Culture is seen as the course of action of characteristics, feelings, traditional structures, and even old rarities made by a specific social affair of people in a specific time or period. These characteristics, feelings, traditional structures, and collectibles choose the nature and components of the system or society that in general made them. Subculture is defined as, “a group of people within a larger culture, such as a country, who have something in common. They might share religious or political beliefs or be science fiction fans.” It is in like manner inevitable that from these cultures, sub-cultures will be made, and even casing another culture that could be correlative, or even particularly converse of the nature and components from the principal culture it sprung from. In the present social requests, there exists a unique and collection of cultures and subcultures that perceive and describe a particular get together of people in a particular time and place. For this paper, an ethnography of a propelled subculture is considered and documented through field discernment. The subculture perceived is the bistro culture, particularly the Starbucks café culture. I am sharing different experience from two different coffee places. One of them is in our local area which is the "Elite Cafe" and the other one is very popular coffee place which is Starbucks. The coffee was extraordinary in both coffee shops, yet the atmosphere and the experience in these places was different, and this paper points out the similarities and differences between these two places.
I choose two different coffee shops to determine the differences and similarities between two very different places which serve almost the same stuff. One is the “Starbucks” which is located at 41-02 main street Flushing NY and the other one is the local kosher coffee shop near my house which is “Elite Café” at 72-28 main street Flushing NY. They both are very different in a way that one is very popular worldwide and almost everybody knows about it and the other one is a not that popular and only serves a typical type of beverages and food. I choose these two very different cafes to see the main differences between them as for me while gathering the information about these cafes was very much interesting. They both serve good amount of food and beverages and both have a good customer service. But Starbucks had a self-service and Elite had Waiter service. To approach the subcultures of these coffee places, I just strolled around them and took a look in their practices. Taking into account that these subcultures were not seen as specific, it was particularly simple to stroll around them wholeheartedly. In case of my examination, at first, I connected myself to practice. I went to the cafes at different times of the day and sit at a fundamental position at the shade. This gave me an ideal point of view of what is happening in and outside the shop; while I set aside opportunity to mull over the culture around me. Sometimes I also took my sister or my friends if available with me to the bistro, and take a gander at the subculture from another point of view. At different occasions, I also stroll around the bistro with a book and begin investigating, while meanwhile drinking my latte, this gave me a substitute point of view of the subculture. I saw that, it was less asking to approach and converse with individuals, when I showed up as a college student, as opposed to when I showed up as one of their subculture, in pleasing wear and in the relationship of partners.
Starbucks has made the warm, cheerful assessment of a family room in its shops, especially for the people who need to loosen up, look at, or have a discourse with colleagues; their expenses are higher anyway the Starbucks stamp stands well over the basic local location coffee shop.
When you walk around a Starbucks coffee shop the amazing scent of coffee beans being readied influences a smell so radiant you to can about taste your most adored coffee or coffee drink; even before you have the relish your hand. The sound of steaming milk and blenders overflowing with different beverages smell through the air. On the other hand, Elite Cafe is a family and more friends gathering type of cafe. There is incredibly limited seating inside yet the environment is very friendly and comfy inside the café. It was most likely a restaurant type environment in the Elite as compare to Starbucks.
I visited the Coffee houses at the same time once in the morning and around evening. I first went to Starbucks in the morning at 9 AM, it was very busy around that time. Students and workers were standing in the line and was waiting for their turn. Most of them were in rush at that time, some of them already did their order on the phone and was waiting at the pick-up area to pick their order. People in the Starbucks was from every age. I saw old young and adults also getting their coffee at that time. There was huge amount of hustle and bustle at that time. At 10 AM I went to Elite and the situation there was totally opposite. There were only 3 tables that was filled with 1-3 people and the fourth one was me and there was only one waiter who was serving everybody. Then I visited the Starbucks at 6 PM it was still very crowed but as compare to the morning there were less amount of people. At this time, it was mostly workers in a group who looks like just got off from their work and school going kids were also there in huge amount. The students were doing their work on their laptops at the top where the sitting area was located. I also noticed one thing that the mostly people were ordering and taking their beverages outside as they were waiting for the bus. Also, majority of the people were Asians, there were also many other people but majority was Asians. In the evening time around 7 PM I went to elite, and at that time there many more people as compare to morning. Most of them were families and a group of friends having food and chit chatting with each other. The atmosphere in the elite was more like a family type restaurant and in Starbucks it was most likely a fast food type restaurant. The coffee shop subculture contained different sorts of individuals at different time of the day. To help myself in observation, I had parceled the observation session into two times for every day morning time around 9 am and in the evening around 5 pm. The ethnographic methods, associated in this observation, were easygoing gatherings and part observation. I trusted that it would be good if I talk to the customers who occasionally went to these places would be of vital help in my observation, since they were the most unique individuals from the subculture. There was an individual in the Starbucks which I have been noticing during my visits. He been coming to the Starbucks around same time in the evening. I asked him if I can ask him few questions for my college project and he was very polite enough to do it. I start my interview by asking his name and where is he from? He replied, “my name is Ken and I am from japan and I am a computer engineer”. I ask him how often he come to this Starbucks. He said, “I come here every day after work beside my off day.” I asked him why he come here and what he like the most about this Coffee shop? He said, “Starbucks is very popular in united states and I love their coffee not all Starbucks locations serve good coffee but the baristas in this location make my coffee just the way I like that is why I like to come here and do my work on my laptop while drinking my coffee, as it is hard for me to concentrate on my work when am home. He added even though this Starbucks is very busy as compare to the other ones still I manage to come here every day to get my coffee from here.” I choose him specifically as he looked very matured and I knew that he will be okay in giving interview as compare to other people who I observe there. In Elite, I never saw the same people coming to that café at same time. So, I decided to interview randomly who ever will be ready to give me permission. I went to two women who were talking to each other, I asked them if I can interview them for my class project at first, they gave me weird reaction and then she said okay. I start my interview by asking their names, they replied, “Our name is Deborah and Ariella.” I asked them where they are from and how often do they come to this café? They told me that, “We were born here but our parents are from Israel and they also said they don’t come here very often. They only come here with their family and friends occasionally.” I asked them if they are related to each other and what are they doing in life and if they are allowed to go to any café beside the kosher cafe? They told me, “they are just family friends, one of them added as our family knows each other that is why we were allowed to come here alone. Deborah added no we can only go to those cafes and restaurants which serve kosher food.” My most strong choice to do this was to participate viably with the all-inclusive community in these subcultures that I saw to be ok with the coffee shops and their customers.
My respondents were from different characterizations of people, anyway by far most of them were understudies. In particular, I conversed with social affair of workers from these coffee houses. In the midst of my gathering with the pros, I avoided as much as I could to make request related to power establishment of the shop, yet planned my gatherings towards their points of view as spectators of the business condition, practices, and the customers. Moreover, the coffee and chomps foreseen that would be found on the menu of such coffee houses, a grouping of various resources charms, individuals to remain adjacent. On the other hand, all of the other two coffee houses has Wi-Fi available for their customers. Another benefit that is given by these establishments, but generally acknowledged is the open seating workplaces. Beside having pleasant seats, I seen that all of the coffee houses has enough number of seats available for customers. The way in which seats are organized and sorted out is particularly convincing. For example, at Starbucks, anyway there are different seats that are available for customers to use, they are coordinated with the goal that the divisions starting with one seat then onto the next allow customers straightforward advancement and balance much cooperation opportunity between the customers. On the other hand, the seating course of action in Elite Café was somehow unprecedented: where there are sufficiently enough seats for the customer, anyway planned perfect by each other having a group of seats, there sitting were more likely was restaurant type sitting. Coffee is overwhelmingly seen as a morning drink; as such, the morning hours are the busiest sessions of the day for these coffee houses. The morning customers involved the general population who were loosening up or the people who were grabbing their coffee, while waiting for a bus or going to the school and work. Regardless of the way that there are various associations for coffee houses open toward the start of the day hours, as Starbucks open up very early in the morning around 5 AM so people who have early morning work or school can fly in, grab their coffee and leave. While Elite open up at 9 am and not all people can come in the morning and have time to sit and drink coffee and do breakfast with their friends and family.
All the coffee houses offer dinners isolated from teas, coffees, and distinctive drinks. This attracts customers in the midst of the twelve. In any case, this social occasion does not stick around for a long, given that by far most of these individuals are out for the feast breaks; therefore, there isn't exactly a touch of a standard subculture. A social event of adjacent workers misuses the coffee house subculture over the lunch hour. At Starbucks, I met a girl name Katy who said that, “she like having her lunch at the coffee shop. It is easy for me to get my lunch during break from here as it is near to my work place.” I also noticed that the early evening is the busiest bit of the day in the coffee shops. This tread was similarly observed between two o'clock and five o'clock around evening time when students are out of classes. In the midst of this time, one is most likely going to find various students in the coffee shops. Students are either in social occasions inspecting, examining as individuals, or essentially hanging out and talking. In the midst of the night some bit of the day, there are get-togethers of students and adults, doing their undertaking and discussing course work going before the night classes. I saw a major difference in the kind of customers that visited unmistakable coffee houses. I saw that the customers at the Elite Cafe are usually family members or close friends and more energetic people, while at Starbucks, the customers were a mix of the two neighborhood individuals and guests, a large bit of whom were more prepared people. Also, Elite have bigger sitting area as compare to Starbucks. Most of every customer of Elite Café is Jewish because the Café is located in Jewish community and serve kosher foods and beverages. Elite café has only one branch while Starbucks have branches all over the world. Elite café is Family and friend orientated. People usually spend 1-2 hours at Elite Café, while Starbucks is usually grab & go and most people usually spend 5-10 minutes inside the café.
One of the basic parts of the subculture is the lingo, and this isn't an astounding for the subculture in the coffee shops. When visiting these coffee houses from time to time, there is a certain type of language one must use, when making a demand for a cup for coffee or tea frequently unwittingly. This may not be possible to note until some stranger walks around the subculture and shows up not to grasp what is happening. Starbucks are known for their uncommon menu. At first, when the business opened new branches at better places, people couldn't without a doubt identify with what they were serving, in perspective of the tongue used on the menu. The essential perplexity for the most customers at a Starbucks is the proportion of the coffee they require since, in Starbucks, the vernacular isn't just "small", "medium", and "large", rather the menu scrutinizes, "tall, grande, and venti." Therefore, with the exception of if the customer thinks about these sizes, it may not sound great to them. Lamentably, for a considerable number individuals in this subculture, the data, gotten by visiting one coffee house, may not be appropriate to another coffee house. Also, at Starbucks it was easier for me to observe and interview people and asking the manager for the permission as he told me there are many students visit for their research and projects while, at Elite it was hard for me because they were not giving me permission and also not everyone was ready for the interview in that family environment café.
In conclusion, I like to say that the subcultures of the coffee houses are portraying in this ethnography is basically obvious to the extent time, in the midst of which the subculture was viewed. Differing checks of people come into the subculture at different time and for differentiating reasons. With or without the reason, each individual, have their reason behind entering the subculture were interesting, they were all trying to find peace and comfort that they can put in a moment, while benefitting as much as possible from their coffee no matter from where they were getting their coffees. I had a great experience while doing this project. One thing that I can relate in this to the example in our textbook by Monaghan and Just in which, he went to the different culture and try to practice their culture and tradition by himself so he can understand the people and their culture better. Just like that in this project we have to practice and have to put ourselves in to understand the people and their culture.