Teavana Holdings Inc. (NYSE:TEA)

madtownmaxx (34.53) Submitted: 11/13/2012 8:41:05 AM : Start Price: $10.25 TEA Score: -30.58

Coffee culture. Competition (Private: Davidsons, Fragrant Leaf, etc.).

ellentk (< 20) Submitted: 9/12/2012 11:05:04 PM : Start Price: $12.21 TEA Score: -12.01

I totally agree with egabrielle - I own a teashop and have both interviewed and hired former Teavana employees who HATE it. The sales requirements, the turnover of employees, and the bait & switch on the sales floor (who buys 5 lbs of tea!? they'll quickly sell it you at Teavana for a 20% discount!)... all this tells me this company does not have a sustainable business model for the long term in training and retaining staff. Even customers who come into our tearoom say they were duped by Teavana.
Duped customers, unhappy employees who quit - that's not an Apple or a Starbucks where customers love it.

brownbr1 (< 20) Submitted: 4/6/2012 12:57:15 PM : Start Price: $19.28 TEA Score: +39.89

A little research on yelp. Compared to local teahouses, which usually gets around 4.5 stars, Teavana seems to average 2-3 stars. Lots of people are turned off about their pushy, commissioned sales staff and high prices. Also, not very many people posting on Teavana on yelp so the buzz doesn't seem to be there.

chopchop0 (49.01) Submitted: 3/19/2012 11:34:03 AM : Start Price: $22.23 TEA Score: +48.32

TEA is not the next SBUX

OREKEV (< 20) Submitted: 3/4/2012 1:46:52 AM : Start Price: $24.01 TEA Score: -56.47

Starbucks of Tea

jorgenctva (< 20) Submitted: 1/6/2012 7:28:38 PM : Start Price: $16.49 TEA Score: -35.76

Fool pick 2012

egabriellemoranU (53.66) Submitted: 8/11/2011 2:28:04 PM : Start Price: $24.92 TEA Score: +79.67

Shop or work there for a while, and you'll know why. Employees hearts arent in it, and they treat customers like objects from which to extract sales. They're forced to this mentality because their pay depends on it. While sales is crucial to teavana's success, pushy sales will not do the trick with this highly discretionary, expensive, and unfamiliar product. The only thing that seperated teavana from the competition (on both tea and accessories) is the shopping experience - it sure as hell isn't price that makes people buy from TEA. If the shopping experience stinks, Teavana's got nothing. Do a quick search of "Teavana customer review" on Google or Yelp and you'll see exactly what I mean.

Plus, increasing costs, new entrants into the market, substitute products, and total inability to expand to the fastest growing part of the world - asia - because the product would be spat upon. Much better quality tea is available for much lower prices all across Asia.