Need to Know
04 : 06 : 19

Los Angeles – The restaurant will only stock and serve agave-based spirits made using traditional production methods.

By rejecting industrialised and chemical processes, such as the diffuser process, Gracias Madre hopes to start a conversation about practices in the industry. To this end, its extensive menu of mezcals, bacanoras, raicillas and tequilas are also considered sustainable and traceable.

Signature cocktails include the Rocket Man, made with arugula, gention, fino sherry, lime, mezcal and aquavit, and the Tepache Junglebird, made with tepache, roasted pineapple, Campari, blackstrap molasses and reposado tequila.

‘[We] will no longer serve any products subject to the industrialised and chemical process known as diffuser production or support the distilleries that house these practices,’ says Maxwell Reis, beverage director at Gracias Madre. Bars such as The Hide in London are also reconsidering where its ingredients come from, sourcing locally and using this to start a dialogue with and educate customers.

New York – Dr Barbara Sturm has brought her aesthetic skincare products to Manhattan’s beauty retail market.

The doctor-founded brand, which has been cited as a favourite of celebrities such as Bella Hadid and Gwyneth Paltrow, was previously only available online as well as a selection of high-end retailers such as Net-A-Porter. With the brand’s first store, it hopes to bring elements of play and education to the luxury skincare experience.

The space will stock a range of Sturm’s cult products, including hyaluronic serums, acne solutions and anti-pollution drops, which will be available to test on a Discovery Table in the centre of the store. A miniature version will also allow children to play with the brand’s Baby & Kids collection, while Strum’s eldest daughter can be seen on in-store iPads, demonstrating how to use the products.

Sturm’s debut store comes at a time when the doctor’s surgery and the beauty spa are converging into a hybrid offering for aesthetic medical treatments.

China – Flipchat, or Feiliao in Chinese, brings together instant messenging and community forums based around niche interests.

The app, which was launched by ByteDance, one of the most valuable start-ups in the world and creator of karaoke app TikTok, encourages users to create forums and chat groups centred around their hobbies in order to connect them with strangers.

While Flipchat has been compared to China’s most dominant app WeChat, which recently exceeded 1.1bn monthly active users, it will offer a more niche social experience without the e-commerce, messaging and payment functionalities of WeChat. Flipchat is an open social product, according to a statement given to TechCrunch. ‘We hope Feiliao will connect people of the same interests, making people’s lives more diverse and interesting.’

Increasingly, youths around the world are seeking digital tools that allow them to build a sense of community. Read our Big Idea to see how this movement has led to a boom in Facebook Groups.

While e-commerce continues to grow across the global grocery sector, bricks-and-mortar stores still play a significant role in consumers’ shopping habits. Globally, fresh groceries remain the category most likely to be purchased primarily in-store, with 48% of internet users preferring to buy in-store, according to recent statistics from Nielsen.

In Australia, however, this figure is well above the global average, with 61% preferring to buy fresh groceries in a physical store. Of those surveyed, 23% said that while they are not currently purchasing their groceries online, they are considering doing so in the near future. The role of grocery stores will continue to evolve as this figure rises. For more, read our Prescription Supermarkets microtrend.