Starbucks Observation Essay

sat there reading a book. Later in the observation, the man’s phone rings and he steps outside to answer it. As he comes back inside to sit down, he apologizes to his wife and continues to work on his laptop.

I also observed a group of 2 females and one male that were most likely under 18. After getting dropped off, they came inside and pushed 2 tables together to sit down. Immediately after sitting down, they became rather obnoxious. They were very loud, considering how small the Starbucks was, and were also cursing. One group sitting at the table behind them gets up and leaves. As they were walking out, I can clearly see that they were annoyed. However, it is possible they were getting ready to leave soon anyway. After a few minutes, the baristas began to look at them too, however they did not say anything. Eventually, one of the female’s phones ring and they all leave the store. A little while after they left, two teenage females enter the store and sit down. Like the last group, they begin looking at

At RCR, 13 people tipped, as opposed to 4 people at Starbucks. Keep in mind that 59 people came into RCR and 54 came into Starbucks. Therefore, this difference in tipping cannot be attributed to the number of patrons. Likewise, the prices of the drinks were comparable at both coffee shops. While two hours at each place is not enough to get a truly representative count of the number of people that actually tip, my observations show that RCR customers were more likely to tip. This behavior could stem from the belief that one should support small business more than large corporations, like Starbucks (Thompson & Arsel, 2004). Knowing that Starbucks’ is an extremely profitable company, customers may be less inclined to tip. However, they may feel like their tips have a larger impact when they go to a small independent