RETAILING TEA

Retailing tea is an alternative to a restaurant style tea shop. This involves selling tea and tea related products without serving meals.

Serving afternoon tea is fun, but you have to sell this in quantities if you want to pay for your equipment, overhead, employees, and food costs. You usually cannot survive selling just afternoon teas. You will need to also serve meals--breakfast, lunch, and dinner or a combination--in order to make a profit. What happens is that you are now running a restaurant instead of your original concept of afternoon tea.

Retailing tea is an alternative to that. You don't have to necessarily have to serve food to have a tea shop. You can sell tea and a blend of products related to tea. You can have two sides to your business. One side to sell tea products and the other to sell bulk and prepackaged tea.

Develop a "Tea Accouterment" department. Put together all the things necessary for an afternoon tea. Consider pre-packaged shortbread, scones, tea bread mixes, etc. Find what fits your community and your budget. Educate your customers as to what is available: traditional to modern, collectible to functional, etc. Introducing new products takes time and you have to educate your customers. When retailing tea and tea accouterments, provide different styles as everyone has different tastes. The world would be boring if everyone had the same taste.

The other side of your store is where your retailing Tea Department belongs. Begin small and expand as your customer base grows. The tea department will be the most important because here is where you will begin to educate your customer and where they will begin to enjoy tea. As they become more familiar with tea, they will want to buy the accouterments to make tea at home. This will also be where most of your revenue will come from. Sell bulk tea as well as prepackaged tea. If a brand is available at your local grocery store, don't sell it. Sell only tea that is not available in your area. That way customers will have to come to you to get what they want.

You will want to have a place where you can make tea to give your customers a sample. Consider making two or three teas each day for your customers to taste. This way you can educate them and they can develop their palate for tea. Making tea in pots can be messy so possibly serve the tea in 12 ounce mugs. Use only paper cups for to-go orders. Don't use shortcuts when making the tea. You will undercut yourself by serving substandard tea.

Sell prepackage cookies, biscuits, scones, and shortbread for your customers to enjoy with their tea. If you sell prepackaged, you don't have to have a kitchen or equipment or deal with the Health Department. You might consider talking with your local bakers to prepackage goodies for you.

You can provide a place for them to sit and have tea, but also let them wander about the store with their mugs. The longer customers stay in your store, the more likely they will see other things they would like to purchase. While your customers are enjoying their tea is an excellent time to educate them about tea. Take every opportunity to educate your customers. Explain what you are selling and why. Encourage customers to develop their palate. The more information you share about tea the more they will come to rely on you and shop in your store.

An educated and happy customer will return again and again to buy tea and gifts for their friends. A tea business does not have to involve a restaurant to serve tea.

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