Ethnography 2/17/2009

Observation:

Sitting in the lobby of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in the early evening. Nearly all of the seats are full, these people don’t seem to be here to socialize, though the crew seems pretty jovial. Most guests are busy with schoolwork, using their laptops, or reading. Nearly every seat is filled, one even by the backpack of a guest. There is only one group of people that seem to be connecting socially. One man stands in line to place his order, he is texting. He doesn’t say please, and seems like he’s in a hurry. The girl behind him is in work clothes, and very polite. One of the girls in the connecting group walks behind the counter, she must work here. Two new guests are upset by the lack of seating and leave for a “coffee shop.” An older man in plaid walks in with a little girl, the people in the connecting group seem to know him and greet him.  Two customers stand near the bar in anticipation of their order, one woman grabs a straw and unwraps it, waiting. A crowd forms around the bar, and the waiting customers eye the barista intently. The little girl from before coughs into her hand just before reaching into the napkin holder, she grabs the napkins and coughs again. A woman who has ordered four drinks places them in a carrier as they are completed, she grabs four straws but drops one. She leaves it and grabs another as she exits. The cashier always finishes each transaction by asking “For here to to go?” There doesn’t seem to be an apparent difference between the options. Another woman with an apparently large enough order to warrant a carrier makes to pry one from the stack, ignoring one already on the counter. I go outside to smoke, there are three teenagers smoking at a table smoking directly adjacent to the entrance. 

Analysis:

I didn’t notice a lot of gender related exchanges, in fact, most of my observations are fairly gender-neutral. I did detect something similar to the “master-slave” relationship we’ve been discussing, though, particularly between the customer and the merchant. I first noticed the “master-slave/customer-merchant” relationship when I purchased my own drink. When we order a drink, we are dependent upon them to fulfill it, and they are dependent on the customer to pay for it. Most customers, the rudest of them anyway, seem to assume that they are the “master” in the relationship, and it shows. The merchant seems always eager to please, to the casual observer, but it is they who to whom the customer is responsible to wait in line, pay, and again wait for their order to be completed. Being forced to wait is an act of submission, being forced to pay the price of the merchant’s asking is also submissive. The example of the woman dropping the straw and leaving it for someone else to pick up could be seen as a rebellion in the relationship, her own meager attempt at establishing dominance over the merchant by forcing them to clean up after her own laziness. The customers spend the majority of the relationship waiting for their requests to be met by the uniformed coffee artist on the other side of the bar, who will get to it in his or her own time.