HONG KONG -- Jessica Kong has kept her Hong Kong bubble tea shop afloat through two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but painful restrictions to battle the city's worst outbreak have finally dealt her business a fatal blow.
Sales at Kong's soon-to-be-closed RoyalTea plunged by half, as soaring prices for milk -- a key ingredient in the popular drink -- and some of the world's highest commercial rent prices forced her to concede defeat.