Undertaking An Observation. Over The Years, I Felt That

Blue vein societies reigned supreme from after abolition to the late 1920’s. These social clubs formed during Reconstruction in areas flooded by free slaves. The Bon Ton Society was formed in Washington D.C. and the Blue Vein Society was formed in Nashville. Membership was “considered an honor” and “blue veiners” even received exclusive access to vacation resorts, such as Chesapeake Bay.

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 decided to use Starbucks as the site for my naturalistic observation assignment. Starbucks is an American coffee house chain that is well known for its relaxing atmosphere and delicious coffee drinks. Today is Labor day and because it is a holiday, I expect to see several people commuting back home from their vacations. As I entered the Starbucks in Palm Springs, just as I expected, it was full of people getting their coffees for the long drive ahead of them. The people are mostly young men and women in tank tops and shorts due to the hot weather. Since it is 11:30 in the morning, everyone appears to be in a rush to get on the road. As I sat longer, a couple sitting in the corner caught my attention. They seem to be in no rush and look like

Frist, as the most popular coffee shop in Toronto, people who want to buy drinks in Tim Horton’s have a long line. Since I went to one of the Tim Horton’s which located nearby the St. George Station, people always enter in the shop in a group. However, different types of people perfer to order different kinds of drinks. Moreover, there is a phenomemon that workers frequent the café, and mothers with babies occupy approximately 20% of the whole consumers.

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

When a regular customer comes in we know them by name and their coffee is ready and waiting for them. It creates a positive experience for the guest and encourages them to come back again tomorrow. Getting to know

Although I’ve only been working at Starbucks for three weeks, I would like to think that I have a handle on things. At least, that’s what I thought until a customer walked up with his phone held to his ear, his wallet already in his hands, and his order so rushed that I could barely make it out. When I asked him to repeat his order he rolled his eyes and huffed. “Excuse me, I can tell your new, but I’m in a hurry,” he blurted, already taking his money out of his wallet. I was appalled. My coworker took over as I stood idly by. Now, this is only one person, but it can be expanded to demonstrate how much of a Busy Backson America is. People don’t enjoy or admire the time that they

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.

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.

Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia by James L. Watson The book, Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia by James L. Watson, is a collective study on how McDonalds has transformed East Asia and other parts of the world, but also how McDonalds has been transformed by these countries. McDonalds is the symbol of the western world and more importantly the United States, which is known for its imperialistic and globalist values. However, I think that McDonalds has benefitted Eastern Asia with new ways to serve customers, safer places to eat, and more hygienic places to use the restroom.

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: clean, quick, brewed now to your customer order specifications, facility has comfortable sitting area

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.

Starbucks customers are diverse, well educated, young business people looking for a quick and easy way to grab coffee on their way to work. Starbucks values a strong relationship with their customers so they are

Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle’s Pike Place Market with the name being coined from that of Moby Dick’s first mate (Schultz & Yang 1999). It has spread its shops across North America, all over Europe, the Middle East, Latin America as well as the Pacific Rim with an estimated 35 million customer weekly (Michelli, 2008). With tremendous growth from a small time coffee shop, the company has matured to an international icon that today it is one of the world’s leading retailer, roaster and brand specialty coffee (Story, 1971). The company offers whole bean coffees, espresso beverages, and confectionery and bakery items.