gift cards – Chai Cupboard https://chaicupboard.com a tea & spice shop in Everett, WA Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:15:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 180975021 We are moving! https://chaicupboard.com/we-are-moving/ Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:00:13 +0000 https://chaicupboard.com/?p=2396 Heads up! We are moving out of our downtown Everett location. Our last day there will be Tuesday, March 25. We are not closing! Here’s the plan:

  • Near term: We will be online-only, selling all the same great teas & spices at ChaiCupboard.com/shop with local pickup, local delivery, or shipping.
  • Long term: We plan to renovate our basement into a cozy shop + cafe, adding a full hot drink menu to our offerings, and a new neighborhood gathering place.

Read on below for the full details.

New location of Chai Cupboard at 36th St & Wetmore Ave

Online-only… for a while

In the immediate future, we will be online-only. All of our inventory is already available right now at ChaiCupboard.com/shop. We currently offer free local pickup, and will continue to offer that option at our home (pictured above) just south of downtown Everett at 36th & Wetmore.

Once we close the downtown space we will also offer free delivery to the 98201 and 98203 zip codes and a small $5 delivery fee to 98204, 98208, 98205, and 98270. USPS shipping is always available as well. All of the details about pickup and delivery options will be on the website at ChaiCupboard.com/shipping and displayed during the checkout process.

If you have a gift card (physical or digital), don’t worry! You’ll be able to use it on our website, even if your card says “valid in-store only.”

Chai Cupboard basement concept: AI-generated photograph of a cozy basement cafe, low ceiling, hardwoods, Edison bulb lighting, craftsman style, small seating area. A bar counter runs lengthwise across the left side.rough concept image

Neighborhood shop + café

The City of Everett is close to finalizing their “Comprehensive Plan” (a.k.a. “Everett 2044”), which currently includes a provision that will allow us to open the full shop in our home, and even expand to include drinks and food. If that passes, we will begin renovations to the basement of our home into a full shop and café space with its own entrance directly from the sidewalk.

If you live here in Everett and you’d like to help make sure this happens, you can fill out the city’s Everett 2044 survey and/or contact your city councilperson and express your support for the provision in the Urban Form part of the plan that “provide[s] opportunities for small-scale commercial, and community uses within residential neighborhoods on corner lots.”

Take the Everett 2044 Survey

Thanks Again!

Thanks again for all of your support! We really appreciate it, and we’re looking forward to continuing to provide our community with quality teas and spices in new ways.

We’ll post another update when we have additional info to share about the plans for re-opening the full shop experience at our home. If you would like to receive updates like this via email, sign up for our mailing list here:

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]]> 2396 “How’s business?” https://chaicupboard.com/hows-business/ https://chaicupboard.com/hows-business/#respond Mon, 13 May 2024 16:00:33 +0000 http://chaicupboard.com/?p=1 It’s a question that we hear a lot, and we wanted to take a moment to reach out to you, our customers, to let you know how things are going and what we have planned.

If you didn’t know, Chai Cupboard is a literal mom-and-pop shop, owned and operated by the two of us, Jeni & Tim—no investors, no employees. It’s literally just us.

For the first couple of years business was okay. We were growing slowly and not profitable, but it was fine since we had the personal funds to invest in the business and keep things going. Unfortunately, over the past year and a half a few big things have changed in our personal life that have made it a lot harder to keep the tea shop afloat.

We’ve got a great base of customers who love the shop, and we love you! We like our location in downtown Everett, we believe that our city has a lot of potential, and we feel like our shop is a great addition that improves the overall character of downtown. However, so far it just has not been busy enough to drive the kind of business we need to pay the rent for our space here.

But—we’re not giving up!

Maya, a female Shiba Inu, lying on the floor in the sun, whicn is coming in from the left side of the photo. Behind her is a shelf with glass jars full of spices.

How You Can Help

The bottom line is that if we’re going to make this work we need a lot more business. To help get us there we’re dramatically expanding our offerings to give you more ways to experience our teas and recommend Chai Cupboard to your friends and family.

Here are five (ish) new ways that you can help our shop succeed.

digital illustration of a laptop computer opened to an online tea shop

Shop Online

Our online shop is live! All of our teas and spices are now available to purchase online for in-store pickup or shipping. We’re still working through the photography, but all of our in-stock teas have pictures and we’re on our way to completing the spices.

ChaiCupboard.com/shop

digital illustration of two glass jars with loose-leaf tea inside, sitting on a kitchen counter

Join our Tea Society

Get exclusive early access to our newest teas by joining our new Tea Society monthly membership club.

For just $20 a month, we set aside at least two ounces of two new teas each month for you at the shop. Members are the first to get these new teas, before they hit our shelves.

ChaiCupboard.com/Tea-Society

digital illustration of a woman sitting at her desk with loose-leaf tea, taking a virtual class

Take a Tea Class

We will be launching a “Tea 101” virtual class for corporate or private groups that teaches the different types of tea, how to brew, and more. Participants will receive a selection of teas in the mail and during the one-hour live video session we’ll walk your group through the basics of tea.

ChaiCupboard.com/Tea-Classes

photograph of three laser-cut and engraved wooden gift cards for Chai Cupboard

Give a Gift Card

We have physical gift cards now! We don’t like the waste of plastic gift cards, so we designed these wooden gift cards ourselves. They’re individually laser-cut by Tim out of thin but sturdy hardwood maple. You can load them with any amount you like and refill them when they run out.

Currently available in-store only, but you can still buy virtual gift cards online.

photograph of three tea drippers brewing loose-leaf teas

Try a Tea & More…

Did you know that we offer brewed tea in the shop? We’ll brew you up a 12oz cup to go of any tea on the shelf. It’s a great way to try something new before you commit to bringing a bunch home.

You can also help by writing a 5-star review on our Google Maps profile.

Finally, it would help us a lot if you follow, share, and interact with our content on Instagram and Facebook, where we’re going to work on posting more often.

Have Feedback or Want to Partner With Us?

We’ve had a few people express interest over the past few years in partnering with us with an investment or something similar. It’s also possible you have a brilliant idea that we haven’t thought of that would make a huge impact to our business. If either of these describes you, drop us a line at info@chaicupboard.com, we’d love to chat more!

Thank You!

Thanks again to all of you who have supported us these past three years. We don’t know for sure what’s in store for the shop, but we’re going to keep at it one way or another. We would really like to stay in downtown Everett, because we really do like it here and want to be part of helping our city live up to its full potential.

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