One Part of My Qualitative Research Class Assignment

Activities on Waiting for Order at the Coffee Shop

When we go to the coffee shop, waiting is one part of the process. For example, after we finish our order we have to wait for a moment or so to get our order prepared and ready to be served. Most of us might think that waiting is boring. Waiting might be interpreted as doing nothing. Waiting might also be interpreted as the waste of time. The problem will be whether those interpretations are true or we just don’t have enough understanding about waiting. Other than doing nothing, we might picture that most of us spending our time waiting by the use of technology. Specifically, since technology attachment has been a major characteristic of modern society, we might think that we spend our time waiting with cell phone in our hand, texting, listening music or gaming.

“An African American girl with black T-shirt and unbuttoned green cardigan talked on her bright purple hand phone while waiting for the cashier got the food she ordered.” (Fieldnotes, October 6, 2013)

I came to the coffee shop for the observation assignment with the assumption that I will encounter a lot of technology use on this case. Based on what I know from my conversation with my colleagues, there is a lot of technology use on the coffee shops. In fact, when I shared my study plan with one of my colleagues I got the question whether the participants hanging around with their cell phone. This assumption is built around the reality that most of us are attached to technology such as cell phone or earphones in particular. This notion, in some portion, is confirmed. The cell phones were there, but the earplugs were not.

There are some events of technology usage in this case. For example, there was a girl with green cardigan talking all the way on her cell phone since she entered the coffee shop. There was more subtle event of technology use such as a guy who pulled out his phone, checked something, and put the phone back to his pocket. Another event happened when a woman waited pretty long because the barista forgot to make her order. The woman pulled her phone from her colorful checkered handbag and spent some time on texting. However, those three events are all the events involving technology that occurred during the observation. It doesn’t show that people are attached to technology so much and spend their waiting time to interact with technology.

“He took a pack of coffee beans and took it back to the display.” (Fieldnotes, October 6, 2013)

Rather than exhibited their attachment to technology, some of the participants exhibited their sense of curiosity. This characteristic was clearly expressed by all three minor participants. A little boy in Ravens jersey was running around and playing with straws. Another little boy stood up on his knee on a chair while pointed his finger to The Avenue through the wide glass-wall and yelled something out. A hungry little girl stepped out from her stroller after observing the coffee shop situation for a while and went to the food display, pointed her finger to the foods. It seems that the sense of curiosity is naturally embedded on the children.

The adults also expressed the sense of curiosity for the environment and the expected event. Most of the participants, regardless they are individual or group, spent their time observing the coffee shop situation. They are attracted to the objects available on the coffee shop. For example, three participants were attracted to examine the coffee beans pack on the coffee beans display. Other participant took the available coffee sample and gave it a try. Another participant spent his waiting time staring at the cashier computer screen. The participants seemed to have interest on obtaining new knowledge.

The other clue of curiosity was expressed by the tendency of the participants looking at what the barista is doing. For example, a mother with the boy in Ravens jersey looked at the barista frequently. She seemed impatient. Another example was a girl in maroon V-neck shirt standing still in front of the coffee counter, looking at the barista working on her order. In this case, participants were looking at something that they expected to come.

“The man in grey T-shirt got his order. He took the order and started to drink it, while the man in black T-shirt was still waiting for his order. They continued talking and seemed to make a joke. They laughed together.” (Fieldnotes, October 12, 2013)

The most obvious activity observed during the waiting time is conversation. Mostly, the conversation happened within group. In some instances, conversation happened between the participants and the barista. One special case of conversation happened when an old lady in pink dress with four wheel walker got near to me and started a short conversation with me since she saw a Ravens logo in my polo. It gives a hint that conversation might take place regardless of individual or group participants.

I couldn’t hear most of the conversation details, but some of the conversations were about the participants’ choice on where they wanted to sit. Some other conversations expressed intimate relationship within groups. For example, a young couple had a conversation in soft voices while their hands embraced each other. Other participants, a couple of men, threw jokes and laughed together. Another group of participant who dressed in punk style had a warm conversation while one of the ladies in the group patted her friend’s tummy. Regardless the content of the conversation, it defines us as a social being.

“He put both his hands on his jeans pockets, stood still and stared at the bar.” (Fieldnotes, October 6, 2013)

Solitude is defined as “a state or situation in which you are alone usually because you want to be” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2013). In this case, solitude doesn’t merely relate to loneliness but also refers to separated circle of relationship between the participants. Although in some instances there were interactions between group or individual and the barista or in a special case there was an instance of an individual having interaction with me, most of the groups and individuals didn’t interact each other. Although the participants had the shared identity as the coffee shop customer or Maryland resident, they treated each other as familiar strangers. They might aware of the existence of others. For instance, an old lady with walking stick told her companion to find a table in order not to block other person. But, they didn’t have significant amount of contact to the other participants.

The more obvious solitude moments were easily found in individuals. They stood still in front of the coffee counter while staring at something quietly. If there were bubbles pop out from their heads, maybe it would be interesting to see what they were thinking. I’d like to call this moment as “a brief moment of solitude”. It is the moment when a person soaks in solitary. If conversation defines us as social being, solitude might define us as solitary being who needs a brief moment of loneliness somehow.

Epilogue

The notion of people attachment on technology might be over claimed, at least for this particular site and particular time frame of waiting. There are more “traditional” activities which are not involving technology take place on how people spend their time waiting for the order. Those salient activities are exploration, interaction and secession.

As we might mention that we do nothing while waiting, we might attribute nothing to exploring, interacting or seceding. Probably, we call it nothing because those activities are too obvious to recognize. Further study might be needed to deepen our understanding about it and extend the scope of the study for broader range of participants using multi-site case study.

Reference:
Pustaka, A. (2013, October 6). Fieldnotes.
Pustaka, A. (2013, October 12). Fieldnotes.
Solitude. (2013). In Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solitude