Observation Of Observation At Starbucks

In our society, we can see many different kinds of social setting and one of the most common settings is coffee shop. Indeed, there is at least one coffee shop on each block. According to Coffee Association of Canada, the market size of coffee industry in Canada is more than 6.2 billion dollars. It shows that how big and important this social setting is. Among a lot of coffee shops, Starbucks, Tim Horton, and Second Cup are the biggest and the most popular franchisers in Canada. If the purpose of visiting coffee shop is only for coffee itself, they might have not been grown like these days.

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.

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?

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 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.

Starbucks with its inspired high selling coffee bean has been very popular in the American Culture over the years. I decided to observe Starbucks due to its popularity all over campus, although it has not been a fan of mine. I found it very pleasant and relaxing during my time there. I noticed more intimate interactions between workers when there were little or no customers and fewer interactions between workers when the place was crowded.

Patrons like myself stood in line scanning the café for empty tables and available seats. The arrangement of the tables in this area allowed for more seating flexibility and appeared to lower social boundaries between customers while encouraging interaction between members of cliques and individual patrons. Armed with my laptop and cappuccino, my observations occurred from an empty table in the center of the café.

As a student at Pace University “The Pace Perk Café” is very widely known to all students, faculty and staff as the first student-run business on campus. All members of Pace University affectionately refer to it as “The Perk”. I have previously visited this café several times for a late-night snack. For the purpose of this unit assignment I got the opportunity to research the “The Perk” as a discourse community where students get together every night for a time of fun and frolic and to satisfy their late-night cravings. I chose this community because I found the fact that the members of this community are my peers and both employees and customers are a group of diverse students united by food and friends very appealing.

I found myself at a local Tim Horton’s I observed many people walking in and out with their coffees as I sat down and got myself situated. Quite a few people were busy trying to get their coffee and run; although there were a number of people who chose to sit down and chat with people. I observed the long line of people and as the line would dwindle down eventually more people would come in from outside to replace those that left. I noticed on 3 occasions where 2 people would head to the undirected waiting line and one person would eventually ask the other

My informant explained an observation she had made about the flow of the customers in the coffee house. Due to the location, the flow of customers corresponds to the arrival of public transportation, trains and buses. When a train arrives and customers get off the train, many wait to transfer to a bus close to the entrance of the coffee house. During that time, there is usually an influx of customers in the restaurant. Sometimes the line to order extends to the entrance door, during this time the customers wait time to receive their order is much longer than the wait to place an order. My informant explained that the extended wait time for an order was due to a limited number of staff working in the kitchen.

The organization that I observed was Equator Coffee & Teas, which is located inside the Martin Luther King Student Union Building of the University of California, Berkeley campus. The observation took place on Monday, March 28, 2016 from 11:18 a.m. to 12:48 p.m. The position that I observed was the cashier. In the first half of my observation, there were constant flows of customers coming in and out (over 10 people in line at a time). However, the line progressively slowed down as lunch time started to occur. As a result, there were no more than 6 people at the line and there would be brief instances where there would be no people in line. There was only one cashier and two espresso makers that were working at the back counter. The two espresso

Starbucks positions itself as a place college students can hang out, study, write term papers and meet people. A Starbucks appeal to this consumer directly through introducing technology as soon as it comes available, focusing on social networking and actively cultivating a “cool” image. The young adult audience grows 4.6 percent each year (O’ Farrell).” However, the majority of the advertising is catered to Adults around the ages of 25 to 40. Adults seem to prefer a pick me up first thing in the morning on their way to work. Most Starbucks today have a drive thru to make it faster to grab and go.

In order to implement this plan of the customer grinding its own coffee beans, the whole Starbucks store operations must be modified. Currently, the retail stores has space where the partners (employees) work and serve customers, the "back" where the backroom and bathrooms are, and the café section where customers sit down and enjoy their drinks. Behind the counter, the floor is divided by the register, beverage station, digital brewer, and the pastry case. The register is the point of

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.