Cafeterias instagramáveis em São Paulo: cultura do consumo na relação físico-digital dos pontos de venda com os consumidores

Abstract

This research investigates the ways through which the consumption of "Instagrammable" coffee shops in São Paulo is constituted and communicated. Coffee, a traditional staple food and a central element of national culture, has undergone many transformations in Brazilian society since it was introduced in the country. Operating as a symbol and agent of economic strength and physical energy, coffee enters the 21st century aligned with the drivers of contemporary consumption. The frequent use of digital social networks, powered by smartphones, has profoundly altered the relationship between consumers and brands, boosting the connection between physical points of sale and digital environments. In the context of the act of drinking coffee, one can observe the proliferation of establishments that promote an "Instagrammable" experience, where the construction of identities materializes through the display of elements of consumption on digital platforms. This shift warrants the need to understand how physical and virtual spaces relate to each other in the production of meaning in this type of consumption. The growing number of similar establishments is noteworthy and visiting them is becoming a habit for residents of São Paulo. The term "Instagrammable" resonates within common sense but lacks a clear definition. These points underscore the importance and usefulness of this research, whose problem is to define what characterizes an Instagrammable coffee shop and to describe how such modes of operation circumscribe part of the current consumer culture. The theoretical and methodological foundation is based on discursive semiotics, developed by Algirdas Julien Greimas, and chiefly on the concepts of figurativity and thematization, along with semiotic studies on consumption and consumers by Jean-Marie Floch, and extend to the sociosemiotics of Eric Landowski, particularly regarding the issues related to identity regimes, forms of taste, and regimes of meaning and interaction. The corpus comprises the main coffee shops selected from the hashtag #caféinstagramável [#instagrammablecafe] on the Instagram social media platform, with a large number of followers, namely: Café Cherie, Coffee Lab, Café das Coisinhas, and Gato Griô. For each one, a semiotic analysis of their physical installations and posts on Instagram is carried out. The research findings show that Instagrammable coffee shops incorporate the characteristics of an identity construction based on themes to which their users adhere through identification, employ unique modes of audiovisual expression, and make physical and digital spaces bilateral extensions. Contemporary coffee consumption constitutes a complex semiotic practice that transcends the beverage and its flavor, articulating spatial experience, digital performance, and identity construction through the convergence of physical materiality and the virtuality of digital social networks, thus consolidating its meaning as an intrinsic part of national culture and its transformative movements. Consequently, this research affords insights for scholars of consumption, retail, and communicative and cultural practices