Sense of Place Observation Essay

Abstract

The focus of our “Sense of Place Observation” assignment was similar to our “Field Observation” assignment. We were allowed to choose any location and observe it. The point of this was to understand what sub-cultures were. For example, employees at a restaurant would have a different “sub-culture” when compared to employees of a tech company. My chosen location was a Popeyes restaurant in Astoria. I chose this location because I’ve never actually eaten at a Popeyes before this and thought that it would be fun. Ultimately, I discovered that this location didn’t really have a friendly feel to it and was even accosted by the manager. The assignment helped teach me how to incorporate sensory details through writing. Attempting to describe the feelings or taste or even the color of a location can be difficult through writing, especially if you’re inexperienced. Thankfully I was able to accomplish this goal and completed this assignment as a better writer.

Society’s Pit Stop

When I walked into the Popeyes restaurant, the first thing I noticed was the smell. Normally a restaurant would smell like its product, or it’s smell would be no different than the outside. However, this Popeyes had a strange smell to it, like lemon mixed with dust. It smelled clean but also smelled like the inside of an airplane when you first entered it. To be fair though I did show up to the restaurant only an hour after it opened, perhaps it was the cleaner they used or the smell of chicken hadn’t taken over every crevice of the restaurant yet. The second thing I noticed was the color. The restaurant was really beautiful, at least to me. One of my favorite colors is orange, and I really enjoy natural lighting. The restaurant had no advertisements covering the windows, so you had this really clean orange room with white walls covered in paintings, combined with natural sunlight shining over it. It’s so strange that you can find beauty in almost anything, as long as you’re willing to look for it.

Initially I planned on just sitting down and taking notes, but I had to ask myself, “did you walk all this way to NOT eat?” When I walked over to the cashier, I noticed many things. The cashiers seemed very relaxed, hell, one even had his back towards the register he was working. Their uniforms were also different, one employee had a dark black apron and a dark black cap on. Her uniform looked very sleek and proper. The other two employees had a brown apron and brown cap on, their uniforms seemed ordinary and looked a little unpleasant, at least compared to the black uniform. From my experience, the person with the black uniform was without a doubt the shift manager. Not only was her uniform different, but she also had a pair of keys along with other utilities strapped to the side of her pants. Lastly, I noticed that they were laughing when I entered the restaurant but when I went up to give my order, I was met with a stone faced person who sputtered out a, “what would you like?” Personally, I don’t care about how “nice” someone is to me at a fast food joint, as long as the food is prepared correctly and not tampered with, I am happy. With that being said, I’ve never been to any store where I’ve felt this unwanted. It was as if my presence was an annoyance to them, at first I didn’t understand why but I picked up on it pretty quickly. Apparently if a customer is in the store, the employees aren’t allowed to show emotion. I came to this conclusion due to them being stone faced and rigid the entire time I was there. None of this bothered me too much, after all I was simply there to observe, not judge.

The restaurant stayed relatively empty for the entire time I was there, there were only about a dozen or so people that entered. I have worked in fast food before, if a restaurant is this slow, it can never mean a good thing. While pondering on this I also realized something else, how cold the lobby was. To put it into perspective, that morning the weather was around 60-65 degrees, and it felt COLDER in the restaurant. It was no wonder why people weren’t sitting down to eat. Why would I sit and eat somewhere that’s just as cold as where I came from. I thought about leaving multiple times, my logic was that it was cold, my food was done, no one’s coming into the restaurant, the employees despise me for existing, and again, it’s too cold. All these thoughts were put to a halt very quickly though because a couple had entered the Popeyes. I assumed they were a couple due to them hugging each other’s arms while walking in. Could they have been siblings you ask? I don’t think siblings would make out with each other while ordering fast food. It seemed that a normal interaction was occuring between a happy looking couple, that was until they sat down. At first the assumed boyfriend sat next to his assumed girlfriend, until she told him that she needed space and told him to sit somewhere else, not asked, told. Fair enough, you want your personal space, then you demand it, I can respect that. However, perhaps he didn’t perceive it that way because they did not talk at all for 17 minutes and 11 seconds. I set a stopwatch after a couple minutes because my entire attention was focused on these people and the fact that no conversation was happening, shocked me. That’s all that happened. They came in, argued a little if you can even call it that, and didn’t speak to each other at all. I don’t wanna judge what I don’t know, so I won’t, perhaps they were angry at each other, or perhaps they are so comfortable around each other that they don’t need to fill in empty air. The second one sounds way more positive so I went with that.

An old man entered the store, typical lumberjack type, heavy boots, gruffly beard, and the classic thick leather jacket. He was asked if he planned to dine in and was asked to show his vaccination card or some type of proof. Unfortunately for him, either he wasn’t vaccinated or didn’t have his card on him, nonetheless he didn’t make a fuss, grabbed his food and left. As mentioned before, I work in fast food. Last week I saw someone throw a tantrum over the vaccine card debacle. Needless to say, it was refreshing to see someone take accountability and act maturely in an unwanted situation. Eventually I decided to leave, I picked up my garbage and when I threw it out I noticed the manager. The manager wasn’t up in the front helping the employees, or doing paperwork, he was in the back eating a sandwich next to a box of chicken that looked emptied. Perhaps since there were virtually no customers, he trusted his employees to handle it, while I don’t respect that from a manager, I can understand the logic behind it.

I went back to my seat to collect my stuff and two wonderful things happened, the Popeyes was noticeably warmer, and a small crowd had just entered it. There were two separate groups, the first one was a group of young adults who all got sandwiches and left. The second group was a family that decided to eat in. I’m not gonna describe this family in any way other than how they left their table. Imagine a dark orange table in front of you, now put a tray of half eaten bones on top of it, some wrappers with spicy Mayo on them, and a half spilled drink that hasn’t even been turned upright. Needless to say, not good customers, and definitely not a family I’d invite to my house for dinner.

When it was close to the time that I had planned on leaving, a very uncomfortable interaction occurred. An employee who was cleaning the lobby noticed my notebook and asked me about it. The conversation was calm and he seemed genuinely curious about what I was doing. Unfortunately, I mistakenly associated his curiosity with kindness. To make a long story short, he called his manager who told me off for “recording his employees”. The manager was being very standoffish; arms crossed, a mean facial expression, you get the idea. The employee on the other hand, looked embarrassed and guilty, he couldn’t even maintain eye contact with the floor. The conservation ended with the manager asking me for my notebook and me very rudely declining him.

When I think of any restaurant, I imagine a place of unity. People come in to eat together, even if they aren’t eating at the same table, they are eating in each other’s presence. Families come to have lunch together or get take out for the night. This place seemed like an outlier. My guess would be that the manager and employee relationship has ruined this place. The employees don’t look happy, the manager seems overbearing, and overall, the atmosphere isn’t welcoming. Restaurants are supposed to be the pit stops of our society, in a very fast paced city, they are meant to help you hit the brakes a little bit. Unfortunately, this did not seem to be the case here.