The Puzzle Of The Pandemic Expansion of the Boba Parlor Industry

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it appeared that it would be an all out disaster for Chinese food eateries of all stripes, from the fanciest large restaurants to the smallest mom and pop restaurants and boba parlors.  As I wrote in Menuism, the hit was expected to be disproportionately hard on Chinese restaurants due to the large concentration of family owned businesses.  Indeed celebrity chef Ming Tsai sadly predicted that nearly half of family owned Chinese restaurants would end up shuttering.  And indeed, this seemed to be a fair assessment as probably a majority of all Chinese eateries closed down for at least a period of time during 2020, and certainly all Chinese restaurants that were operating at any point of time did so on a much smaller scale.  

Things looked particularly bleak for the boba parlors. Many observers felt that the boba market seemed oversaturated, and was ready for a shakeout anyway.  People not so jokingly were stating that there was seemingly a boba parlor on every block in the San Gabriel Valley.  And when the pandemic hit, boba shops were viewed as particularly at risk because part of the business plan of many boba parlors was to allow customers to linger for periods of time to use the shop's Wi-Fi resources and reorder their drinks.  With in person dining prohibited, it appeared to be the death knell for much of the boba segment of the industry.

But as I reported in a  subsequent Menuism article the Chinese eateries battled back from the precipice.  And while a lot of restaurants did have to close for many months, so many eventually reopened that the eventual failure rate was probably no greater than had there not been a pandemic.  Amazingly, while there were casualties, many boba parlors successfully pivoted to a takeout model during the time period that in-person dining was not permitted.  And more amazingly, new boba parlors began to open.  Indeed, instead of marking a period of contraction for boba parlors, the pandemic marked the beginning of a period of exponential growth.  Not only was there a major expansion in the number of boba purveyors, but there was actually a shortage of locations, as one Chinese shopping center leasing agent revealed that a particular center in Irvine actually had a waiting list of wannabe boba shop operators.

So for the past three years or so I have been befuddled by the proliferation of boba shops.  But a lucky happenstance seems to have pointed me to the answer.  I was looking for information on a Pasadena boba shop I had recently visited, but could not readily remember the name, so I did a Google search for "Pasadena boba."  Well, besides leading me to the business I was searching for, there was another hit for something called the Pasadena Boba Trail.  The Pasadena Boba Trail is a self guided two day tour developed by the city of Pasadena designed to take you to all parts of Pasadena to visit 30 different boba shops.  Now while it is true that Pasadena is geographically part of the San Gabriel Valley, the fact is that when the term San Gabriel Valley is bandied around you think about cities like Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Rosemead, Arcadia, Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights, though Pasadena does have a modest Chinese influence which is on the upswing.   So if a city like Pasadena  is so densely packed with boba shops, boba has gone more widely mainstream than many of us have realized.  And in so doing boba shops have found room to expand by pushing aside mainstream cold refreshment businesses like Pinkberry, Yogurtland and Jamba Juice, whose profiles have greatly diminished (and for that matter, possibly neighborhood bars, too). 

 

Of course this is not the only factor that has propelled boba parlors into a higher gear instead of crashing and burning.  In hindsight, today’s boba parlors aren't the same animals that we started to see in the Chinese American community roughly 25 years ago.  At one time we were thrilled to be able to order a passionfruit green tea with chewy boba balls in them.  But look where we're at now.  While there are still some shops that still offer drinks only, the majority of them offer snacks, if not outright meals, along with their drinks, though that was a trend that started well before the pandemic.  But what the pandemic did seem to do was permit inventive minds stuck at home during the lockdown to put on their thinking caps and come up with an endless variety of flavors, fanciful designs, mediums and add ons, like this taro swirl cheese foam slushie from Bengong Tea in Arcadia, that makes each separate boba parlor a unique adventure.   

And now there’s room for two or three boba shops on every block.