going for coffee seems to be the daily social excursion of choice...

"Think of Starbucks as a replacement for tobacco. Starting at about age 5 kids used to know what brand they would smoke. Smoking was a public act that delivered identity, not only in the brand, size, but also how you smoked. Now that smoking is no longer
an effective instrument of identity, what are people to do. They carry and sip or suck coffee drinks. Or they carry and sip or suck water bottles. The need for easy instruments of identity is not new and probably has not grown from transition to the Information age. Super selection has always been appealing but was rare before technology enabled distribution and media the dissemination of choice. There are signs that new identity instruments are on the horizon as people become overwhelmed or bored by “infinite” choice. Those signs are visible in the downsizing of stores, simplification of health care e.g. nurse practitioner, small town revivals, retro movements, and ominously, the growing appeal of fundamentalism."