Juice Served Here (JSH) has closed with unexpected finality in Lido Marina Village. And not only is the Newport Beach location shut down, the entire LA-based company, launched in 2012, is done.
“This was been the hardest decision of my life,” wrote Alex Matthews, CEO and co-founder of JSH, in an epistle on the website titled, “An Untimely Goodbye.” The letter continues, “I realize this will come as a shock to many of you, it’s still a shock for me.”
Count us out of that shocked “many” because this news comes as no surprise. JSH hardly saw any action in Newport Beach and the smattering of customers who ambled in usually, within minutes, also ambled out. Juices ranged from $10 to $30 and if the prices weren’t a deterrent, the sparse decor could do the trick. The store always felt a little cold, a little uninviting. Its employees stood by light-wood counters with perpetually bored expressions, their plastered, thin smiles hollow as your stomach after downing $30 worth of runny spinach juice for lunch.
“Can I help you.”
(It wasn’t a question.)
Now, the light-wood counters of JSH are bare, the white walls somehow even emptier.
The design, however clinical, was intentional and even referenced by Matthews in his final farewell; the roots of the company were always in retail, he explained, and emphasis was placed on creating a “chic” experience for the consumer—from the clean font on the bottle to the barely there style of its minimalistic brick-and-mortar spaces.
The business philosophy worked, at least for a few years. At JSH’s apex of success in 2016, the company, operating from a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, had nine retail stores, wholesale accounts in more than half the states in the U.S., 3,000 doors and $10 million in revenue. No small feat for a four-year-old company selling $12 coconut water.
In the end, it wasn’t enough to sustain the brand. Eater Los Angeles reported yesterday every single JSH physical location in L.A. was mysteriously shut down overnight—Pasadena, West Third Street and Culver City—with a typed-up note, font size 65 on each its storefronts: “We regret to inform our valued customers that our doors have permanently closed.”
That same day, the Lido Marina Village JSH followed suit. Though no note was posted, JSH has been scrubbed from the Lido Marina Village store directory. There’s probably a joke here about the juice not being worth the squeeze but we won’t make it.
