Fans of oolong and English Breakfast — and, okay, free samples at the mall — are in mourning as Starbucks announces that it's shutting down all of its Teavana stores nationwide.
Blamed on dwindling shopping mall foot traffic, the company was forced to reevaluate strategy for the "struggling" line of tea-centric stores back in April, Business Insider reports. News of the closures seems to confirm that the company has lost hope of any chance of brand revival.
Starbucks CFO Scott Harlan Maw said in a statement: "Over the last several years many mall-based retailers have been adversely impacted by reduced foot traffic ... Our Teavana mall stores have not been immune, with many reporting negative comps and operating losses for some time."
Media outlets have been profiling the death of malls across suburbia over the past few years, but its effects hadn't reached big businesses in the food industry until now. The majority of brick and mortar Teavana stores are located inside of these former consumer hotspots, so it's no wonder Starbucks Corporation has decided to do away with the flailing company.
Meanwhile, the coffee provider continues to grow and expand, with one Starbucks store opening per day, according to CNN Money.
The closures will happen in phases, with 379 stores shuttering through the end of the year, and the rest being phased out by spring 2018.
No word on whether or not Teavana's online platform will continue to function after the physical store closures, but Starbucks does plan to continue serving the tea products in its own coffee shops.
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