Social Setting Project

Introduction:

For this specific project, I conducted observations at three high end franchise coffee shops; I will not be referring to the names of the individual stores throughout my report, as I have collaborated my findings. For the purposes of reader understanding and introduction, the names of the different coffee factories I observed were: Starbucks, Timothy’s World Coffee, and Second Cup. The purpose of the observations was to document what kind of social interactions are going on in a typical coffee shop, interactions that to the naked eye, seem to be normal. I will explain in this report that these social interactions that are occurring in different coffee shops, are meant to take place.

Method:
My method of observation was tactical, to say the least. I had decided at the commencement of this field study, that in order to get a precise idea of the social interactions within these institutions, that I would have to visit them at the same time of day, and within the same area. I used this method for my first round of observations and after visiting all three establishments, I came to realize that these coffee shops were only really different in name. I became curious, and decided to investigate the same shops at different points throughout the day. After conducting observations at different times of day, I realized what time it was really didn’t matter; my findings were the same. At each visit, I would purchase a coffee from the “barista” (for lack of a better word to explain the role) then I would sit down, open up my laptop and observe what was going on. I took note of the smells, the atmosphere, the décor, and absolutely everything else. One problem I did run into while conducting this experiment was trying to observe the barista without having her notice. I felt like she almost knew that I was watching her and thus