For my ethnography, I observed the Dunkin Donuts across from campus.

I chose this
location because there are many different interactions between various people at this location.
There were not as many WNE students there as I had expected, so I observed a lot more
Springfield natives. This Dunkin Donuts is located in a pretty busy intersection by school, so it is
utilized by both students and the people of Springfield. This Dunkin Donuts is quite small, but it
has a few tables to the side for people to sit at, and this is where I did most of my observing.
Hearing people was not as easy as I had expected, both because the music was pretty loud, and
the customers stayed as far away as others as possible. As I will discuss later, this is not a very
social space, and people mostly go there by themselves or with one other person, so
conversations are pretty scant and quiet. However, because the tables are so close together, it was
easy to observe people and see what they were doing.
I also found it interesting how both the customers and employees observed me. Before
this project, I had gone to this Dunkin Donuts frequently, but I wouldnt say I am a regular
customer. After a few hours there, the employees started noticing me, and gave me quizzical
looks while I sat there. It was strange to them for someone to be sitting there for that long by
themselves. However, when I went up to the counter after they had been observing me, they did
not say anything to me. From what I observed, there was no regular customer being
acknowledged by the employees as such. I would imagine this is because Dunkin is a chain, and
it is such an in and out restaurant that there wasnt much more than surface interaction between
employee and customer.
For my method, I used ethnography. I observed this restaurant for a total of five hours,
broken down as follows: Tuesday, 11/15 from 2-4pm, Friday, 11/18 from 2-3:30pm, and Sunday,
11/20 from 2:30-4pm. The tool I most used in observing was my own mind. I observed the

people, the building itself, its location, where and how certain items in the restaurant were
placed, etc to make implications about my location. I analyzed my data just from looking back at
my notes and remembering certain things. Qualitative research is very subjective, and it is a
narrative. My role as the researcher was to make surface observations, and then use my
knowledge to figure out the implications behind these observations.
After my observation, there were a few important themes that I found from my field
notes. These themes are, Dunkin is not a social space, the communication and actions by the
employees towards the customers, and Dunkin as a hegemonic environment for a multicultural
clientele. The themes I picked up on were recurrent, repeated, and forceful. In my five hours at
Dunkin, these were the things that I saw the most, and also contained some kind of meaning
behind them.
For my first theme, I realized that Dunkin is very much not a social space. I noticed on
many occasions that this restaurant does not encourage its customer to sit down and enjoy their
food. On my first visit to Dunkin, I stayed for approximately two hours. After about a half hour,
the employees started looking over at me more and more frequently. They noticed that my coffee
was done, and it didnt appear that I was waiting to meet someone; my bag and papers were
spread out on the table. One male employee in particular looked my way quite often; he seemed
the most intrigued by me. However, when I went up to the counter approximately an hour and a
half into it, he took my order, but didnt ask me what I was doing. I will get more into employeecustomer interaction a little bit later, but after these frequent glances my way; it is obvious that it
was strange for me to be sitting there by myself.
However, in my time spent at Dunkin Donuts, I was definitely not the only one sitting
there by myself. In fact, the majority of the people I saw come through Dunkin either got their

coffee and left right away, or came in and sat by themselves. Even those people who sat left
immediately after their food or coffee was finished. Another interesting factor I observed is the
location of the straws and napkins. These items are located at the opposite side of the restaurant
from the tables, making it an effort to get your straw, and then walk to the table. A less obvious
example is the chairs. They are heavy and very loud when you pull them out to sit, making you
almost feel embarrassed to make that much noise.
In addition, this Dunkin does not provide enough space for people to really want to sit
down comfortably anyway. There are five tables, all very squished together, and when the line
gets long, the people have to stand right where the tables are, so it can get very uncomfortable.
One thing I found very interesting was on my last observing day, two of my roommates came
along. The table next to ours sits four people comfortably. However, when a family of four came
and wanted to sit, they opted to all squish into a two person table that was a little more isolated
as opposed to sitting next to us. This Dunkin is not a social space; I even felt a little
uncomfortable. On that last day, a group of four girls from Springfield College came and sat next
to us, and I could barely hear myself think because they were so close. Both the building itself
and the atmosphere provide the customer with a feeling that this is not a social space that one
wants to sit and spend time in.
A second theme I observed was the employee communication and their actions. As I
mentioned before, the male employee who kept looking at me didnt ask me what I was doing,
even though he was clearly curious. From what I observed, there was never anything more than
the phatic communication between employee and customer of taking and placing the order. This
reminded me of the VanMannen article, when Disney employees were instructed not to interact

much with the customers. The employees would only talk and joke with the customers when the
customers initiated it.
From what I observed, customer satisfaction was not very important to the employees.
For the most part, service was extremely slow. Even when I was the only customer inside,
service was unhurried at best when I went up to the counter. Often, customers would have to
repeat their order two or three times to employees because the employees forgot or simply
werent paying attention. Lastly, the tables and the area around them were cleaned very rarely
from what I observed. The tables often had crumbs and trash on them from hours before, and this
made this area even more unappealing to sit down at.
The third theme I saw was that the environment did not really suit the clientele. We live
in Springfield, and because it is a city, there are many minorities. However, the atmosphere at
Dunkin Donuts was very hegemonic. The main example here was the music they were playing. It
was definitely an easy listening station, with artists like Selena Gomez, The Beatles, and Cher.
The majority of the artists were white. However, most of the customers, and employees, were
minorities. Whoever the franchise owner of this Dunkin is has decided on one radio genre, even
though it does not suit most of its clientele. It appears as though they are catering more to the
mostly white college students that come to this Dunkin, even though I observed many more
Springfield natives than college students.
From my observations, I came up with a few implications of the communication of this
Dunkin Donuts. In combining all of the themes I observed, they all really added up to one
statement, America Runs on Dunkin. At least in this specific Dunkin Donuts, customers are not
encouraged to sit down once they have gotten their food or coffee. In their communication, this
restaurant says that they dont really care about customers once they have gotten their drinks.

The tables are dirty, small, and crowded together, discouraging people from wanting to sit. On
numerous occasions I saw people walk over to the tables to sit and were disgusted by how dirty
the tables were. Those people either just left, or had to wipe down the tables themselves, with
napkins that were located on the opposite side of the store. The chairs were uncomfortable to sit
in for an extended period of time, and very loud when moved: uncomfortable for a pretty quiet
location.
If this Dunkin were to asses itself and wanted to encourage more customers to sit down,
they would have a lot to do, starting with the employees. Many of the Springfield natives I
encountered seemed willing to talk with the employees, and even other customers. They wanted
Dunkin to be a more social space, but their attempts were all but rejected by the employees. If
employees were instructed to care a little bit more about customers after they had gotten their
order completed, and even during the order process, customers would be more inclined to stay.
Employees need to clean the customers area more often and thoroughly, pay more attention to
the customers, and engage them in more than phatic communication when it seems appropriate.
The limitations I encountered were that I really couldnt hear a lot of the conversations
going on around me. As close as the tables were, people spoke softly to each other; that was the
norm for this restaurant. It was actually easier for me to hear what the employees were saying,
even though they were farther away, because they are trained to speak loudly to the customers.
The other limitation, of course was that it was my own interpretation. Maybe people just didnt
sit because they were in a rush, and they really dont care about the placement of the napkins, or
how dirty the tables were. In qualitative research, not actually talking to the people you are
observing is always a limitation.

In conclusion, this Dunkin really takes to heart the motto of America Runs on Dunkin.
The employees show little or no interest in making the customers feel welcome, encouraging
them to stay, or even making them want to come back. After making these observations, I
compared Dunkin to Starbucks. Starbucks actually does encourage customers to stay. They
provide free wifi and comfortable seating arrangements. At Dunkin, the actual setup of the
restaurant discourages customers from sitting, from the placement of tables, to the location of
napkins and straws. The hegemonic atmosphere also contributes to the unwelcome feeling of
many customers. If customers feel like this place is not suited to their culture or race, they are
surely not going to sit and eat their food. If this Dunkin wants more customers to come and stay,
they have a lot to change in their communication towards their customers.