories – and it hasn’t changed much. When I was younger it was out in the middle of no place – of course everything has built up around it. We moved from that area when I was 10…so it feels as if it has been a couple of lifetimes since I’d been there.
Mom and Dad always made trips to the DQ store a special treat. We didn’t go too often – but on a hot summer night, nothing beat a DQ treat. Usually we got cones or sundaes – though I remember Mr. Misty’s (now our Arctic Rush), DQ Push-Ups (Do any of you remember the pushups???) and root beer floats. If we were really good, or had done something special, we could order the BIGGEST item on the menu – the Banana Split.
Of course we took photos. My daughter just laughs at me – and then poses for the photo. This one is one of my favorites. Right up there with photos of us at the World’s Largest Frying Pan, The Field of Dreams and the Spam Can…
Posted by Beth F under Eats & Treats on November 3rd, 2010
I don’t know about all of you but I love hot dogs. I love foot-long hot dogs from the Minnesota State Fair, I like a Ball Park frank at the game, and I like them fully loaded in Chicago. However, my favorite hot dog, and I’m not just saying this because they pay me to, is a DQ®/OJ 100% all-beef hot dog (shout out to Eric Hughes!). DQ and Orange Julius® stores have awesome dogs topped just about any way you can think of. Click on the video to see for yourself:
This summer my husband and I went to a pool party at our friends’ house. Every one was to bring a dish to pass – and we’d been working hard in the yard all weekend. No time to prepare anything. So my husband said, “Hey! Let’s take some DQ® treats.” Well, you can imagine I loved the idea too; it was easy and DQ does all the work. We picked up a couple boxes of Dilly Bars, some no-sugar added Fudge Bars, and a box of Buster Bars.
Now, I know, everyone likes DQ treats – but I was completely unprepared for the response we got to the Buster Bars. It was the hands down favorite. “Everybody loves Buster Bars.” “I’ll have a Buster Bar – they’re the best.” “Buster Bars? I love Buster Bars!”
I usually take Dilly Bars when I bring a box of DQ treats… next time, I’m bringing the Buster Bars.
