DavidsTea Is Closing All But 1 BC Location Starting Immediately

It's a sad day for tea-lovers. On Thursday, July 30, Canadian tea giant DavidsTea announced that they're permanently shutting down the majority of their stores across the country. The brand is shuttering all but one DavidsTea store in B.C. 

The update posted by the Montreal-based company confirms the decision. Though 82 stories across Canada have shut down for good, the company does plan to reopen select few. 

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"DAVIDsTEA expects to reopen the 18 stores by the end of August 2020, conditional upon entering into amended leases for the stores," said the update. 

According to Global News, the only store that makes the cut in B.C. is the location at the Pacific Centre in Vancouver. 

DavidsTea said the 18 retail spaces are to open by the end of August 2020 and that they're all located in major shopping centres. 

For any Albertan tea fans out there, three DavidsTea locations will reopen to the public.

As per Global News, this includes the Chinook Centre and the Market Mall location in Calgary, and the store in West Edmonton Mall.

"We are very pleased that the landlords for these 18 stores have offered more advantageous rent conditions to us in light of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Frank Zitella, the CEO of the company. 

A quick search on Google also turns up results in terms of which stores are temporarily or permanently closed in your city or province. 

Explaining their business decision, Zitella said that the COVID-19 economic crisis, as well as the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), has contributed to their decision to shut the majority of their stores. 

Apparently, "the plan was always to significantly reduce our retail footprint," said the CEO. 

He added that the company's success in selling tea through e-commerce or wholesale channels in recent months has "validated" their strategy. 

They've been in the process of handing out notices to terminate the leases at the stores closing down forever. "Terminations will take effect in 30 days," read the release. 

So if you don't live close enough to any of these massive shopping malls, you'll have to make do with online shopping or finding the signature teas at your local grocery store.