Observation Of The Chipotle Restaurant

I chose the Chipotle restaurant located in Cedar Hill TX as the public place as a sample to observe peoples’ social interaction in Texas because I know many people choose to eat there and the customers and the staff members are always culturally diverse. When I arrived I obtained informed consent from the manager to observe for an hour. It was around one O’clock in the afternoon and just as expected there was a line of customers from the ordering counter to the entrance of the restaurant. I saw a mixture of African Americans, European Americans, and a few Latinos waiting to place an order.

As I observed the people in Chipotle, I began to watch the staff members first and I could see that the employees where happy and in a great mood because they were smiling at the customers as they approached the ordering counter and majority of the customers smiled back. Before they verbally greeted the customers they showed non-verbal communication by waving hello and smiling. The other employee further into the kitchen was an older male Latino and he was chopping meat and vegetables but was rarely communication

to others.
The first set of customers I saw checking out was a male and female which appeared to be a couple.

They stood closely and the European American women laid her head on the male’s shoulder as they were waiting for their food to be packaged. Their intimate physical contact showed me they were a couple. I noticed a man and a younger boy with melanin skin color and similar phenotypes. I believe this African American man was in line with his son because of their similar characteristics and the way the younger male responded to the man. Shortly after I noticed a Latina child repeating “Hi” loudly until this African American older women politely spoke to the child. I realized that this child did not know this woman because of the conversation but that the child had experience with speaking to strangers outside her culture and race because of her egger engagement with the

women.
I also observed many people of different ethnicity using their phones while waiting in line without communicating with others, which is a universal act. Another universal act would be the amount of personal space between the people in line. For the most part there was an equal amount of space between the people in Chipotle and I believe this is a learned behavior. As this line moved forward I saw one employee use a hand symbol/gestor to guide the customers forward to order. Soon after, a group of adolescents entered and they appeared to be in middle school. One looked to be mixed with European American and African American because he had African American facial features with silky and curly hair and his three friends were European American. The way they were dressed and joking together I assumed they were friends from school. As my hour of observation come to an end I saw two sets of three come in with business attire. They adults in work clothes didn’t look related but shared core values. Their impatient facial expressions allowed me to predict that they had a short amount of time to purchase a chipotle meal, eat, and leave for work.