Ethnography Study of Coffee House

During my visits to the coffee shop, I was very surprised that the amount of people that ordered donuts was not as large as I expected. I made that assumption that donuts would be a regularly ordered item because of the variety offered by the coffee house. However, the number of people who ordered donuts were more than those that ordered coffee. I noticed that the majority of people either ordered hot coffee or iced coffee (Figure 1). The other beverages such as, Macchiato, Cappuccino, Latte, Punch, Coolatta and Smoothie were not as popular. Additionally, I observed that many of the customers paid using cash, however the majority

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 has played a major role in the lives of many people around the world. “Yet, poetic as its taste may be, coffee’s history is rife with controversy and politics…[becoming a] creator of revolutionary sedition in Arab countries and in Europe” (Pendergrast xvi). After reading Uncommon Grounds, it is apparent that the history of coffee is intertwined with the aspects of the globalization process, the role of Multi-National Corporations, and global economic issues.

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.

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.

Alaa Ghaddar Soan 221: Political anthropology May 7, 2016 Coffee By choosing “Coffee” as a title to talk about and to shed the light on, was the most interesting research that I have done during my semester, also during my academic years. By defining coffee we can say that it is the pulse for most people lives. By taking samples of people that was chosen by me at a random position, the way that I choose to experiment those people, I went to Spinneys and chose around 100 person individually, my result was somehow great, because I received a 5% of those people who didn’t drink coffee permanently and didn’t love even its smell. While for the 95% other people, their percentage differ from the people who drinks coffee daily from three to four

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.

With the development of economic globalization, “fast food” becomes a more and more substantial industry in the business world, which adapts to the pace of people’s life. Each organization spares every effort to stand forward the competition due to the fierce competition. In this article, we focus on the “Starbucks”, a prevailing coffee manufacturer in recent years.

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.

The drink was no longer just a utilitarian morning stimulant and has a satellite pastime very European style: the windows from floor to ceiling, special atmosphere, soft music, dozens of varieties of coffee. However, besides all this, coffee is a business not only successful, but also has today a huge potential for development.

1. Where did the original idea for the Starbucks format come from? What lesson for international business can be drawn from this?

Seeing someone holding a cup of coffee on the street is not unusual at all nowadays. In fact, they are starting to get more common. There are now different varieties to choose from. Shops or cafes also provide a lot of different choices or products to consumers. Prices could range from low to high, depending on what type of coffee beans you have chosen to make the coffee. By adopting the sociological imagination to coffee, it gives us a better understanding of what coffee represents in a social context. Based on the definition by Mills, [the sociological imagination can be defined as] the ability to understand the dynamic relationship between individual lives and the larger society (Ravelli, Bruce and Michelle Webber, 2016). This is basically where individuals have to think outside the box. In this case, we have to think specifically for the object, coffee. For instance, how does it perform its function in the society?

Starbucks has evolved and itself become an icon of globalisation, symbolising the role of corporations in combatting the consumerist society that is the West and exploiting the rest of the world, particularly the vulnerable and poverty stricken Global South. Thus, the contention of this essay is to highlight that the new globalised world has resulted in the exploitation of the Global South, in order to fulfil the consumerist society that is the Global North. This exploitation is exemplified by Starbucks, one of the largest corporations in

Coffee has become an essential part of the lives of millions of people all across the world. It is how a majority of people starts their day, and get through their day. It is shared over good conversation with friends and loved ones, it is reason for a date, or for comfort on a cold day and because of this it has become a way in which many people identify themselves. In North America what you put in your coffee, your favourite coffee shop and how much you spend have become a way in which we label ourselves, because everyone knows that spending five dollars on a coffee from Starbucks makes you superior. Yet looking past the brand and its perceived superiority the reality is that Starbucks profits while farmers starve . Each and everyday

The demand for coffee shops is born from the increased number of individuals seeking coffee brewed outside of the home. This creates a larger market for coffee shops. An increased amount of people are starting their mornings off by purchasing breakfast and a cup of coffee away from home (Tuttle 2014), more people are enjoying gourmet coffee (NCA National Coffee Drinking Trends 2015 Infographic), and younger generations are demanding more coffee and coffee drinks from coffee shops (Tuttle 2014, S&D Coffee and Tea inc. 2014, Statista 2015). Coffee shops must compete with at home coffee, work place coffee, and teas for the caffeinated beverage markets (LN 2015). Demand for coffee within different markets varies, and provides competition for coffee shops. Single cup coffee makers, increasingly qualitative instant coffees, and gourmet beans are all sources of competition that could satisfy the demand for coffee. However, coffee shops are becoming more ingrained in social