I just read an interesting story in the new edition of World Tea News. Apparently Adagio Tea is preparing to open their first bricks and mortar shop. I definitely didn't see this coming. I had been impressed with their ability to develop a strong online presence that was both well-known and well-respected. In an era when many places are moving out of the teashop business into online sales, this seems a bold move. What is even more interesting is that they are eyeing Chicago for the first store. This is surprising as Argo has been working hard to corner that market and TeaGschwendner is already there. (Of course this is all happening very soon after a TG Exec moved over to Adagio.)
Anyway, enough of me re-hashing what's already been written. You can find the article here. I really can't decide how I feel about it. On one hand, I think Adagio does good work and I think they've kept prices reasonable. I think they have strong products to offer which would add appeal. On the downside, I'm not sure an Adagio store will feel unique enough. What will it offer that I can't get from them online?
What do you think? Would you shop at an Adagio retail store? What would you hope that they could do that would be different from what already exists?
FIND OUT MORE
Tea Blog Directory
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Competition in the world of bricks and mortar
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I would imagine brick&mortar are about education for Adagio. They study the demographics to find an untapped group of potential customers. Then the store becomes a place to host tastings, events, and a place to hang out and taste new teas before going online to save money on the purchase.
As you may have read in the Adagio Teas press release, we are starting a website www.tearetailer.com that will explain the basic idea behind why we are opening a physical store, as well as give you a behind-the-scenes view into the process. I think many of your questions will be answered for you there.
Thanks Jason and Ilya.
Jason - I think you're right. Adagio has done a fantastic job in introducing people to loose leaf tea. They have been approachable and unintimidating, which why I've been a customer for so long. The possibilities are pretty interesting.
Ilya - Thank you for providing the link to my readers. I neglected to include it in my post.
For those of you don't know Ilya, he's part of the Adagio team and is always full of great information.
Personally I'm pretty excited any time a new teashop opens, but this one is really piquing my interest!
I don't find it surprising. I think that tea buyers, particularly inexperienced ones, are likely to buy more if they have someone guiding them towards what they might want to buy. And I assume that there will be teas available for people to taste, which is the traditional sales tactic for tea sellers all over the world.
Post a Comment