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Tealuxe latest Harvard Square business to shut

The Crimson reports Tealuxe is leaving Harvard Square on Dec. 23. The news comes days after the Crema coffeehouse announced its demise.

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Food. Lobby of the Smith Center (Holyoke Center) South side of Massachusetts Avenue between Holyoke Street and Dunster St. across from Harvard Yard
https://commonspaces.harvard.edu/smith-campus-center/food

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I love their teas! This is terrible....

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now there's room for two more Starbucks.

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#starbucksreverything

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on Church Street

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Yes, but when a Starbucks closes they replace it with a Starbucks.

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I don't spend a lot of time paying attention to what's happening on Church Street, so I'm not entirely sure it's the same location, but it looks like they replaced that Starbucks with a Dunkin Donuts, which would be a joke in itself.

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I was by there last week. The Starbucks is closed, empty. There is a small shop next door that was closed with a sign that said there were heating issues. There wasn't a mention of DD replacing the Starbucks. Raven is still open, thank dog.

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A Dunkin Donuts opened up several years ago on the other side of the parking lot from that Starbucks. You must be thinking of that location.

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Former location of Lee's, IIRC.

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Is there even any place left to get a plate of bacon & eggs or a grilled cheese sandwich in the square?

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The Grafton Group actually normally puts out a decent breakfast selection (Russell House Tavern, Grafton Street , Temple Bar and Park. ) Including eggs and bacon etc.

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Replace it with nothing!

Remember like 20 years ago when the movie theater on Church St closed?

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Wasn't that just a few years ago? And it was shortly followed by the closing of Fire & Ice.

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It closed 6 years ago, it just seems like 20...
Permitting for the new cinema's and officebuilding were slated to be done by Summer 2019. We'll see.

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There's a new cinema coming?

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I remember 35 years ago when I spent more time in that theater than I did in class.

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The good old days when it did repertory, Marx Brothers triple features, Woody Allen when you could like his movies...

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Starbucks Coffee Rules Everything Around Me

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And another bank as well.

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a few weeks ago. I don’t buy coffee in the square generally but what the hell is going on?

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YES!!! more space for BANKS!!

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Algiers, tealux and crema
What’s going on with Harvard sq these days ? Asian kids must like clover

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Would make a great spot for an ATM!

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Their teas were pretty good (especially the peppermint iced tea on a sweltering day), but the place was often cramped, and if you wanted a quick tea and the person ahead of you was an aficionado, you were better off going to Peet's or Starbucks because the aficionado would take their sweet time to decide, thus slowing down service.

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You probably should just go to Peets anyway. Tealuxe was specifically about slow tea for people who wanted it made a certain way and wanted access to the huge variety. I didn't go there often, as I'm not a frequent Harvard Square visitor, but I always very much enjoyed the slowed down pace enabling me to completely relish the teas on offer.

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That loud scream you heard was me falling to my knees screaming into the heavens...

I worked above Tealuxe for 7 years and for 6 and a half of those years it was my retreat. My morning stop before getting on with my day. It is where I learned to drink tea, that Lipton was not representative of iced tea and that tea did not have to taste like dish water.

The staff was always amazing and knew exactly how I liked my tea... I became such a regular to the point where when I won my local election in Chelsea to City Council they renamed my favorite iced tea for the day to Councillor Franks Golden Monkey Iced Tea (It was normally just Golden Monkey) and put it on rotation for the week and gave me the card afterwards.

My eighth year in Harvard Square was with a private company and I would go out of my way to continue stopping in even though I had to go past about 5 Starbucks and 4 Dunks etc. My Tealuxe was so well known among my young staff that when I left that position they bought me a $50 gift card just to entice me to come visit, knowing it would work.

People who didn't know me would show up in the office with a Cupcake from Sweet when they wanted a favor... those who knew me would show up with an afternoon unsweetened iced tea lol.

I guess times , they have to change, and I have not been there for several years but it always felt nice knowing it was there.

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Word is a Chase Bank Cafe is taking that space.

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on JFK Street, so this seems redundant. (And that is itself a bit redundant with Peet's Coffee a block further down.)

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If not now then in 20 to 30 years from now sociology classes will explain this as the creation of a national retail system. It's already here of course.

There are still local businesses but the infrastructure and dynamics on the back end favor chains. It also seems that most folks now see shopping at large scale, but low price businesses, is better than shopping at higher priced but local businesses. The social benefits of local benefits are not understood; the benefit of relationships with locally owned, locally focused retailers are no longer considered valuable.

The commercial element of small town life is dying. Walmart tolled the death knell. The pressures that convert lower end of the middle class to an upper level of poor aggravates the situation. As the middle portion of the middle class feels the economic pressure they will also join the upper level of the poor and so will also need to resort to the lowest price possible.

Perhaps these economic shifts are necessary in a world where the vast majority of objects are touched in a variety of nations. Therefore competition can no longer operate most efficiently at the level of local businesses. Instead there has to be a dominance of national businesses.

Boston Public Market is bet that local can survive. Hopefully the local businesses can. They will need to be sure that all staff are customer friendly (the wine store needs some help in that respect).

Anyone who can afford to shop at local businesses improves the local economy. But how much can the local economy compete against a national economy?

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It often depends on the retail. If you look at the prices of moderately priced goods then National does not always beat indy and sometimes it falls behind.

Take tea for instance. I would argue that of the National Chains only Starbucks gets it kind of right. In the sense that they do not burn the tea and they have quality control over their iced teas. Where as McDonalds and Dunkin give you awful tasting brews. For a dollar mind you... but the Starbucks tea is on par pricing with Tealuxe even though Tealuxe is better.

Looking at smaller coffee shops it really is hit or miss. Many of them see tea as an afterthought and make the same mistakes as Dunkin Donuts does yet they charge you more. Of course they will not be able to compete in that scenario. Some of the other local places have realized that tea comes in little bags they can buy and just brew on demand, for iced they can brew strong and then pour over ice and get a nice blend. Yet many places do not want to put that time or effort into it...

You could swap out tea for any other semi premium good. That is where the national chains falter. You can't compete with the Dollar Menu at McDonalds but have you noticed that local food places keep popping up even as McDonalds spins in circles releasing a new premium line every 6 months in a different box style?

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