Off Campus Observation

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.

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.

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 get to meet a spectrum full of people, from one end to another. I get to witness the most bizarre people, rude people, kind and down-to-earth people, people with disabilities, and many more in the spectrum. I get to hear personal stories and develop relationships with customers. Majority of high school students revolve their lives around quarter grades and romantic conquests. That is the beauty of working in customer service at 17 - that I am demanded to face the world outside. I work with people who live on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis, people who were abused by parents, people who got lost in drugs and pulled their lives back together, people who have their masters, and people of all different religions, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Teenager’s worries are focused around not being able to face the real world once they depart high school, but working at Starbucks has given me that introduction to the outside world.

Coffee brews under a drip of scalding water, beans grind in the gears of a metal mechanism set atop the bar, and the chatter of patrons syncs with the sound of steaming milk in each Starbucks cafe chain. Like most cafes, the aroma of Arabica overwhelms all others, natural light shines in through the windows to touch the wooden tables, and the murmurs of conversations can be heard throughout the edifice. However, whereas the plebeian palate that feigns good taste finds pleasure in drinking coffee in its most basic form so that the true flavors of the drink might be relished, the rising youth of our post-modern society realize that coffee is best prepared when the taste of the bean is overwhelmed by various artificial flavors and sugars—undoubtedly cancerous but utterly unimportant. These developing connoisseurs of high society, with all their charm and intelligence, make it clear that Starbucks is the only cafe from which anyone who is anyone must buy one’s coffee. Starbucks, truly a place for the cultural and coffee elite, consistently attracts three intriguingly eccentric and completely loyal customers of both sharp wit and fine intellect: the female Women’s Studies major, the flagrant homosexual male, and the out-of-place conservative.

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.

Beginning the day with a cup of coffee has become a ritual for many college students. As a college freshmen, I found out that many students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were addicted to Starbucks. Most of them consumed two to three cups of coffee per day and spend an average of $16 - $25 dollars per week in Starbucks. This was at stake because students can be drown into debt because of their overspending in Starbucks. Also, drinking too much coffee can lead to stomach problems and other debilitating illnesses that cloud the mind and make the body sluggish. Therefore, I designed to conduct a research and find out why Starbucks are so attractive that caused students overspend their money. Based on the primary sources I

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.

The store was surrounded by trees out in what I call the “courtyard.” The “courtyard” was the area outside of the Starbucks where the commuters could congregate. The reason I call it the “courtyard” is that it reminded me of the area outside of a prison. It was the area where the prisoners could go outdoors, hang out with their jail mates, smoke a cigarette or two, or just smell the fresh air. It was also the place where the prisoners were able to feel “normal” again. The term normal subsists because after being captivated for an extensive period, the prisoners feel like they have lost some of their human rights. They no longer felt like normal human beings, in which they could do things freely- they are now imprisoned. Unlike a prison courtyard, though, the Starbucks “courtyard” was shaped like a square, containing about six round small tables, and four trees were towering over the tables to help to maintain the shade. There were friends, couples, and business partners all sitting out in the courtyard. It was the area where everyone could slow down, sit down, and feel at peace. The bright green trees

In my first two hours of real-life research, I observed people at the Starbucks located in West Grove, Pennsylvania. I observed a white red-headed girl in Under Amour athletic wear with a petite curvy body type. She appeared to be a student around the ages of thirteen to fourteen. I also observed a white young woman in a black sportswear jacket, leggings, and black Nike sneakers with an athletic body type and of average height. She appeared to be wearing light makeup and to be in the age range of 20-23. She appeared to be of upper-middle class status and was employed at the Starbucks. Another observation included a white blond-haired teenage boy wearing a blue sweater, khaki shorts, and Vans with mild acne. He appeared to have a tall lean body

Starbucks is a very popular (-- removed HTML --) coffee franchise (-- removed HTML --) that came under a bit of scrutiny recently. This scrutiny is due to their policy concerning non-customers requesting to use their rest-rooms. A manager of a Starbucks called the police and requested that two black men be removed from the Starbucks because they were not making an order. This led to an uproar by consumers across the country, and Starbucks taking a second look at their training program. Starbucks decided to improve their training program with an updated look at identifying racial injustice.

Starbucks mission is to "inspire and nurture the human spirit-- one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time.”

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.

Atmosphere: Starbucks’ new design gave people a location to not only go and purchase refreshments but spend time to relax.