On June 28th, Arlington welcomed a new Smoothie King store located just off of Airline Road. Smoothie King’s purpose is to make smoothies and other vitamin supplements pleasurable for customers to achieve their individual health goals. Due to Lakeland’s busier location, Smoothie King in Arlington has brought more business to Arlington as it compliments other renovations in the town. It also is popular with student athletes as the location is close to Arlington High School where many students go after practice. Current employee at Arlington’s new location Andrew Antcliffe says,

“I do like the environment more at Arlington than Lakeland just because it is still pretty new and not as busy as Lakeland’s. I think it’s more friendly where everyone knows everyone and work well together.”

COVID-19 has impacted many businesses in the area as well as how Smoothie King is now functioning too. Workers and customers have to wear masks when inside the store and clean around the clock. There is no contact pickup and delivery options. Inside Arlington’s location, there is also a plastic wall in front of the register and smoothie station to also prevent close contact. Many health protocols and cleaning are involved in the changes due to COVID-19. Andrew Antcliffe specifies on how the pandemic affects Smoothie King and says,

“We all have to wear masks and gloves but we have an entire log dedicated to COVID-19 regulations and cleaning activities. We have to do about five times more cleaning than we would usually have to do.”