Phoenix Tea Shop recently announced that they are brewing their last kettle after a decade in the store and that they will close the doors of their Burien shop in late December.
Owner Virginia Wright said the COVID-19 pandemic has caused revenue to decline so much that the business is no longer sustainable.
“Not being able to conduct tastings or effectively educate people about tea – with real tea – has been a challenge,” she said. “And like so many other companies that depend on international trade, we have been hit by devastating and frustrating disruptions in our supply chains.”
The store will stay open until the end of December and will be open to sell Christmas tea. In mid-December, they will offer some of their home furnishings and personal collection of tea ware for sale.
They will also stop selling online as they run out of space to store inventory. “We’re going to have some special small tea events in the future as soon as these types of events are safe to host,” Wright said.
Phoenix Tea was founded in 2010 as an online-only tea retailer by Virginia Wright, better known in the tea community as “Cinnabar”. When she started the company, she was motivated to use what she had learned about tea over the years to offer tea lovers fine teas, tea goods, and other tea-related products.
In July 2011, Brett Boynton joined Phoenix Tea after many years at The Tea Cup in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle and Phoenix Tea, LLC was formed. In December 2011, Phoenix Tea opened a retail store in the two block neighborhood of Olde Burien, which enables the company to serve the educational and tea drinking needs of local and visiting customers and to continue to offer fine and fancy teas and tea merchandise online to customers in the US and beyond.
From 2011 to 2015, Phoenix Tea was jointly managed by Cinnabar and Boynton. In late 2015, Boynton decided to withdraw from the tea industry and Phoenix Tea, LLC is now exclusively owned by Cinnabar.
In July 2016, after opening the building with the charming and tiny retail space that Phoenix Tea had been home to for five years, the company relocated a few blocks east to downtown Burien. The store is now in a more spacious location with better visibility, across from the King County Library and Farmer’s Market, and surrounded by a number of other great local businesses.
“I have really enjoyed running a business in Burien for the past decade and I appreciate all of the wonderful relationships with customers that I have cultivated during that time,” said Wright. “My passion for sharing tea culture and educating people about tea led me to start the business. While that passion has not waned, it was not possible to fully and safely experience tea with humans during the pandemic, and it is likely that this will continue to change in the future. The financial reality that led me to the inevitable decision to close Phoenix Tea is that revenues have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the numbers are simply not sustainable. I will miss being part of this community as a business owner, but I will remain actively involved in many other vibrant elements of life in Burien. “
More information at:
The Phoenix Tea Shop is located at 447 SW 152nd Street in Burien:
You may also like …
[ad_2]
