Bitcoin News Australia

Everyone’s tired these days.

One in three adults don’t get enough sleep, and 50m-70m Americans have chronic sleep disorders.

And it’s fueling a thriving sleep tourism industry, which is expected to grow by ~8% — more than $400B — between 2023 and 2028.

Now, the hospitality industry is embracing sleep as the main event for tourists rather than an afterthought, per The New York Times.

• The Carillon Miami Wellness Resort has a Bryte bed — a ~$6.3k AI-assisted mattress with smartphone connectivity — in each of its 150 rooms.
• The Beatrice in Rhode Island offers a Sleep Wellness package starting at $419 a night that includes Therabody SmartGoggles, mocktails, and herbal teas.
• The Park Hyatt New York has five sleep suites with Bryte beds, starting at $1k+ a night.

Hotels catering to better sleep isn’t new — the Westin introduced the Heavenly Bed in 1999, and blackout curtains and white noise machines have become hotel staples — but it’s reaching new heights.

Next-level sleep

Today’s sleep tourism industry isn’t just a couple of extra gadgets, it’s a whole new way to travel.

Hotels are offering retreats and experiences dedicated to sleep:

• The Carillon has a five-treatment spa circuit promoting good sleep and a ~$2.6k Sleep Well retreat.
• Canyon Ranch offers a five-night Mastering Sleep Retreat with doctors, dieticians, and spiritual providers; this year’s is $8.8k per person.
• Cocooning lets travelers tuck away into dark rooms void of screens or distractions. London’s Beaumont hotel offers ROOM, a $1.78k-per-night suite promising total relaxation.

Some hotel brands are even employing sleep experts to help guests snooze. The Mandarin Oriental is partnering with hypnotherapist and sleep concierge Malminder Gill, and Hyatt launched a Sleep at Hyatt program in Australia and New Zealand with its sleep ambassador Nancy H. Rothstein.

The trend isn’t surprising given recent data — more people than ever are looking for R & R and “slow” travel.

Finally, a vacation where you don’t come home in need of another vacation.

You’re in a convenience store on a hot summer day when you see the glass doors that offer your salvation: a massive walk-in cooler.

Once you step in, you see it’s loaded up with ice-cold beer for sale. Nice.

If this feels familiar, you’ve been in a beer cave. There are 30k-40k of them in the US today, representing ~20% of convenience stores.

Should there be more caves?

It’s a challenging time for selling cold ones. Back in 2000, beer sales were ~2x greater than spirits; now, spirits have outsold beer for a second straight year.

• It’ll likely get harder, too: The majority of Gen Z consumers prefer gin and vodka over beer and wine.

That makes investing in beer caves a tough call for retailers, especially since smaller 8-by-8-foot caves can cost ~$15k and bigger 20-by-20-foot models can run ~$75k, per CStore Decisions.

Whether it’s a worthwhile investment is pondered in the newly published State of Beer Caves report from iSee Store Innovations.

The answer, from a company that offers storage and display solutions for grocers, is unsurprisingly yes.

But their logic is compelling…

According to the report, stores with beer caves see, on average, 35% more foot traffic, with the average shopper spending $6 more per visit.

• It also drives impulse purchases and experimentation — Would you rather try one 28-degree can of a new beer, or a gamble on a room-temp case of it?

There are challenges besides cost, like keeping the space navigable, which can require staff attention. Consumers’ biggest complaints involve excess inventory blocking doors, cluttered spaces, and difficulty finding items.

• Also: Female shoppers tend to avoid them because, well, they’re confined, poorly lit public spaces where it’s easy to feel trapped and this is an imperfect world.

BTW: The beer cave report didn’t have anything about people sneaking into them to lower their core temperature, so you should be good to keep that up this summer.

25%+: Increase in soup and stew orders in Q4 2023, per data from Toast. Apparently, cold weather at the end of the year saw customers craving warm, savory comfort foods, with a 13% bump in ramen/noodle orders and a 12% jump in curry orders. During that same period, customers ordered fewer salads, hot dogs, and tacos. That may not be surprising, but the year-round champs are apparently desserts and enchiladas, which saw no change.

$167k: The salary you’d make if you were Steamboat Springs, Colorado’s head of human resources. Before you go filling out an application, however, know that the town has struggled to fill this position after not one, but two candidates were unable to find affordable housing, even with a six-figure income. Costs have skyrocketed due in part to remote workers leaving cities and settling in ski towns like Steamboat Springs. It’s gotten so bad that one resort is housing employees in a hotel.

$25k: Auction price for Mr. Darcy’s shirt from the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Actor Colin Firth wore the shirt during an apparently very memorable scene in which his character takes a swim, then runs into his love interest in his still-damp linen shirt. The auction lot, which included Darcy’s boots, pants, and waistcoat, fetched far more than its $12.7k presale estimate.

29: How many of the top 10 films of each year from 2018 to 2023 had either a colon, numeral, or number in the title, indicating a sequel. That’s nearly half of the biggest blockbusters from the last five years, and significantly more than the top 10 films of each year from 1995 and 2000, which included seven such titles. This year’s shaping up to be nothing new, with titles like Dune 2, Deadpool 3, Inside Out 2, and A Quiet Place: Day One on the calendar.