Swirl It. Top It. Weigh It. Pay It.

Yogurtini Feeds Healthy Addictions With Epson WorkForce^® 610 All-in-One

 

 

Frozen yogurt flavored with mocha, passion fruit – or hot sauce?  Today’s healthy frozen yogurt craze has fueled strong passions among consumers for their “fro-yo” addictions.  “You’d be surprised how obsessed customers can be about frozen yogurt,” laughs entrepreneur Natasha Nelson, co-founder of Yogurtini Self-Serve, a frozen yogurt shop near Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.  “At Yogurtini, you can mix all your favorite flavors at our yogurt bar, just like a fine martini.”

 

Yogurtini never stops updating its customers about flavor choices, special promotions and nutritional information, using colorful promotional material displayed throughout the store.  Each time that customers walk into the shop with its whimsical mod décor, they pick up their cups and choose from 10 fat-free flavors that rotate on a daily basis.  The day’s medley may include mango, green tea, strawberry or peanut butter.  Customers then select from over 50 toppings ranging from granola and berries to favorite candy and espresso beans.  Weighing their creation, they pay for it by the ounce.

How does Yogurtini produce the signage so customers know exactly what they’re choosing?  Yogurtini employs the Epson WorkForce 610 all-in-one printer to print promotional material and perform many other tasks, hard at work in Yogurtini’s fast-paced business office and flagship store.  The retailer uses the high-speed all-in-one to print both text and color photos, copy, scan and fax.  “WorkForce 610 does it all, so we can focus on the business at hand,” said frozen yogurt connoisseur Natasha Nelson, who co-founded the business with her sister Chelsey Nelson.

 

The all-in-one has built-in Wi-Fi^® and wired networking, as well as 5760 x 1440 dpi print resolution for the sharp text and vibrant color graphics that Yogurtini needs.  “I’ve tried many printers, but I’ve never used a multifunction printer with this kind of quality, performance and speed,” said Nelson.  “The brilliant colors and image quality of our promotional material are quite astonishing.”

 

The WorkForce 610 prints up to two times faster than the competitive models,¹ with laser-quality black text up to 15 ppm (pages per minute) and laser-quality color text up to 9 ppm in default mode.²  Yogurtini staff also appreciate the 2.5–inch, tilt LCD screen and a built-in, 30-page Automatic Document Feeder to quickly copy, scan and fax black-and-white and color documents in as fast as three seconds per page.

 

Yogurtini can now print colorful, professional looking signs and other promotional material at a fraction of the cost of an outside printing vendor.  Signs that tout flavors like Chelsey’s Cheesecake and Ultimate Chocolate, nutritional information and pricing, are laminated or framed and displayed throughout the store.  The shop can also create other printed material, a perfect blend of counter signs, table cards and flyers to keep customers up to date about their favorite yogurt shop.  All material echoes Yogurtini’s décor of cool colored mosaic tiles, white brick, martini-shaped tables and ice cube lights.  

 

The Epson all-in-one printer also plays a role in special in-store promotions such as Yogurtini’s collaboration with Sambazon, Inc., a market leader in distributing açaí, a purple berry that grows in the Amazon rainforest.   To promote Açaí Tart flavored yogurt and energy drinks, Yogurtini staff printed out nutritional information about the fruit’s powerful antioxidants and healthy omega fats on the WorkForce 610.   They no longer needed to send the signage jobs to an outside agency or service bureau. 

 

“We have a lot of new recipes in the works, so each time that we change course or add a new flavor, this high-quality, reliable in-house printer has helped spread the word,” said Nelson.  The all-in-one has proved to be an effective sales tool to spark the interest of the yogurt shop’s health-conscious customers to learn about nutrition and try exotic new flavors like açaí.  “Customers wanted to find out as much as they could about the health benefits of the açaí berry,” said Nelson.  Açaí Tart is now a popular flavor at Yogurtini.

 

“One of my biggest frustrations with other printer brands is that they often break down or frequently need maintenance,” said Nelson.  Once the WorkForce 610 was on board, staff stopped using the other office printer.  “No matter how much we put this Epson all-in-one to work, it doesn’t skip a beat in performance or quality,” she said.   The printer also uses up to 70% less energy than a laser printer.³   

 

Tapping into a market that is eager for healthy, tasty food like frozen yogurt, the Nelson sisters knew they were on to something.  Plans are moving full steam ahead to open Yogurtini stores in Scottsdale, Gilbert, Mesa and Glendale, AZ, as well as Kansas City, MO.  “Our customers are definitely attracted to us because of the health benefits of our product, but we believe no taste should be overlooked,” said Nelson.  “The flavors, mix-ins and size are all up to the customer.”

 

The WorkForce 610 brings the same flexibility and speed to the Yogurtini business office.   “Being in the specialty restaurant business, we have to think fast on our feet,” said Nelson.   “The WorkForce 610 has given us the printing, scanning and image output tools to help us increase productivity, look professional and really stand out.”

 

For more information on Yogurtini, visit www.yogurtini.com.  For more information on Epson all-in-one printers, visit www.epson.com.         

 

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¹ Printing black text n default mode compared to ink jet all-in-ones priced at $179 or less as of January 2009.

² Laser quality black and color print speeds are determined in default, single-side mode in accordance with ISO/IEC 24734.  Actual print times will vary based on system configuration, software, and page complexity. See www.epson.com/printspeed for details, including complete ISO reports.

³ Compared to the best selling monochrome and color multifunction laser printers available for $499 or less as of January 1, 2009.  Actual power savings will vary by product model and usage.