- Published: September 27, 2022
- Updated: September 27, 2022
- University / College: Queen's University at Kingston
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 40
Restaurants Characters of Restaurants Characters This reflection paper aims to present my observational experience of behavioral activities of patrons at McDonalds. The time that I chose to visit the fast food restaurant was 7: 00 PM. It should be noted that there were nearly forty five patrons present at the restaurants.
I noticed that most of the patrons who were at the restaurant were between the ages of 15 to 40. As per my supposition of different people and their ages, I did not get to see people older than 55 years old. Talking about the ethnic background of patrons at the fast food restaurant, majority of them were Native Americans while I did witness a lot of Asians there as well.
In addition, the population at the restaurant was mostly females. Male patrons were present in every four females. Out of forty five patrons, 25 people that I spotted were casually dressed with neat impression while there were two groups that came to the restaurant poorly dressed. I could hardly see patrons who were well-dressed. It may be because people coming to a fast food restaurant are people who are either busy or less conscious about their lifstyle (Schlosser, 2012).
At the time when I was sitting at the fast food, I noticed a group of teenage girls who were screaming a lot. I could sense that they were screaming out of excitement. The way they were talking to each other, it seemed to me that they were studying together. I also noticed that these girls were rebellious as they cross-questioned the restaurant’s staff for the sake of fun. One of the girls threw chewing gum on the floor and stepped over it. It should be noted that these girls were constantly making noises every time they were drinking milk shakes from the straw. To me, all this behavior sounded abnormal as a person would never do such a thing with their families.
The girls that seemingly acted abnormally were making other people around them uncomfortable. Since they were too loud, I noticed that people were trying to find a place to sit away from them. A mother of two kids who were paying for her order at the counter especially turned her head away to look at the girls as she heard a lot of noises and abnormal laughter from the other end of the hall. Interestingly, these girls were sitting far from me for whom I did not feel uncomfortable but their behavior was quiet vague. The behavior of the girls who I categorized as abnormal were slightly having dysfunctional behavior as in whole.
As I was jotting all the points of different patrons, I witnessed that the girls were chattering something and one of them looked at me. To them, I might have appeared a nerd who was writing and reading in a fast food restaurant. I heard them laughing after noticing me that signaled me their attention towards other people around them. This kind of behavior can also be terms as bullying.
References List
Schlosser, E. (2012). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.