Welcome back to Day 2 of our Ozzie series. It begins while out on a customer visit, the Chadstone Shopping Centre and I came across a grand store with Asian influenced furnishings and contemporary comfort. This was T2 Tea, Australia’s largest selection of fragrant teas, the kind of place to make you feel like you’ve escaped the stale air of any mall.
If you visit Melbourne and need to shop, you’ll enjoy the Chadstone. As one of the largest shopping centres in Australia, it’s a mix of spacious indoor and outdoor walkways with up-to-date shops and cafes. And I have to say, the Ozzies love their coffee and but not Starbucks. Instead, find your mom ‘n’ pop cafes and modern eateries like Jones the Grocer. And if you love sipping Chai, the mix down in Aus is excellent!
But back to the post! Many Chadstone shops show much detail and care in retail merchandising and displays – and are quite comparable to the US. Retail in Canada just doesn’t compare. And most notable was the T2 store or Tea Too (as labelled on the store front)!
In the shop based in Chadstone, the central fixture is a round wooden table with grooves filled with dried tea leaves to sample and smell. Every wall contained a wooden storage fixture which was very reminiscent of Asian merchants and marketplaces.
But what draws me most is that the store feels like one big treasure hunt. Even in the graphics, I love the collage effect both on the store front and collateral. And most importantly, the quality pyramidal tea bags for the best cup of tea.
Props to the design team at Sae Creative for doing such a spot-on job. From its birth in Melbourne, T2 has expanded with success, its retail and wholesale businesses globally.
{ Images from T2 and Sae Creative online }