Barksdale couple gifted Main Squeeze location in Bossier after turning store around

Published: Jan. 26, 2023 at 10:04 AM CST|Updated: Jan. 27, 2023 at 4:23 AM CST
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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) - Being healthy, losing weight, and making better choices are goals that sound familiar to most. But for one couple, those goals ended up being life-changing.

Taylor Shellhaas convinced her husband, Jon, to stop for smoothies at a Bossier City juice bar, Main Squeeze, on their way home from a workout. While they were in the store, she noticed a sign saying they were hiring and decided to apply.

“So I went home, I applied, and I became the shift lead within like two months. I became GM within five months and then here we are like, I never thought I would be in this position,” Taylor said.

Taylor was hard at work running the store and developing a passion for helping others by making healthy choices easy, but the business continued to struggle due to a lack of experienced advertising and networking within the community, until someone special stepped in.

“The business wasn’t doing great last year, and I decided to take it upon myself and do marketing for the business and working with the corporate office,” said Jon.

Jon began handling all of the marketing and networking as an unpaid position in addition to his full-time job as an active duty hydraulics instructor at Barksdale Air Force Base (BAFB). After several months, they noticed a dramatic turnaround, and corporate did too.

“It actually ended up being a secret shopper video that came about and I scored the highest corporate has ever had in history. I got a 99% on the secret shopper. So with that and how good Taylor’s been running the store, the CEO of the company was like, ‘I want them as partners. Please have the store,’” Jon said.

And just like that, corporate ended up giving them the store as a thank you for all the hard work they put into making it successful.

“Taylor found her dream job in Main Squeeze. She has taken it and run with it as far as operations are concerned. Jon, her husband, jumped in when he saw her determination and affection for the brand. He is an instructor for the military, teaching hydraulics on some of the military’s biggest bomber airplanes. Jon saw the need in getting out in the community to do grassroots marketing within the community to help the performance of the store. He did this for free, which was shocking. It was all to help his wife with her dream. The more Jon got involved, the more we realized how special the two of them were. Funny enough, we ultimately wanted to help them immensely to get into the location because Taylor is a great manager, Jon was extremely involved (and military vet), but the final decision came about because Jon was subject to one of our video secret shopper visits. He nailed every piece of our audit and scored a company-wide high score of 99,” said Thomas Nieto, CEO of Main Squeeze Juice Company.

Nieto went on to say that without question, these two deserved the store and they’re grateful to have them as partners.

You can experience the Shellhaas’ dedication to their new gift, and support this military couple by visiting them at Main Squeeze Juice Co., located at 2114 Airline Dr. in Bossier City.