I’ve been watching the mass extinction of The Westside’s beloved Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. It appears yet another one may have bitten the dust. The popular CBTL at 2901 Main St. in Santa Monica appears to be closed. While it doesn’t have the poster announcing the closure as the other ones have had, the windows are papered over and the equipment has been removed. What is going on?
Toddrickallen 
A theory, most coffee chain expansions now are drive-thru. Covid, insane rent, and no drive-thru may be behind most of CBTL contraction.
Agreed!
So I actually got a very nice reply from CBTL customer relations after asking about this and they said they will continue to evaluate their portfolio of company owned stores in CA and AZ over the next three months, and that more stores may be closed during that period… So not exactly uplifting but no sign that they are packing up shop in the US altogether at least. And the franchises like in Nevada and Hawai’i are not affected I guess.