Chad Brown and his partner A.J. Rush opened this franchise location in May. But by July, Tropical Smoothie Cafe was 40% below its sales projections.
Because the cafe is a new business, claims adjusters can't look back at prior years to calculate financial losses. Brown's claim with BP had to be sent to a special facility for processing. After getting an initial emergency check, Brown ran into BP bureaucratic tangles. The money stopped.
Brown last week attended a Florida Oil Spill Economic Recovery task force meeting where he spoke of his struggles. That grabbed the attention of BP representatives who attended; they've since helped push Brown's application through the bureaucratic bottleneck.
NEXT: Sales down 15%: Capt. Anderson's Restaurant
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