The Chicago Tribune reports that Starbucks next week will open its third Teavana Fine Teas & Tea Bar shop there, (the first two were in New York City and Seattle) the beginning of what it hopes will be "hundreds of upscale tea bars around the world that sell everything from exotic oolongs to sweet herbal concoctions. It hopes to entice people to linger by offering scones, soups and salads, then send them home with loose-leaf teas and teapots."
No coffee, though.
Starbucks bought Teavana in 2012. The Tribune story notes that not only is tea the most popular drink in the world, but while "Teavana shops get fewer visitors than Starbucks, but its patrons typically spend a lot more as they buy gifts such as Japanese-style cast-iron teapots and loose leaf teas that can sell for as much as $24.98 for 2 ounces."
No coffee, though.
Starbucks bought Teavana in 2012. The Tribune story notes that not only is tea the most popular drink in the world, but while "Teavana shops get fewer visitors than Starbucks, but its patrons typically spend a lot more as they buy gifts such as Japanese-style cast-iron teapots and loose leaf teas that can sell for as much as $24.98 for 2 ounces."
- KC's View:
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The trick for Starbucks is keeping all these plates spinning - the coffee shops, the tea stores, the juice stores, and all the other businesses with which it is involved.
It occurred to me after writing the above sentence that there may be an entire generation of people who don't get the spinning plates reference. If you are in that group, click here to watch three minutes from the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1969, and see what passed for Sunday night entertainment back then. (I suspect that what's on Sunday nights these days would have Ed Sullivan spinning … in his grave.)
