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COMM 327 - Team Observation #1 - At the Mall
Team Observation #1
Observation Notes
Interpersonal Communication – COMM 327
Hagrid Jacobs
2008.04.19
Observation team:
Myself, Brenden Stockwell, and Joseph Shay
Observation location:
Bellis Fair Mall, Bellingham, WA, USA
Observation time:
Saturday afternoon, 12:30 – 14:00 Pacific Time
Overview:
Our team chose Bellis Fair Mall as our observation location. This was a busy Saturday afternoon, with many shoppers, and opportunities for observation of interpersonal observation. We made three primary observations, each lasting from about 10 minutes to half an hour, depending on the subjects. We observed one male-male dyad, one female-female dyad, and one mixed gender interaction with multiple participants.
Contextual note:
Bellis Fair Mall is known for its draw of shoppers from the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. It is the closest major shopping mall in the United States to Vancouver, situated only 30km from the southern edge of the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area (Pop. 2,100,000), and only 80km from downtown Vancouver proper.
Because of this proximity, Bellis Fair has always drawn a fair share of cross-border shoppers, and due to the recent strengthening of the Canadian Dollar of late, this effect appears to have been intensified.
A simple, unscientific survey of license plates on cars in the parking lot at the time of the observations revealed that approximately 30-50% of the shoppers appeared to be Canadian, so it is reasonable to conclude that a fair number of the subjects we observed in the mall were Canadians.
Furthermore, there was a very high proportion of East Asian and South Asian shoppers present in the mall (One of our observation subjects even makes not of it). As Bellingham has only a 4.25% Asian population (2000 Census, U.S. Census Bureau), compared with Vancouver’s 25% (2006 Census, Statistics Canada), it is reasonable to assume that many of these shoppers were Canadian.
OBSERVATIONS
1st Observation: Male/Male dyad
Location: Mall food court
2 Males were observed eating together.
They were sitting across from each other.
Male #1 had his back to us.
Male #2 was facing generally in our direction.
They appeared to be in their late teens, or possibly early twenties.
Both males appeared to be “dressed up” in nice but casual attire. Male #1 wore an embroidered jacket, jeans, and sneakers with skulls on them. Male #2 had on a nice polo shirt and jeans. His bottom lip was pierced. It appeared that they were dressing to impress someone.
During the time that we observed them, they spoke to each other, but rarely made eye contact.
Instead, they were more focused on the crowd around them, often looking up from their food to glance around, as if watching for someone.
At times, they did make comments back and forth that they laughed at, but for the most part, were not focused on each other.
At one point, M2 got up and walked away from the table for a moment. While he did, M1 checked his cell phone, read some text, and put the phone up his ear. Shortly after M2 returned, he put the phone down.
As the two were sitting across from each other, M2 reached across the table and picked up some food from M1’s plate, and ate it. This suggests a relationship with some level of intimacy, perhaps close friends or brothers.
Soon afterwards, the two picked up their trays and left.
Because of the high noise level in the food court, and our distance from the subjects, we were at no timer able to listen in on their conversation.
2nd Observation: Multi-gendered group
Location: Build-A-Bear Workshop
Our team of observers sat on benches directly across from Build-A-Bear, a store that makes stuffed animals, and watched interactions with a store mascot.
A store employee of indeterminate gender was dressed in a full-size fuzzy bunny costume, complete with tiara and “Be Fun!” T-Shirt. The employee’s face was completely hidden by the large furry mask, so this person had completely hidden her/his identity, and had adopted the public identity of a giant bunny.
The bunny stood just inside the entrance to the store in the centre of a big circle marked on the floor (store logo), and waved to passerby, beckoning for shoppers to come in and visit the store, giving free hugs and stickers. Although the bunny did occasionally hop around and dance when alone, its body language between interactions was mostly casual.
As we observed, individuals and groups stopped to interact with the bunny. Groups of many ethnicities were observed.
Many parents shopping with kids -– especially mothers – would stop to interact. Men, with a few exceptions, hung back at a distance, watching the bunny-child-shopper interaction, not directly interacting.
Observed behaviour in children: Waving, petting, hugs. Older children and teens (mostly girls) would go up and hug the rabbit.
Younger kids especially were observed to want to touch the rabbit. Occasionally, an adult (mostly female) would come in for a free hug.
Mothers with strollers and toddlers frequently stop to let the children interact. Mothers are observed to encourage children to touch or hug the rabbit – A social role is evident here, these mothers wouldn’t do this with most complete strangers. Something about the social role of the costumed mascot allows these mothers to cross the fear of strangers inhibitions of our culture.
Surprisingly few shoppers actually do go into the store. Some, who do not wish to interact with the rabbit, walk a distance around the logo-circle on the floor, maintaining maximum proxemic distance from the rabbit while entering the store.
Some children have to be dragged away from the rabbit, while others do not want to approach. The ones afraid to approach stand outside the circle and watch, some with hand to mouth, in a gesture of uncertainty. Some shy toddlers are carried up to the rabbit and are encouraged to interact, but a few do not want the interaction and turn away in fear.
One toddler wouldn’t approach the rabbit, but would wave back from outside the circle. This little girl wouldn’t get close even when mom held her hand and stepped into the circle and petted the rabbit’s hand. Finally the child had to be dragged away, never taking her fascinated eyes off the rabbit.
There were two notable interactions observed between the rabbit and teens. In once case, a young teenage girl went into the store and stood behind the rabbit, unbeknownst to the rabbit), and began mocking the rabbit’s gestures and body language. She apparently was doing this for the amusement of someone outside the store.
The other teen occurrence was a pair of teenage Asian boys, probably in their mid-to-late teens, stopped to have their picture taken with the rabbit. One of the boys puts his arm around the bunny, and the other snaps the picture. The bunny poses with them, freezing a pose. The boys are laughing and smiling the whole time. After they walk off, the rabbit does a “happy bunny dance” in the circle.
As were sat at the benches, we overheard snippets of conversation: “I have a problem with mascots” said one female, and a male voice said, “I hate it when those things dress up.”
3rd Observation: Female/Female dyad
Location: Food court
For our third observation, we returned to the food court, choosing a location farther away from the central noisy area we had sat in the first time.
We observed two females, both either pre-teen or very young teen. Both girls were casually dressed in sweaters/jeans, age-appropriate makeup and jewellery. They were each eating a slice of Sbarro pizza as they talked.
Two observers sat at a small table directly behind the girls, and one observer went to a more distant location in the food court to watch the girls’ body language.
Female 1 was sitting with her back to me. F1 was observed to be of European descent, and did not appear to be eating as much of the pizza as F2.
Female 2 faced me, and was observed to be of Asian descent. She was more animatedly eating her pizza than was F1.
F2 did not appear to be looking at F1 very much, instead focusing on her food, or casually on the crowd around them. She looks away when talking to F1.
At several points, both girls were observed to be scanning the crowd around them, both in unison and separately. Both seem to be watching the crowds around them. At one point, they both are observed craning their necks to look at the Sbarro counter, perhaps to look at a peer, or a cute boy?)
Observation Notes
Interpersonal Communication – COMM 327
Hagrid Jacobs
2008.04.19
Observation team:
Myself, Brenden Stockwell, and Joseph Shay
Observation location:
Bellis Fair Mall, Bellingham, WA, USA
Observation time:
Saturday afternoon, 12:30 – 14:00 Pacific Time
Overview:
Our team chose Bellis Fair Mall as our observation location. This was a busy Saturday afternoon, with many shoppers, and opportunities for observation of interpersonal observation. We made three primary observations, each lasting from about 10 minutes to half an hour, depending on the subjects. We observed one male-male dyad, one female-female dyad, and one mixed gender interaction with multiple participants.
Contextual note:
Bellis Fair Mall is known for its draw of shoppers from the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. It is the closest major shopping mall in the United States to Vancouver, situated only 30km from the southern edge of the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area (Pop. 2,100,000), and only 80km from downtown Vancouver proper.
Because of this proximity, Bellis Fair has always drawn a fair share of cross-border shoppers, and due to the recent strengthening of the Canadian Dollar of late, this effect appears to have been intensified.
A simple, unscientific survey of license plates on cars in the parking lot at the time of the observations revealed that approximately 30-50% of the shoppers appeared to be Canadian, so it is reasonable to conclude that a fair number of the subjects we observed in the mall were Canadians.
Furthermore, there was a very high proportion of East Asian and South Asian shoppers present in the mall (One of our observation subjects even makes not of it). As Bellingham has only a 4.25% Asian population (2000 Census, U.S. Census Bureau), compared with Vancouver’s 25% (2006 Census, Statistics Canada), it is reasonable to assume that many of these shoppers were Canadian.
OBSERVATIONS
1st Observation: Male/Male dyad
Location: Mall food court
2 Males were observed eating together.
They were sitting across from each other.
Male #1 had his back to us.
Male #2 was facing generally in our direction.
They appeared to be in their late teens, or possibly early twenties.
Both males appeared to be “dressed up” in nice but casual attire. Male #1 wore an embroidered jacket, jeans, and sneakers with skulls on them. Male #2 had on a nice polo shirt and jeans. His bottom lip was pierced. It appeared that they were dressing to impress someone.
During the time that we observed them, they spoke to each other, but rarely made eye contact.
Instead, they were more focused on the crowd around them, often looking up from their food to glance around, as if watching for someone.
At times, they did make comments back and forth that they laughed at, but for the most part, were not focused on each other.
At one point, M2 got up and walked away from the table for a moment. While he did, M1 checked his cell phone, read some text, and put the phone up his ear. Shortly after M2 returned, he put the phone down.
As the two were sitting across from each other, M2 reached across the table and picked up some food from M1’s plate, and ate it. This suggests a relationship with some level of intimacy, perhaps close friends or brothers.
Soon afterwards, the two picked up their trays and left.
Because of the high noise level in the food court, and our distance from the subjects, we were at no timer able to listen in on their conversation.
2nd Observation: Multi-gendered group
Location: Build-A-Bear Workshop
Our team of observers sat on benches directly across from Build-A-Bear, a store that makes stuffed animals, and watched interactions with a store mascot.
A store employee of indeterminate gender was dressed in a full-size fuzzy bunny costume, complete with tiara and “Be Fun!” T-Shirt. The employee’s face was completely hidden by the large furry mask, so this person had completely hidden her/his identity, and had adopted the public identity of a giant bunny.
The bunny stood just inside the entrance to the store in the centre of a big circle marked on the floor (store logo), and waved to passerby, beckoning for shoppers to come in and visit the store, giving free hugs and stickers. Although the bunny did occasionally hop around and dance when alone, its body language between interactions was mostly casual.
As we observed, individuals and groups stopped to interact with the bunny. Groups of many ethnicities were observed.
Many parents shopping with kids -– especially mothers – would stop to interact. Men, with a few exceptions, hung back at a distance, watching the bunny-child-shopper interaction, not directly interacting.
Observed behaviour in children: Waving, petting, hugs. Older children and teens (mostly girls) would go up and hug the rabbit.
Younger kids especially were observed to want to touch the rabbit. Occasionally, an adult (mostly female) would come in for a free hug.
Mothers with strollers and toddlers frequently stop to let the children interact. Mothers are observed to encourage children to touch or hug the rabbit – A social role is evident here, these mothers wouldn’t do this with most complete strangers. Something about the social role of the costumed mascot allows these mothers to cross the fear of strangers inhibitions of our culture.
Surprisingly few shoppers actually do go into the store. Some, who do not wish to interact with the rabbit, walk a distance around the logo-circle on the floor, maintaining maximum proxemic distance from the rabbit while entering the store.
Some children have to be dragged away from the rabbit, while others do not want to approach. The ones afraid to approach stand outside the circle and watch, some with hand to mouth, in a gesture of uncertainty. Some shy toddlers are carried up to the rabbit and are encouraged to interact, but a few do not want the interaction and turn away in fear.
One toddler wouldn’t approach the rabbit, but would wave back from outside the circle. This little girl wouldn’t get close even when mom held her hand and stepped into the circle and petted the rabbit’s hand. Finally the child had to be dragged away, never taking her fascinated eyes off the rabbit.
There were two notable interactions observed between the rabbit and teens. In once case, a young teenage girl went into the store and stood behind the rabbit, unbeknownst to the rabbit), and began mocking the rabbit’s gestures and body language. She apparently was doing this for the amusement of someone outside the store.
The other teen occurrence was a pair of teenage Asian boys, probably in their mid-to-late teens, stopped to have their picture taken with the rabbit. One of the boys puts his arm around the bunny, and the other snaps the picture. The bunny poses with them, freezing a pose. The boys are laughing and smiling the whole time. After they walk off, the rabbit does a “happy bunny dance” in the circle.
As were sat at the benches, we overheard snippets of conversation: “I have a problem with mascots” said one female, and a male voice said, “I hate it when those things dress up.”
3rd Observation: Female/Female dyad
Location: Food court
For our third observation, we returned to the food court, choosing a location farther away from the central noisy area we had sat in the first time.
We observed two females, both either pre-teen or very young teen. Both girls were casually dressed in sweaters/jeans, age-appropriate makeup and jewellery. They were each eating a slice of Sbarro pizza as they talked.
Two observers sat at a small table directly behind the girls, and one observer went to a more distant location in the food court to watch the girls’ body language.
Female 1 was sitting with her back to me. F1 was observed to be of European descent, and did not appear to be eating as much of the pizza as F2.
Female 2 faced me, and was observed to be of Asian descent. She was more animatedly eating her pizza than was F1.
F2 did not appear to be looking at F1 very much, instead focusing on her food, or casually on the crowd around them. She looks away when talking to F1.
At several points, both girls were observed to be scanning the crowd around them, both in unison and separately. Both seem to be watching the crowds around them. At one point, they both are observed craning their necks to look at the Sbarro counter, perhaps to look at a peer, or a cute boy?)