My observations took place at Mitsuwa Marketplace, located at 14230 Culver Dr., Irvine CA. The store itself is a combination of a Japanese grocery store, a bakery, a home-goods store, and a restaurant. The store divides each of these areas by aisles, and each aisle contains products that would be difficult to find in any other location. At the edges of the store are various food areas, each selling either mochi, sushi, or ramen respectively. The sushi and ramen areas are the largest focus of the store aside from the grocery/home-goods component, and are given a seating area. I used the chairs in this area to gain a vantage point over the rest of the store. I had only been to this particular store once before, and that had been several years …show more content…
I began my observations without looking for any behaviors in specific, instead recording any noteworthy events that occurred during my frame of observation. When my observations began, the store itself was less crowded than I had normally seen it. I was one of the few individuals at the ramen area, and most of the activity was occurring within the grocery area. I immediately noticed that most of the individuals at Mitsuwa were by themselves. Only one pairing appeared to be shopping together. Most of the individuals presented appeared to be female. The amount of noise in Mitsuwa at this time was also rather low, as the only individuals speaking was a woman talking to a store-worker in the frozen food …show more content…
They were not talking to each other, but did walk side-by-side and continued to stay within a couple of feet of each other throughout the entire time they were present. They moved together through each of the aisles in an “S” pattern, exploring every aisle in the store, from the grocery area to the home-goods area. He held the basket while she examined each of the items. After examining an item, she would either return it to its place or place it in their basket. Despite having gone through each of the aisles, their basket was relatively empty by the time they had finished, and from my vantage point I could only see around 6-8 items at the cash register. They had finished their entire shopping trip in around 30