Signals

New York – The brand’s latest, 23,000-square-feet roastery in New York’s Meatpacking district boasts an aperitivo bar serving unique coffee and tea cocktails.

The location is the fourth Starbucks Reserve Roastery, but is the first in the US to feature its Arriviamo Bar, featuring a menu of specialist cocktails created by mixologist Julia Momose. Drinks include the Nocino Notte, made with cold brew coffee, barrel-aged gin and black truffle salt, and the Triomphe, which combines Darjeeling tea, gin, dry Riesling, passionfruit sparkling water and orange saffron bitters.

Starbucks’ elevated alcohol offering, which sits alongside two craft coffee bars and an outpost of Milanese bakery Princi, reflects a growing trend for premium, experience-driven spaces from fast food and drink chains. The introduction of the Arriviamo Bar also builds on Starbucks’ previous efforts to expand into the evening category – something we explore in our High-low Dining microtrend.

San Francisco – The new app has been created to connect people with opposing opinions, encouraging healthy debate on a range of topical issues.

Polarize is a response to the online echo chambers and ever-growing gap between social media users with different points of view. The chat application will present one topic a day, from headline news to public discussions on gun control, immigration and the legalisation of marijuana. After choosing one side of a debate, users will be connected to someone who disagrees with them.

Co-founder Morten Halvorsen says: ‘Social media has become highly curated. You’re served things you like and agree with from friends you [also] like and agree with. If we want the world to be less polarised, we need healthy conversations between people with different mindsets.’

As public awareness of algorithmic bias and filtering grows – particularly in the news sphere – peer-to-peer platforms like QallOut and Polarize are helping people break free of filter bubbles.

Young American adults are spending less time consuming media than Generation X, making the stereotype of the phone-addicted Millennial defunct, according to a new report by Nielsen.

The company’s Total Audience Report Q2 2018 reports that, as well as having the smallest media diet of any generation, 18–34-year-olds spend on average 20 minutes less on their smartphone each day than 35–49-year-olds, who are the heaviest phone users. In total, the average adult spends 10 hours 24 minutes consuming media each day – 33 minutes fewer than in the first quarter of 2018.

Although stereotyped as smartphone addicts, younger generations are beginning to shun their digital devices. In our new youth macrotrend Anxiety Rebellion, we introduce the concept of the Internet Diet, and how it may gain popularity among young adults in the coming years.