Field Work Assignment

Anthropology 121

Field Work Assignment

For my fieldwork assignment I chose to go to the starbucks on Lougheed Highway and Oxford st in Port Coquitlam just a couple of blocks down from my house. I chose Starbucks because I thought it would be an interesting place to observe how the different types of people that go here behave.

Observation 1--10 am-12:30pm

As I walked in the starbucks through their nice stone walkway on the corner of a busy intersection first thing I noticed was the dark turquoise walls and the dim lights. "Yellow" by coldplay was playing in the background and the smell of fresh coffee had a really calming ambiance. It was a nice change from all the noise just outside. Just in front of the doors to my left was a shelf full of starbucks merchandise that was for sale and to my right was a long counter full of muffins, coffee cakes, and coffee bags. As I looked up a girl who worked there politely greeted me. I walked further down to the sitting area which had a very nice lay out the walls were a little different from the entrance with the top half of the wall being dark turquoise and the bottom half being made of wood. They had old beautiful paintings of British Colombia spread around the walls. Straight ahead there was a long table attached to the wall with stools, which would mostly be for people who are alone. Right behind it were four individual red couches and the rest were four regular tables with chairs. The shades on the windows were also up to let in the natural lighting. I decided to sit on one of the red couches next to a girl in a grocery store uniform on her laptop who seemed to be killing time before work. She didn't seem like she was keeping track of time, after one look at her watch she packed her laptop and bolted out of the shop. I was surprised that there were only six people in the starbucks considering that it was 10 am and that people would be going for their morning coffee. I later realized that there was a drive through on this location that would be the reason why people weren't entering the store. I went outside to observe and saw a long line up of cars waiting to be taken care of. Later on around 11:30 The starbucks was starting to get busier inside many people were waiting to be served. Since it was around the lunch hour the high school down the street and the offices around the area all had people coming to the shop. Some people would chat with friends in the lineup while others would be reading their books or listening to music on their phones. Age and ethnicity