Premium health drinks are becoming a growing trend in a nation plagued with health crisis like obesity — where one in every three American adult is clinically obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many niche drink stores are now incorporating juicing as a premium health product on their menus.
Opened only recently in 2012, Juicy Cube may unknowingly be in the right place and the right time of this juicing trend. Located on the corner of 56th and Lexington Avenue, Juicy Cube is one such niche drink store uniquely nestled among upscale chain stores like Bloomingdale on one side, and large financial institutions like the Citigroup Center on the other side.
Wandering along that part of Lexington Avenue, it is not hard to spot the double decker buses that indicate a healthy tourist base and the high end clientele that frequent the neighborhood for fast food and drinks on the go. These are also the clientele that are vital to the livelihood of Juicy Cube according to the owner, Jing Chen Wang.
At nearly $5 to $7 for a premium juice drink, customers aren’t focusing on the sticker price. They want a quality juice drink conveniently and quickly. “I like idea of juicing, and being healthy, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money for a juicer, so I come here every now and then,” Sam Liang said in a hurry during her lunch break. Juicy Cube also offers delivery with a minimum order of $15 — just for their drinks.
Juicy Cube’s business is dependent on customers like Liang who like the idea of juicing, but cannot easily afford access or necessarily deal with the hassle of making her own. Therefore, many people who frequent the store are willing to pay top dollars for a premium juiced drink. Along with their juice drinks, Juicy Cube also sells snacks and other food catering to the health product market: dried kale leaves, 65 cent bananas and “young” whole coconuts, husk and all.
Shipped as a product of Thailand, Wang comments that “you won’t find a whole coconut for sale like this anywhere else except maybe the Chinese supermarkets downtown.” Indeed, there is a drink made from the ground up meat and juice of a whole coconut that is mixed with kale and banana; it costs $7.25.
Visiting student Gary Ye who has experience with drinking coconut milk, whole, knows that “young coconuts are really tough to hack open,” and did not mind paying for the convenience.
These little oddities are what differentiate Juicy Cube from other competitors nearby like Starbucks and your local TGI Fridays. Other similarly modeled businesses like Jamba juice also do not carry some of the more exotic ingredients like actual coconuts; they often substitute real coconut meat and milk with dried coconut flakes.
Despite all the eating and drinking establishments that are nearby, Juicy Cube doesn’t feel a lot of pressure from them. Part of the reason lie in the fact that Juicy Cube’s niche market will rarely overlap with the other drink markets immediately nearby. All the establishments nearby cater primarily coffee and alcoholic beverages.
Many customers who may want to seek another source of bubble tea or juiced drink have to venture several blocks away to competitors like: Elixir Juice Bar, Earth Health Bar or CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice.
Nevertheless, reviews on Yelp.com place Juicy Cube in first place at 42 reviews with an average rating of three and a half out of five. Their competitors like Elixir Juice Bar have only three; Earth Health Bar has only nine. CoCo has 156 reviews; however, it does not feature any juicing in what it sells. It caters primarily to people who drink bubble tea; therefore Juicy Cube is the de facto leader of the juicing trend in that neighborhood.
Aside from the local clientele, Wang also points to some of the tourists — who are easily spotted with their DSLR cameras — that contribute to his profit margin. He further commented that some foreigners are so baffled at the idea of mixing together celery, kale, lemon with fruits that they order a drink just to try it out.
Wang would not disclose any figures, but he mentioned that Juicy Cube was doing pretty good considering the drinks sold and where they were selling them.