By Erianne Lewis | Staff Writer
Oh My Juice!, a local juicery that is popular for its juices and acai bowls, has found a home inside Baylor’s Student Union Building (SUB) for the month of April in the section where both Grubhub and Freshii formerly occupied.
In addition to regular payment methods, Oh My Juice! is accepting Dining Dollars and COVID Vouchers from their customers.
Denitia Blount, owner of Oh My Juice!, said she owes thanks to God for allowing them to end up in the SUB, after over a month of not being able to make any money due to the severe water damage sustained to her storefront after the unexpected Texas snowstorm in February.
“God. That’s the short story,” Blount said. “The longer story is we actually flooded downtown, during the Texas snowstorm. The fire suppression system broke and flooded our store along with four others, and so we were completely shut down. We weren’t making any money, kind of wandering around, wondering what to do. We went back to our roots; we went back to the farmer’s market. I have a friend at Baylor and he called me up and was like, ‘I’m wandering around Baylor, I’m looking for a place for you to open on Baylor’s campus.’ A week later, we were here. It was literally God and some really good friends. It’s nice to have good friends in your corner.”
Blount said that Oh My Juice! was founded over seven years ago, first just a stand at the Waco Farmer’s Market. After the demand grew to be too much, they moved into a storefront a year later, Blount said. They were Waco’s first juice bar.
Blount said Oh My Juice! will remain in the SUB until April 28, then it will move back to its original downtown location which will be newly renovated.
“We are going to open back up, May 1, in our [original] location,” Blount said. “Everything’s been gutted and it’s gonna be beautiful inside. [We] are getting ready to open up a second location out at the intersection of 84 and Highway 6, where Nightlight Donuts and Di Campli’s is, in that shopping center. Hopefully, that one will be open by June.”
Maria Flores, store manager at Oh My Juice!, has been an employee for two and a half years. She has been with the company through both the pandemic and the winter storm and said she has seen it grow.
“It’s challenging to [hire people], but that’s anywhere right now,” Flores said. “It’s difficult just navigating through COVID right now.”
Flores said she enjoys a lot about her job, including being able to interact with customers and new employees. Now that Oh My Juice! is temporarily located in the SUB, she is able to form those connections with new customers.
“[I have] so many favorite things,” Flores said. “I think [my] most [favorite] is training the employees and getting to know them, building relationships with our customers, hearing their testimonies.”
