Dunkin Donuts Ethnography

As a district manager, many responsibilities come with the job. District management is responsible for virtually all the operations in the company with respect to the business goals that have been set out in the company plan. This is especially the case when the district assigned is a group of new area start-ups. District managers are responsible for the allocation of resources, hiring, training and managing teams. The roles of a district manager starting new Dunkin’ Donuts locations are no different yet they include the responsibility for a smooth start. These added responsibilities include job design,

After purchasing a drink I settled down to the left of the shop just by the window from this location, I observed several rituals through watching interactions and general behavior. My vantage point of view proved useful in the first trip so it was used for observation in subsequent visits as well. I also obtained information by interviewing an informant. The informant is an employee at the coffee shop: a barista who works mainly in the morning shift. The barista has been an employee at this particular Starbucks for three months. According to the informant, having been on duty during the early morning rush has provided sufficient material, which they have used to observe customer behavior, maybe for business strategy.

For my ethnography project, I decided to observe the Starbucks on Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio. My plan was to observe the subculture of Starbucks’ customers. A subculture is defined as a “structured social inequality or, more specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships.” My question was twofold. Does Starbucks appeal to certain social statuses? And if so, does Starbucks serve as another example of social inequality?

Frist, as the most popular coffee shop in Toronto, people who want to buy drinks in Tim Horton’s have a long line. Since I went to one of the Tim Horton’s which located nearby the St. George Station, people always enter in the shop in a group. However, different types of people perfer to order different kinds of drinks. Moreover, there is a phenomemon that workers frequent the café, and mothers with babies occupy approximately 20% of the whole consumers.

I set out to find a place to begin my observations, not knowing what to fully expect, what I may find. So I decided to look around at what is close to my home that isn’t a place I frequent or have even visited at all. Then it came to me, the Starbucks that is only about a mile away is a perfect place for me to observe subjects that I would consider different from myself, seeing as how I consider such obscene prices for coffee ridiculous. Starbucks is a very popular chain of coffee vendors that describe their product as more about quality than what Americans are used to in typical coffee joints.

I chose to do the Starbucks Ethnography over all of the other options because Starbucks currently plays a large role in the social behaviors of today’s society. It has grown significantly from when it was first founded and is currently dominating the coffee market worldwide. Starbucks has become a social and cultural phenomenon because, “...it is at once a globalized consumer institution and a local place in which the mundane daily activities of sipping coffee, writing in journals, and conversing with friends are practiced” (Dickinson 7). Since I am in the age group that Starbucks is particularly trendy with (young adults), I already have some expectations for what the results of the ethnography will be. I have also lived in Orange County for my entire life, so I had some context as to which race would be more prevalent to the Starbucks I had gone to. I wish to explore the symbolic anthropology, which, “...focuses on understanding cultures by discovering and analyzing the symbols that are most important to their members” (Nanda 35). Understanding the symbolism behind coffee and Starbucks is important since it has multiple meanings and has become deeply ingrained within our culture.

Ann Hood’s article titled Street Scenes is about her drive home to her childhood house in West Warwick RI, to visit her mother. What’s significant about this drive home is that she sees things from her past that bring her back to important memories she has kept as she’s grown older. One place that was particularly important to Hood was West Warwick’s own Dunkin Donuts coffee shop. Hood makes it evident that the Dunkin Donuts is meaningful to her by saying, “My mother would take me at three in the morning for coffee and a plain cruller when I was in high school and suffered insomnia”(Hood 239). This is a touching memory from Hood’s past that displays the love and care she

I gathered my information from Dunkin’ Donuts shop on the Third Avenue. Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the largest coffee shop chains in the world. I chose this because it is close to our house. When I first walked into the shop, I heard Chainsmokers’ Closer song. It was also a quiet place sometimes where you could just sit and relax. It is a small place with limited seats. There were only three small tables and a long table. The place is air-conditioned, so it is cold. There is also free Wi-Fi, so the customers will not get bored while they are waiting in line or drinking their coffee. There is also a Baskin-Robbins inside the store, so it is not only a coffee shop but also an ice cream shop. I wanted to interview one of the staff, but they were busy. I ended up interviewing an old woman because she was sitting with me since there were limited seats. She is 71 years old and originally from Mexico. She was 23 years old when she moved here. She is married to a Mexican too and they had three children.

Dunkin’ Donuts has over six-thousand locations in the United States and serves over three and a half million customers daily. The biggest competitor for Dunkin’ Donuts are Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Starbucks, and McDonalds. In order to maintain market competitiveness Dunkin’ Donuts must remain driven towards service excellence. This starts by hiring staff members that are eager to provide the best customer service with every interaction they have and be able to produce an excellent product. “Dunkin’ Brand offers a comprehensive series of award-winning training programs for crew members, managers and franchises designed to foster deep connections to our brands’ heritage and improve the guest experience and business results at the restaurant level.” (Schmidt,R.A & Oldfield, B.M. 1999) Bill Rosenberg the founder of Dunkin’ Donuts operates by a simple philosophy but one that is carried through each store. “Make and serve the freshest, most delicious coffee and donuts quickly and courteously in modern well-merchandised stores” (Dunkin Donuts, n.d., pp. 1) Being a new district manager tasked with opening five new locations will help fulfill Rosenberg’s vision of providing the best product around in a courteous environment both for staff and customers. This paper will focus on job design, organizational design, recruiting and selecting, training personnel and performance appraisal are key elements in the success of opening five new locations.

Research showed that 54% of the Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee everyday and 62% of the regular coffee was purchased from a coffee shop, rather than homemade. For corporation coffee house chain, Dunkin’ Donuts is developing very well in home base country and has its chains everywhere including Asia. That is why it is chosen to study within this industry for its financial performance.

Dunkin’ Donuts was established by Bill Rosenberg in 1950 in Quincy, MA. Dunkin’ Donuts started license franchises in 1955. It is the world’s leading baked goods and coffee chains serving more than 3 million customers per day. Dunkin’ Donut sells 52 varieties of donuts and more than a dozen coffee beverages as well as an array of bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and baked goods. At the end of 2010, there were 9,760 franchises all over the

Socio-Cultural- Due to the numerous cultures present in Dunkin' Donuts' target market, the company as a whole must be in continuous change in order to keep up with its consumers. Dunkin Donuts must keep in mind the age, income, occupation, and most importantly the lifestyles of their customers if they wish to succeed in such a competitive market. As an answer to this problem, the company has implemented several changes aimed at keeping and attracting a new customer base. Many restaurants are looking towards centralized kitchens to maximize space and reduce costs, consequently cutting product costs, thus saving the customer money. The

Dunkin’ Donuts are famous for their many varieties of doughnuts and their wide range of bakery products - muffins, bagels and munchkins® donut hole treats. Their products are represented by more than 6,590 worldwide points of distribution, including approximately 4,815 units in the United States alone.

Founded first as a restaurant called Open Kettle, it was later renamed to Dunkin Donuts in 1950 by William Rosenberg and Stephen So in Quincy, Massachusetts. Dunkin Donuts has become most famous for its donuts over the years, as well as their coffee. They have approximately 3,000 restaurants in the US and around the world, and sell 2.5 million donuts every day. Dunkin Donuts has evolved into one of Forbes magazine “Top 10 Global Fast-Food Chains”, and tops the lists of other noted industry websites and magazines. Recently, Dunkin Donuts has changed the way they want customers to think about them by incorporating the tag line “America Runs On Dunkin”, and adding new menu items, to their marketing

In general the coffeehouse industry in the United States was experiencing an increase in coffee consumption per capita due to the “Starbucks effect”. At this time Starbucks was operating approximately 20,000 stores in the United States and was living a fast expansion strategy worldwide.