New Business Update

Two new businesses are bringing tea and Ts to downtown shoppers.

At 15 S. 9th St., Diane Meredith and David Sauter have opened Acme Tees, where customers can make have T-shirts custom designed or select from the shirts the staff already has designed. Sauter and Meredith are translating the concept from another store they own in Manhattan, Kan., called Thread.

Hope Liu and Jacquelyn Kuo plan to open Columbia’s second franchise of California-based chain Lollicup location in early June. Lollicup features tea with boba, a round ball of starch made from the cassava root. The restaurant’s other location is in the Columbia Mall. Liu and Kuo each earned a master’s degree in business administration from William Woods University in Fulton and worked in their native Taiwan for several years before returning to Columbia in 2006. Liu said the 9th Street spot is ideal because many of the shop’s target customers are college students.