Shuichi Koga
CSE 510
For the ethnographic study lab, I chose to examine the wandering and buying patterns at Uwajimaya's lunch counter, in downtown Seattle. I kept track of the patterns that customers took while wondering what to eat, took note of the type of things they finally chose, observed purchasing patterns, and if they chose to eat within Uwajimaya, how long they took to finish their meal.
Uwajimaya's lunch counter is located at the far left corner of the main supermarket. In order to reach the counter, the customer must walk through the checkout counters for the supermarket, and walk past pots, woks, and other cooking instruments. It is not immediately obvious that the lunch counter is there; there are no banners that advertise it in the supermarket itself.
The lunch counter is divided into three distinct sections: a section that shows food in the same way as a cafeteria, an order counter for menu items that aren't already being shown, and the cash register.
The lunch counter also stocks shelves full of food that is either ready-to-eat immediately, or can be easily microwaved. The shelves stock both complete meals (for example, teriyaki chicken rice bowls) and a la carte items (such as packages of kimchee pickled vegetables). Periodically, staff from the kitchen behind the lunch counter takes inventory on the food items to determine if more is necessary, goes back to the kitchen, and then eventually re-emerges with appropriate foodstuff. The shelves are located very close to the lunch counter, allowing for situations whereby people who want to order food directly from the counter could bump into people who are more interested in what's on the shelves.
Finally, next to the lunch counter in the corner is a small spartan dining area. Ambiance is nearly non-existent, but there are large windows that line one end of the area, so there is a reasonable amount of light coming in. The seats can charitably be noted as uncomfortable, and the tables have a disturbing tendency to rock back and forth.
The lunch counter faces a large amount of competition from surrounding stores. There are no fewer than six restaurants that are visible from the entrance to Uwajimaya, consisting of one Japanese noodle house, two Chinese restaurants, one Chinese bakery, and one Vietnamese restaurant. The Japanese noodle house and one of the Chinese restaurants tend to be a little bit more expensive on average (about two dollars more), but the other Chinese restaurant, the Vietnamese restaurant, and the bakery are all in the same price range. The Vietnamese restaurant and the bakery also have items that can be immediately purchased and consumed. Within one block of Uwajimaya, there are several more restaurants as well.
Given the situation surrounding the lunch counter, I conjectured that the majority of the customers that the lunch counter received would fit one of the following profiles:
In order to go about determining if the hypothesis were true, I posed as a customer at the store between the hours of 11 and 12:30pm on a weekday, and again from 5:30 to 6:45pm the next day. I sat at a corner of the dining area that allowed me to view all the shelves and the lunch counter. I pretended to be reading a book while recording wandering patterns of potential customers as they went from shelf to shelf, and through the counters. I also noted whether or not they purchased a Japanese food item, whether they purchased a meal or a side dish, whether they picked up something from the shelves, whether the purchase was for takeout or eat-in, whether or not they paid at the lunch counter cash register, and if the customers decided to eat-in, approximately how long they'd take. I also noted frequency at which customers came. I also recorded the approximate ages of the customers (to the nearest decade), and if the customers were part of a group, what the relationship structure was within the group (for example, a family, a couple, or co-workers).
People who are already shopping are easy to spot, since they lug around a shopping basket or cart. People who want Japanese food will not order items from the Chinese food dominated cafeteria counter, nor would they pick up items from the sides/non-Japanese food shelves. Finally, customers who would want something quick would probably tend not to go to the order counter (since it takes time for the food to be prepared), and are most likely to take out a meal. If they do eat in, then the amount time they will take to eat the food will be small.
Due to the timing of the observations, I fully expected there to be a bias toward lunch and dinner crowds that wanted something quickly. I also believed that there would be a bias towards Japanese food, as well as (for the evening) an increase in the number of shoppers who stop by. The Japanese food bias is due to the immense competition by other restaurants in the surrounding area. I conjectured that people who wanted other types of cuisines would be more inclined to go to restaurants with that kind of food. The shopper bias in the evening is due to the simple fact that a lot of people do their shopping after work. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was unable to observe behaviour at the lunch counter the entire day. The composition of customers should also change dramatically over the weekends, particularly increasing the number of customers who are also shopping at the main store.
Definite patterns emerged from observations of customers going through the lunch counter and its associated shelves.
Movement patterns emerged among both people who bought something from the counters and from people who bought something from the shelves. The following table summarizes the most common movement patterns:
| Movement Name | Usual person type | % cust. at lunch | % cust. at dinner |
| Meander, then counter | All | 15 | 30 |
| Direct to cafeteria counter | Time constrained | 40 | 10 |
| Direct to order counter | Japanese Food, Other | 10 | 5 |
| Meander, then shelf, pay at reg. | Time constrained | 30 | 30 |
| Meander, then shelf, pay elsewhere | Shopper, Other | 5 | 25 |
The disparity between the percentage of customers who went to the counter directly during lunch versus during dinner can be explained by the time constraints workers may have for lunch vs. after work. The frequency of people who ate in at lunch was pretty close to 40%, while during dinner it was only about 20%. Average time of eating in the dining area was about 7 minutes. Most of the people who meandered and then bought something from the shelves did not eat in.
Almost noone browsing the shelves knew exactly what they wanted. Almost all of them browsed at least 2 of the shelves before deciding whether or not to head to the counters or pick up a food item off the shelf.
One interesting movement pattern that I did not expect was that people tended to arrive in bunches, particularly at lunch. Unfortunately, this causes a jam at the upper right entrance into the area. Customers typically stalled there and waited in line, or else meandered through the shelves to see what was available. One possible reason for this wave behaviour may come from a staggered set of lunch hours, or that most customers tended to arrive via bus or some other public transportation. Unfortunately, it would be difficult for a single person to actually figure out whether or not a customer drove to the store or not.
During lunch, I estimate that 15% of all purchases were by people who specifically wanted something Japanese. This was a surprise to me, as I had expected that people interested in non-Japanese restaurants would instead go to the many restaurants in the immediate area. However, the cafeteria counter does have the advantage in that almost all the food sold there is ready to eat, so there may be a convenience as well as a time constraint factor at work here. Most of the food purchases during lunch could be classified as full meal dishes, which is not too surprising, since very few customers were shoppers.
During dinner, I estimate that 25% of all purchases were by people who wanted something Japanese. Side dishes dominated, accounting for approximately 70% of all purchases.
There existed a bimodal distribution in the ages of people present during the observations: people in their 20s or early 30s, and people 50+.
People in their 20s or early 30s predominated during lunch. This can be attributable to the usage of the lunch counter as a quick way to get food before heading back to work. This group of people tended to come individually, and were not very likely to eat in. They tended to go directly to the counters or to the shelves; not many meandered back and forth between the two, unless the line for the counters were too long.
While I was not surprised by the number of people who were in their 20s/30s as customers, I was surprised by the large number of senior citizens present both during lunch and dinner. Senior citizens tended to eat in (especially during lunch), and spent more time on average at their tables. Senior citizens tended to arrive in groups of 2 or more, and were much more likely to browse through the shelves before either picking a food item off the shelf or head to one of the counters. The reason for a large senior citizen customership is an open question to me, and may be worth exploring in a followup.
I utilized ethnographic observation to note people behaviour and characteristics at Uwajimaya's lunch counter. I hypothesized that there essentially exists three classes of customers, and determined that while there seems to be a large segment corresponding with people in a rush, as well as a large segment corresponding with shoppers, there doesn't seem to be a particularly pronounced percentage of people who specifically want Japanese food. This seems to suggest to me that other motivations may be more important, and is worthy of a followup study. Also, I was surprised to find that people tended to come to the area in waves, and that there is a substantial number of customers that are 50 years of age or older. The latter could represent a potential market that the employees running the counter could attempt to cater, while the former seems to indicate that changes should be made to the layout of the counter and shelves to better accomodate the wave behavior.