Tough Times for Juice?
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The last few weeks have seen two Downtown juice / smoothie shops close up, which makes it tempting to say this must be an ebb in the smoothie craze as everyone switches to frozen yogurt. Juice It Up! on 6th closed over the weekend, and Raspado Xpress on Spring has been dark for a couple weeks now. Bucking the trend is Robeks, now with seven Downtown locations according to their website, with one more on the way.
Even more tempting is the desire to look at any closure as a failure of Downtown's retail scene. The bottom line is that there are always going to be shops that close (particularly restaurants), and usually there are new places coming in right behind them. While the oft-quoted statistic that 90% of new restaurants fail may be a myth, the more accurate number is still around 60%. No matter how successful the market, there's still bound to be turnover.
Comments
wow, I didn't realize the juice it up had closed. Last I heard they had lines out the door during the lunch hour.
That's the thing. They do great business for lunch but then close up shop in the evenings and weekends. Besides, there are way too many juice places Downtown at the moment. Supply and demand?
I work across the street and I never see a line at any time of day, I do see the workers smoking on the patio or smoking on the phone.
I've been twice both prior to Robeks opening down the street and everytime it was something, out of this or that etc.
I hope something cool goes in.
With a name like Raspado Xpress and an aesthetic more suited to a copy shop, it's no wonder they went out of business.
i always wondered how all these juice places survived. i could totally see Pinkberry taking that space in the Library Court.
Juice It Up seemed pricey and not that great, but maybe that's just me. I'm amazed that there's (still!) no Jamba downtown.
I live at Library Court and Juice it Up did always seem slow or empty. I bet another coffee shop would do well here, since Starbucks at Grand and Sixth is the place with the line out the door every morning. But we need something that's open longer hours and on the weekends!
That location is just bad due to the very busy bus stop right out the door, you cant really enjoy eating on the patio due to the noise and bus fumes, or when I have eaten inside at the Japanese restaurant they have the AC off and the doors wide open so it just makes no sense to try to eat at these places.




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