My Experience at Teavana

Only a few times a year, my mom and I will go to the mall and spend the day walking around. We do a little shopping usually, but not much as retail prices in the mall are so high. One store we like to go into is Teavana because they usually have about five or six tea samples to try, and they always have cute teapot displays.

The last time we were in there, I believe it was around Christmas, we made the mistake of talking to an employee. We had a little bit of extra money and were interested in buying some tea. After telling the sales person that we wanted two ounces of a tea, he filled a bag with just over two ounces, much closer to three. Then, the talking began. Instead of ringing us up, the employee continued to badger us about all of the teas on display, and wafting them all towards us.

Eventually he had us suckered into buying two other teas, two ounces of each, and proceeded to put almost three ounces into those as well. Let me tell you, if you've never shopped there, these ounces aren't cheap. This man was obviously so determined to sell us as much as possible, and my mother and I were being so tortured, that I actually started to laugh uncontrollably at one point, which earned a glare from the salesman. He then asked me if I was interested in what he was showing, and I made another mistake in telling him that I like spice teas, not floral.

After perhaps ten minutes of showing us teas with spice, my mother excused herself and whispered "follow me" to me. We all but ran from the store and didn't stop until we reached Forever 21 on the other side of the mall, laughing all the way.

This whole process took perhaps half an hour, maybe more as time has no meaning in Teavana.

When we got home, we looked up reviews on Teavana and saw that many people had similiar experiences that we had. They fill the bags with more tea than you ask for, and their employees are encouraged to adapt agressive sales techniques. Needless to say, we will not be returning.