Can Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz do the same thing for tea, with Teavana, that he did for coffee with Starbucks? He thinks he can and the first Teavana tea bar opens Thursday in Manhattan.
You can get a cup of tea at a Starbucks, but you can't get a cup of coffee at the chain's first teahouse, Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar that opens on Thursday in Manhattan.
That's how serious Starbucks is about selling lots of fancy tea at the chichi teahouse strategically located on the city's Upper East Side. It's very appropriately near a Lululemon and Dean & DeLuca.
The difference between a Starbucks coffee shop and a Teavana teahouse "is like night and day," says Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, in a phone interview. "It's much more zen-like than anything you'll find in a Starbucks store."
The store, with fashionably-gray walls, light wood and museum-esque lighting, looks very different from Starbucks, and it has no Starbucks branding. The most striking visual feature in the store is the Teavana "Wall of Tea" with a range of loose-leaf teas and tea blends.
For Starbucks, it's a high-profile baby step into the $90 billion global tea market. The only thing that people globally drink more of than tea is water. Even as Starbucks puts the brakes on new, domestic coffee shops, it can accelerate on teahouses. Starbucks hopes to open at least 1,000 more of its own Teavana bars (different than the retail shops currently open in many shopping malls) in North America and many more outside the U.S. Over the next five to 10 years, projects Schultz, "We'll do for tea what we've done for coffee."
It won't be easy. And it's a bit pricier than Starbucks. The priciest salad sells for $14.95 and a 16-ounce specialty tea latte fetches $5.95. A raspberry and apricot cream scone goes for $3.75.
"It's doable, but it will be a hard slog," says Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor Associates. "But the idea of starting fresh is smart. It's hard to find a quiet place to hang out in a Starbucks. This feels softer and less bustling."
Unlike Starbucks, where the culture is more about drinks-on-the-go, at Teavana, the aura, design and mood is all about lingering. The contemporary-designed chairs are padded and comfy. The lighting is low. And the sheer variety of teas and munchies seems to require time to sit and savor.
"When you walk in, you see a shrine to tea," says Schultz. "The store demonstrates our knowledge of tea and romances the theater of tea with a visual experience."
Starbucks is no stranger to tea. Starbucks was founded as Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices. But coffee became dominant and tea accounted for less than 1% of sales for years, says Schultz. That's changing. Ultimately, he expects Teavana to be sold in some Starbucks locations.
A second Teavana is scheduled to open in Seattle around Thanksgiving.
What does Schultz sip? He says he drinks Moroccan Mint Teavana tea at night, "but nothing will replace my (Starbucks) French press Aged Sumatra in the morning."
No comments:
Post a Comment