Clean up in the Tea isle.

I finally made it into some stores to analyze the tea isle... Some observations I made right off the bat is that bagged tea dominates our more common, middle-class going grocery stores. I am almost certain that only one store carried ONE brand of actual loose leaf tea. Twinnings of London was the only tin canned loose leaf tea that I saw. I'm pretty certain that its the demographics of this area. Perhaps no one expects tea buyers to be indulging in premium, loose leaf tea all that often. And because of this I suppose grocery stores don't feel the need to purchase loose leaf brands and fill their isles up with it. What a damn shame.

Mighty Leaf, a modern looking and innovative tea company, did something clever in my eyes. They were able to make an appearance on these common grocery store's shelves because they BAGGED LOOSE LEAF TEA... I see this as a way to familiarize themselves with tea buyers who are comfortable and familiar purchasing tea that is bagged. I would imagine that people are either intimidated by the process of brewing loose leaf tea, don't really have the time or patience, or they may not even know that tea comes in loose leaf form. Mighty Leaf was able to solve those problems with their biodegradable bags holding full leaves. Smart smart smart people over there.

I understand that this final design // product will be targeting earth conscientious, educated people (who may not shop at common stores like Big Y, Stop&Shop, or Shop Rite), but I do want my final product to reach other classes of people as well. I was thinking of doing this by including biodegradable tea bags similar to those offered by Mighty Leaf. Yes, the container would hold the raw, unpacked loose leaf tea, but the option would be available to pack it into a teabag for an easy on-the-go solution.

Another thing that disappointed me was where the premium tea sat on the shelves in these middle-class grocery stores. They were all located far below eye level, almost on the last shelf. Could it be because they were the most expensive? One of the premium teas offered that was packaged in a tin container (from China) was a little over 10$. I would assume that this would be intimidating to most shoppers, but I don't agree with hiding it on the bottom. It should be closer to eye level so that consumers can at least see that there are more options of quality (regardless of price).

I need to make a visit to the Whole Foods Market in West Hartford so I can see how their tea isle looks. I anticipate higher prices, different packaging from the common cardboard box, and more premium loose leaf tea.

Here are some photos from my time in the stores:

Kudos to NUMI for the soy ink usage