Public Place Observation: Inside McDonald's

The venue was filled with both young and old, men and women, married and single persons and families. Though all kinds of groups of people were present, there was a greater number of younger people present and more women than men. Customers tended to shop in pairs whether they were with their friends, significant others, parents or children. Nevertheless, there was a significant presence of single shoppers. These single shoppers often appeared as if they had just come back from work with women tending to wear business casual outfits and men wearing clothes suggesting manual labor such as construction work. Though, coming back from a job consisting of manual labor, implies that this person is unkempt, it was quite the opposite. Regardless of the manual labor, these individuals were both clean and groomed. Other consumers wore casual, relaxed clothing such as t-shirts and jeans or leggings. Each consumer dressed in a presentable manner. Dressing in a presentable manner did not only apply to the consumers, but to the vendors as well. The vendors, which consisted of more young and male workers, dressed in a work specific uniform which consisted of a red top with a name tag and black pants accompanying their maintained

Nothing particular stuck out at me at first, I gazed around, from table to table, and only noticed the general routines you would expect to find at any mall food court. Employee’s meeting on their lunch breaks, stay at home mom’s getting a quick bite at chik-fil-a as they drag their children along to the next errand, and the elderly in no hurry to get anywhere specific. It was the same mundane routine through the course of the first hour, it

When it comes to dining-in at a restaurant we all want the best service that we can get. When I think of “the best service” I think about the cleanliness, nice waitresses, good food, and affordable prices. There are so many different options when a family thinks about going out to eat, especially if they have small children. It’s often hard to go to a nice dine-in restaurant because sometimes it’s hard to find something on the menu for everyone in the family. I have experienced many things at two completely different restaurants. I can say Demos’ is better than Logan’s because the food and service is much better.

The Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In was a civil rights event that occurred in 1960. Young African-American college students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They refused to leave the diner after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. Many protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct, or disturbing the peace. The actions of a few made an immediate and long lasting impact which forced Woolworth’s and other businesses to change policies of segregation.

It's Saturday on September 17, 2016, I have arrived early start at 2:25pm in Spanish Meadows Nursing Home into saw teacher with students. For assisted dining room will put on the table for gift prizes about the separate table is left a gift for women, middle a special gift for people, and right a gift for men. It's was on Thursday in class will give a bags and tissue only has pink and blue have two things and I'll buy four more gift bags & tissue paper from dollar general. Only six gifts for three division of woman and man is the color of pink, purple, and blues. I will buy for prizes anything in Dollar Store for man and woman needs; washcloths, deodorants for speed stick and secret, body wash with shower gel, bath sponges. The total is a store

“Hey, you cannot greet me. I am a potential customer. Without me, you cannot bring foods on your table”

Our prime example of such a clerk was the girl behind the counter at the café outside Gate Two, where delectable Double Decker Ice Cream Cones were sold every afternoon. […] ‘Whaddayawant?’ she snarled out of the edges of her mouth to the people ahead of us who naturally wanted Double Decker Ice Cream Cones too. ‘Shut up and wait your turn. I’ll get to you when I’m good and ready!’ (Bowman Reid, 68)

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.

As I sat alone at my small table for two, I looked at my watch and noted the time of 12:10pm. As I glanced at the menu I slowly began scanning the dining area. As I suspected the lunch crowd was pretty full and I counted 36 customers in the dining area. My waiter arrived at my table and introduced himself. His name was Tony, although I am sure his full name was Anthony. He was average height, slim build, olive complexion, and dark hair. He was very polite and asked if I would like a drink before ordering and after my response he turned and retrieved my beverage. When he returned he asked if I need a few minutes to look over the menu and I responded that I did. Before leaving, he proceeded to tell me the lunch specials for the day and even made a recommendation. I thanked him as he turned and walked away.

This experiment observed students and their activities in a food court. During the observations there were many groups of students not eating lunch just sitting around and talking. Several students were studying or engaging in other activities on their laptops mainly Youtube (the video sharing platform). One group stayed there for the duration of the observations discussing back and forth about their day. Many students would enter the food court, pick up food, and then proceed to sit down. Upon sitting down am majority of the students would pull out some form of entertainment such as a book, their ot cell phone, and engage with it. This engagement, a statistically significant number of times, would detract from the main purpose of the area

George Ritzer, in his book The McDonaldization of Society, has given a good understanding of the kind of world we live in. He describes the concept of McDonaldization, which is the process in which the principles that form the basis of McDonalds are greatly influencing the rest of society. McDonalds runs its business on the following key elements: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control by non-human technologies. A fifth element, which Ritzer perceives as a disadvantage of McDonaldization, is the irrationality of rationality. This is the idea that a society which is based entirely on rationality is not a normal human society because humans are not

Grocery shopping can be a very interesting experience. It seems like nothing more than a quick and easy chore at first. You go in, throw whatever you want into your cart, pay and then get out. Its almost relaxing, that is if the grocery store is completely empty. Unfortunately, there are always those other shoppers. The ones who think they own the place or something. They’re in just about every grocery store in America. You know who I’m talking about, that one parent- usually a mom- with a kid who just so happens to be screaming bloody murder. Also, everyone knows a bad cart driver when they see one, not to mention the label readers. And finally, probably the

I decided to conduct my field observation in the great state of Louisiana. I had a business trip to the party capital of the world, New Orleans. The bar scene was the perfect setting to observe a diverse group of people for a long period of time without bringing attention or suspicion to myself.

George Ritzer describes McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world”. McDonaldization is the idea that our society is becoming more efficient and more fast paced. Rational systems can be defined as “unreasonable, dehumanizing systems that deny the humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within them or are served by them”.1 Today there are many types of businesses that are increasingly adapting the same values and principles of the fast-food industry to their needs. Rational systems are dehumanizing our society and seem to be even more irrational than convenient. “Almost every aspect of

McDonaldization involves a process of rationalization described by George Ritzer that is utilized by sociologists (Ritzer 292). Ritzer elaborates the aspect of McDonaldization of society is manifested in situations, for example, where a society adopts the features of a fast-food joints. Worth a note, fast-foods are growing very popular because they highly fits with most individual contemporary lifestyle.