Teavana at 630 Old Country Road #1077, Garden City, New York.

I’ve been to Teavana before and while I “get” this is New York mall I felt anything but peaceful here. Teavana, now owned by Starbucks is great. Quality teas they’ll make for you on order with that wonderful rock sugar that makes it a tiny bit sinful.

However at this location, it seemed the staff was all about drawing people into the store and up-selling. We had difficulty finding someone to help us order a few cups of iced tea and they seemed annoyed that’s all we wanted and we kept getting directed to someone else to make it. Mind you there was only four people working the store and the store is teeny tiny so I couldn’t believe it was that confusing.

When we finally got someone to take our request, she kept getting interrupted in making the drinks to hand out samples or ring up other customers, I got annoyed and asked to speak with the manager and was told she was too busy. Sigh. This manager also didn’t understand that I could use my Starbucks app to pay, although the two systems have been integrated for months. She simply didn’t seem to care and it showed.

Whether it was because or “order” was small or they were so focused on metrics such as samples handed out or volume purchases, we clearly weren’t welcome and while we don’t live there, I certainly won’t be back!