Coffee culture is an integral aspect of today’s culture. Individuals frequent coffee shops to meet with friends, relax, read or even to work. With the increasing importance of coffee shops in today’s society, it is necessary to examine the social interactions in coffee shops through visual and content analysis. Coffee house interiors impact the ways customers engage with one another within the given space. The patterns of social interaction in a coffee shop can be used to explain social interaction in other informal environments. Hence, coffee houses are microcosms of the larger informal forms of social and environmental engagement.
The Premier Coffee Shop is a new coffee shop in midtown. The coffee shop has a sitting capacity of 80 people, and it serves different types of coffee, snacks and simple meals. As a new coffee shop, it attracts many customers, who want to try out the new location. To increase the market share of the new coffee shop, the management has adopted the affordable pricing strategy. The beautiful setting of the Premier Coffee Shop, made up of the rustic yet beautiful décor, effective use of space and proper division of the shop between public and private spaces, makes it one of the best coffee shops in town. The Premier Coffee Shop is unique, but it has similarities with other coffee shops in town and across the globe. The social interaction between customers as well as the servers can also be used to understand social interaction outside the coffee shop.
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According to Waxman (2006) coffee places act as third places in the society, they are gathering places that help us to understand human interactions beyond the realms of home and work. Third places enable people to connect and exchange ideas in a different manner. The social interaction in the coffee place often encourages place attachment. Alternatively, other factors such as décor, menu, and the use of space have an effect on place attachment (Waxman, 2006). Waxman also explores the top factors to be considered by customers in choosing a coffee shop. The factors are: furniture comfort, aroma, cleanliness, adequate lighting and view of the outside. These factors increase the comfort of the customers as well as their allegiance to the shop.
The Premier Coffee Shop has simple and rustic décor. As customers enter the coffee shop, they are immersed by the simple yet beautiful interior décor. The outside décor also plays a role in attracting first time customers, the glass doors and the windows on the side enables passersby to get a glimpse of the beautiful interior décor while allowing natural light. The hanging Edison bulbs contrast with the interior wooden setting. The wall paintings and the sans-serif logos on the walls add color to the rustic interiors. The décor is based on the themes of comfort, simple beauty and rustic charm. The rustic charm seen in the use of wooden chairs, dark colors and wooden walls is contrasted with colored cushions, bright bulbs, and flowerpots to create simple beauty. The décor used in the Premier Coffee Shop borrows from the aesthetic aspirations of coffee shops in general. Coffee shops across the world are known for the austere interiors, use of wood, unique bulbs and wall paintings. The sameness of coffee shop design aims at providing the same experience to customers. However, slight forms of differentiations are encouraged to attract customers.
The menu design matches the design of the coffee shop. The folder style menu has colors and fonts that match the décor theme to convey the right impression to the customers. The menu comprised of breakfast, lunch, salads, soups, appetizers and drinks. Having a diverse menu means that the Premier Coffee Shop can attract customers at different periods of the day. For instance, at noon most customers ordered food stuff such as baked chicken wings and fries instead of ordering a latte. At noon, the customers took time to eat and drink while engaging in deeper conversations with other customers and the servers. The servers took the time to engage with customers to inform them about the chef’s specials for the day and to suggest food options for the customers. The evenings were characterized by longer social interactions, customers took their time to order food and drinks while engaging in lengthy conversations.
The use of space in the coffee shop also determines the level of interaction. The main counter, tables and chairs are properly situated in the Premier Coffee Shop. There is an eclectic mix of two-person tables in the middle of the room, futon sofas at the ends and a few upholstered chairs near the main counter. The floors are wooden, and colorful rugs are used to contrast the brown wooden chairs and floors. There is a big menu hanging on the counter, and it is used a demarcation between the kitchen and the main area of the coffee shop. Natural light comes in through the windows facing the south. The social interaction can be understood by analyzing the use of space. I observed that couples tend to sit on the two-person tables as they appeared cozy, while friends tend to occupy the futon sofas as they are more comfortable and spacious.
The coffee shop has an effective division of public and private spaces. The tables in the corners are more private, they are demarcated by the use of tall chairs to create some form of privacy. However, the middle part of the coffee shop has simple chairs that do not create much privacy. I also observed that the coffee shop played music throughout. The slow background music adds to the ambience of the coffee shop and enables customers to converse well. Premier Coffee Shop specifically played Jazz, slow house and instrumental music in the background because they are favored by the customers.
I observed the rhythms of interaction in the Premier Coffee Shop at three different periods- in the morning, at noon and in the evening. The coffee shop was quite busy in the morning and in the evening, but it was less busy during noon and lunch hour. The morning rush hour attracted many customers who drank their coffee in a hurry, while some of them bought coffee and snacks to go. The customers visiting the coffee shop in the morning were older in comparison to the customers visiting the shop at noon and in the evening. The social interaction in the morning hours was limited as customers hurried to go to work. The interaction between the servers and customers was also limited because of the rush to serve many customers visiting the shop.
From the three incidences of observation, it is evident that coffee houses are regular avenues of social transactions. Coworkers pass by coffee house to catch up before and after work, friends go to the coffee shop to interact, while families go there to eat and socialize. However, it is worth noting that social interaction is affected by the aesthetics. For instance, the concept of space plays a complementary role. The space in The Premier Coffee Shop is strategically created to accommodate individuals, couples, and larger groups. Will (2013) states that the person-environment transaction and social interaction in a coffee place is a result of place attachment, created by the user’s senses after engaging with the environment. The use of space, in terms of sitting arrangement is created to enhance social interactions. For instance, the more private chairs at the corners are favorites for couples and individuals who want to engage in work. Large group of customers tends to sit in the comfortable futon sofas because they are comfortable and can accommodate many people at the same time.
The coffee shop also manipulates kinesthetic space through effective arrangement of furniture and space (Baraban & Durocher, 2010). In the Premier Coffee Shop, the furniture is arranged in a way that creates spaces in between to create the impression that the coffee house is big.
Like many other coffee houses, Premier Coffee Shop has a bank of sensory cues- aroma, décor, effective lighting, and music. Such environmental properties have an effect on the social interaction and creates lasting impression on the customers. For instance, the Premier Coffee Shop plays slow background music so that individual clients will not be bored, while enabling other clients to engage in conversations. The aesthetics of the coffee house enables it to offer an intimate and stimulating atmosphere for customers. The ambience also creates a sense of belonging, making it easy for the patrons to engage in social interaction (Will, 2013). The coffee house setting fosters community and equality among customers.
The issue of gender can be understood through observation of social interaction in the Premier Coffee Shop (Limburg, 2013). There are differences between genders that can be absorbed in social interaction. For instance, the gender performance of servers changes depending on the customers they are dealing with. Female servers tend to be more friendly to women customers, while they approach a more serious approach when dealing with male customers. Servers in the coffee shop understand that they can get more tips due to normative gender performances. Men adhere to hegemonic masculinity, while women tend to emphasize on their femininity (Limburg, 2013). Among the customers, single women and men who visited the coffee shop also portrayed the normative gender roles on their own and when engaging with the servers, for instance, male patrons showed subtle forms of male dominance, such as maintaining eye contact and being assertive. On the other hand, female patrons did not engage in intense eye contact, and they tend to ask the servers on what they should order instead of being assertive.
The interview with the staff member affirmed some of my observations. The staff member believed that the aesthetics in the coffee shop influenced social interaction and place attachment. For instance,larger families preferred to sit in larger spaces to enable easy interaction and contact with the family members. The staff member suggested that without an effectively designed environment, the coffee shop would not attract many customers as the ambience plays an important role in social interaction. The staff member also commented on the issue of gender and social interaction in the coffee shop. Male customers tend to be more direct and sometimes intimidating to the servers. On the other hand, female customers tend to portray emphasized femininity. Females are more likely to say “thank you” or “please” in comparison to men.
In conclusion, the coffee house is a unique environment that can be used to understand social interaction in informal environments. To attract customers, coffee shop owners create an environment that will foster social interaction between different types of customers. Different patrons have specific sitting places that they are used to because they can interact better from such places. Observing customer interaction in the Premier Coffee Shop can also shed light on patterns of gender interaction in an informal environment. For instance, male customers tend to adhere to hegemonic masculinity through subtle forms of male dominance.
References
Baraban, R. S., & Durocher, J. F. (2010). Successful restaurant design . John Wiley & Sons.
Limburg, A. (2013). Large Americano, Extra Masculine: How People Do Gender at The Coffee House. The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography , 3 (2), 1-4.
Waxman, L. (2006). The coffee shop: Social and physical factors influencing place attachment. Journal of Interior Design , 31 (3), 35-53.
Will, A. K. (2013). Patterns of behavior over coffee: an exploration of engagement among coffee-house patrons in Greensboro, North Carolina . University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
