Peabody Teavana Among 379 Stores Closing Nationwide

PEABODY, MA – Teavana stores are expected to close across the country by next spring, including the retail location in the Northshore Mall. Starbucks officials announced the closings in their quarterly report, noting that they have been "persistently underperforming."

All of the 379 Teavana stores – which are primarily in malls – are planned to close by spring 2018. The Peabody Teavana is in the Nordstrom wing of the Northshore Mall. Teavana stores specialize in selling teas, teaware and accessories. All told, the closures will affect 3,300 workers nationwide, according to company officials.

"The company concluded that despite efforts to reverse the trend through creative merchandising and new store designs, the under-performance was likely to continue," Starbucks officials said in a press release. Laid-off employees will be urged to apply for jobs at Starbucks locations.

The announcement is the latest in a string of store closings among retailers operating out of malls, including JCPenney and Gamestop, which previously announced plans to shut down their brick-and-mortar sites to focus on e-commerce sites, CNN and numerous other media outlets have reported.

CNN noted there were 5,300 store closing announcements in the first six months of the year— triple the number during the same period last year — according to analysis by Fung Global Retail & Technology. The news on the mall tenants gets worse: Between 20% and 25% of American malls will close within five years, Credit Suisse said in a report released last month, CNN noted.

Image via Taylor Rapalyea, Patch staff