Social class in the supermarket - Research Paper Example

FIELDWORK OPTION C: Social in the Supermarket I visited two supermarkets in different parts of town. One I will call Supermarket X and the other Supermarket Y. Both were quite different. Supermarket X was in the rich part of town while Supermarket Y was in the poor part of town. I took some notes of the kinds of things I observed in the two stores. To begin with Supermarket X was very clean. You could eat off of the floor should you choose to do so. Everything in the store was well organized and the lights were bright.

The produce looked very healthy and tasty. It was frequently spritzed by clean water. I wanted to eat everything in the store. The employees were polite. When I entered the store, a well-groomed man saluted me and said, “How are you today, Sir?” He was almost like my butler. I was very impressed. At the check-out, the cashiers were all smiling and they told me to have a nice day as I left. They were all very polite. There were no obvious signs of security and the cameras were not obvious.

They seemed to trust their customers and want to treat them with respect. I felt relaxed and pleasant in the store. I felt like I was welcome. The only thing available in the store was food and a lot of the food was quite expensive. There was a lot of organic food. Organic milk was $5 for 2 litres which seemed quite pricey. Supermarket Y was in a poorer part of town where people in a lower socio-economic bracket tended to live. The supermarket sold many items, including tools and hardware items.

In a sense it was a one-stop shop for many in the neighbourhood. There was a lot more security and the cameras were visible. They were probably concerned about shop-lifting. Everyone in the store looked surly and tired. They looked undernourished. The food was cheaper, but it also looked older. Some of the meat was past its expiration date. Some of the customers in the store were talking to themselves and many were obese. I felt sorry for a lot of people there. The employees appeared unhappy and a bit like zombies.

They worked for minimum wage and probably had difficult home situations. The food, however, was a lot cheaper, but there was no organic food and no produce from fancy countries. There was a liquor store as part of the supermarket and it had a lot of sale prices. The store overall seemed dirty. Overall, this experienced taught me that there were very different world within my own city. Both stores serviced different classes of people. These classes were largely divided by money. Some people had money and some did not.

This lack of money affected everything about the people who shopped at supermarket Y: their health, their outlook, their attitude, their clothes. It was sad to see. But now that I understand this difference I can begin to work to improve it and try to make the two supermarkets more equal. 01/01/05 Visited supermarket X It looks clean. People look rich. Not much security Everyone seems happy Only sells food Food looks clean and fresh 01/01/06 Visited supermarket Y People seem sad and poor Store looks dirty.

Lots of cameras People unfriendly Lady talking to herself Food is cheap and old Dirty liquor store