CBTL Trade In Your Old Coffee Maker Event

This is for the 2^nd «Trade In Your Old Coffee Maker» event sponsored by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at the Anaheim Stadium on Sept 29, 2013. This gave anybody who came an opportunity to trade in any coffee pot — any coffee pot, new or used– to exchange it for a brand new in the box CBTL Americano Machine. This was being done from 8am-​2pm for the first 4,000 people with trade ins, and with these selling for about $ 150 retail, it was definitely worth a trip if you lived nearby. Also, similar to last year, the first 250 people received a free CBTL frother worth $ 40 retail.
This being the 2^nd year (last year they offered a new in the box Kalbi) it appears they did their homework and analyzed what worked well and what didn’t work and made necessary adjustments. Some of the adjustments they made really stood out and kept people happy. Changing the venue from Hollywood streets with limited parking to a huge stadium was brilliant, for example. There was plenty of free parking, and the lines were much more organized, with about 1,000 people showing up before 7am. They also kept the crowds happy with much more organization, sending friendly staff members to monitor the lines and keep everybody informed, making sure we knew where the bathrooms were and that we had our used/​new pots and wristbands. I think a few people passed out last year from the heat or so I was told, so this year they gave out free bottles of water, orange juice, pastries (doughnuts and muffins) and of course Coffee Bean coffee. Another thing they did was allow us to go and buy the coffee pods early (with someone saving our place in line of course) which they had on sale for 3 boxes of 16 for $ 20 of any flavor.
I had got there early in the morning around 7am, and by the time the lines started moving it took about two hours to get my brand new coffee pot. It was very well organized, and after we got our pots there were even games and booths set up to market the brands and flavors. I heard by 11am it was less than an hour wait, and the line had decreased substantially, and by 11:30 it was only a 15 minute wait and they had plenty of wristbands left. Now that I know, next time if they have this again, I’ll be sure to go later rather than earlier. That is if I need a new coffee machine. I’m giving my old Kalbi from last year away, though it still works great.
As for the Americano machine itself, it works great! I really liked the Kalbi, but one of the problems I had was that the spout sat too low so I had to get shorter cups. This model corrected the problem and even has 6 options instead of 3 (short espresso, long espresso, 8 oz drink, 10 oz drink, 12 oz drink, 6.5 oz hot chocolate). Same great taste, just taller and more user friendly.