Ethnography Of A Coffee House Essay

A coffee shop is a perfect place to study social construction in our society. For one, a plethora of different people go in and out of such shops. And they do so for a variety of reasons. Because of this, coffee shops truly encapsulate America. Our group aimed to capture the workings of society using the four classic anthropological methods. Sikander Chohan, who authored the biological anthropology section, focused on how physical factors of human beings affected the Tim Hortons he studied. Our linguist specialist, Chris Josebalan, focused on how nonverbal communication, vocal vocabulary, and gender speech contrasts were factors in the everyday workings of the Coffee Beanery Café he studied. Our two cultural specialists, Noah Smith and Ashley Hamblin, studied people's reasonings, gender construction, and the effect of groups. Owen Ekblad, our archaeology specialist, studied at two locations of the local coffee shop chain called Sweetwaters. The two locations he visited, in Ann Arbor and Canton, were representative of a wider variety of human influence and behavior. All in all, our group aimed to make observations that would give us an insight into social construction in coffee shops.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a very interesting story that brings up a number of thought-provoking issues in a relatively short format. Among these are questions of race, identity, and stereotyping. The narrator of the story is a young woman named Dina who feels lonely and confused in her new surroundings. As a poor, African American female at Yale (which the narrator portrays as a rich, male, and subtlety racist institution) she has difficulty adapting to the expectations of the university. From the very beginning, her differences set her apart from her classmates, until, from her point of view, she becomes a pariah, invisible and despised by the community. Of course, one must view

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?

Coffee is a beverage that is globally consumed, but also a product that has different values in different parts of the world. The role coffee plays in society differs around the world, from the farmers who grew the crops to the people who constantly consume them. Social theoretical perspectives are capable of showing the different roles coffee has in different societies. Symbolic interactionism, functionalism, and Marxism are three theories which show coffee’s role sociologically. These theories show how coffee affects people physically, how it affects them emotionally, how it leads them to have interactions, how it connects different parts of society, and how it’s economically controlled by a select few.

A commodity is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold. The market treats it as equipment or nearly so with no regard to who produced it. The original producer does not make the “big” money from the good that has become a commodity demanded by consumers. A commodity’s supply and demand is part of one universal market like corn, or wheat. A stereo is something that would not be considered a commodity. Other things are important about a stereo not that it is just a stereo but what brand and quality is in consideration when purchasing a stereo. Demand for one type might be much larger than the demand for another. This is not the case with commodities; they lose differentiation across their supply base. An

In ZZ Packer’s book entitled Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, we get to see how African Americans cope with their different situations dealing with family, friendship, religion, and the pursuit of prosperity in the world. Within the short story collection there is a story named after the title, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, where we get to see the pressures put on a young African American woman, Dina, that causes her to resort to near complete isolation of herself. Dina says at one point, “We spent the winter and some of the spring in my room- never hers- missing tests, listening to music, looking out my window to comment on people who wouldn’t have given us a second thought”(Packer 140). Dina feels the need

When going out to eat, we don’t observe the workers of the restaurant we’re at. We become focused on our friends, our order, and even the people around the restaurant. Sure we talk with the server or smile at an employee when eye contact is made, but we never really observe how the community in the restaurants we go to are like. I want people to be informed that in order for the restaurant to be great, it all starts with its workers. These blue collar workers are the shadows when it comes to restaurant research, however they are more interesting than one would usually think. To allow people to gain more knowledge on this, I decided to do my ethnographic research on the community of restaurant workers, more specifically the community within the restaurant Sweet Tomatoes. I have been part of the community for almost three years and have been able to interact with all kinds of people that have worked there. I want people to know what goes on behind the kitchen doors and understand how the workers interact when the environment becomes stressful or relaxed, so they understand how the setting influences the employees.

Over the past few years, commercial spaces have become areas for multifunction activities. Along with the availability of gourmet coffee, food, ample seating, and free WIFI bookstore cafes have welcomed a clientele that blends leisure, social and work related activities. In this context, a local popular Barnes and Noble bookstore cafe served as the perfect environment to perform a field observation for this assignment and to explore customer behaviors and reasons for patronizing this particular establishment.

bang. The first song that Azure, the women’s jazz and pop a cappella group, performed was the popular tune Tainted Love. Even though they've performed this song at multiple other concerts, this rendition was no disappointment. Azure also sang The Sound of Silence, another hit that they've sang at previous concerts. After these two selections, they performed two Christmas carols. It was obvious that these were far less prepared than the other two pieces. There were numerous minor issues in both songs, but thankfully neither song had a ‘crash a burn’ moment.

*These four old guys (definitely into their late sixties, early seventies) sell cars at one of the dealerships on the boulevard. I would bet fifty dollars that they all work for Cadillac. They come in once a week, on Friday afternoons. They love me. They like to give me a hard time, ask why I don’t love them anymore, when I’m going to run away with them, etc, etc. They are caricatures of car salesmen but are obviously unaware of this. They hold court in Eat Well like it’s 1965 at the Sands, talking in loud voices and telling stories about one another to each other. (“This guy here, one time he says to me, ‘Paulie’…”)

I have chosen Dunkin Donuts for my Ethnography of a Coffee House report. Opened in 1948 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, Mr. Rosenberg named his restaurant “Open Kettle” which at that time served only donuts and coffee. Two years later in 1950, Mr. Rosenberg renamed his restaurant “Dunkin Donuts.” Mr. Rosenberg’s goal was “make and serve the freshest, most delicious coffee and donuts quickly and courteously in modern, well-merchandised stores,” a philosophy which still holds true today (News Dunkin Donuts).

Imaging if there was no more coffee in this world, how would you feel? Nowadays, coffee becomes an important part of people’s life. People who often work overtime, they drink coffee because caffeine can make you awake; people who have to wake up early in the morning, they drink coffee because instead of making breakfast, coffee is more convenient; people drink coffee during the free time, because it also tastes good.

This particular field site attracted me thanks to its nature: a local and philanthropic coffee shop that has a mission to sell great, locally organised coffee while giving back to the community that raised it up. I thoroughly support and encourage businesses, especially small ones, that want to make a difference when they can in the community – whether it be a retail store, restaurant, or café. My purpose of studying this café will be to not only understand what Avenue Coffee is, its origins, and how it conducts its business, but the actual investigation of how this socially constructed meeting place originated and the act of drinking coffee and socialising developed as a particular place – or rather, how it became “a thing to do”. I will observe the demographics of this particular café’s customers, to see what drives them to visit such a location – such as its appeal – and how drinking a coffee and utilising this location fits in society.

I can always look forward to starting my day off, with a steaming cup of coffee, I love that even if it 's a cold, dark, and gloomy day outside, a big cup of coffee can get me through the day. I could go on and on about my appreciation and fondness over the drink itself, but I won’t. However, I would like to share with you a remarkable phenomenon that I’ve come to notice, it is other people sharing this experience, this love for coffee, and they do it all across the globe in shops known as “cafes,” or “coffee shops.” And this is exactly what Howard Schultz (The CEO

The Coffee Clubs first cafe opened in 1989, since then more and more stores have been opened worldwide. The Coffee Club has two different styles of stores those being either a small cafe or a restaurant. There are many stores scattered around New Zealand from Otago to Auckland with 55 outlets being in New Zealand and 350 plus worldwide.(Franchise New Zealand Limited, 2015) As an organisation their vision is to be a global leader in retail food, coffee and franchising. This means they want to lead by example to other companies in the same industry. Their mission is to provide good food, great service and excellent coffee and a welcoming meeting place with an inspiring contemporary lifestyle to its