Kroger Grocery store in Atlanta is located on 2452 Morosgo way NE, in Georgia. The grocery store operates in an environment that is characterized by orderliness and protocol. Also, the way of operations within the grocery store observes utmost decorum. On a typical weekday, people getting into the store operate as if they were given special training for being grocery customers. The people stand in orderly lines, picking different items from the menus colored with various bright colors, swiping their credit cards to pay for the products, and patient enough to collect their grocery in wrappers. Although no rules are posted within the premises of the store, movement of employees and customers is excellent. The grocery store is highly diversified in terms of race and ethnicity considering both the customers and staff members. Most customers are African American and White while majority of the staff are White. However, some of the workers are Latin Americans and of African American descent. While communication within such a business setting is important, the method of communication is more fundamental because in such a setting social interactions are primary in driving sales. The customers mostly use nonverbal communication among themselves especially when it gets busy with clients flocking the store. Nonverbal communication in this case helps in smooth coordination of tasks while avoiding disruptions in work flow. Customer complaints ate handled in quite an orderly manner. Customers are fully involved in the decision making process. The customer is always free to lodge a grievance to the complaint box and also give a suggestion of what could have been done instead in the situation they found uncomfortable. The suggestion is implemented in the next visit of the customer.
On the other hand, Sav-A-Lot grocery store is located in Metropolitan 2455 Delkwe in Atlanta, Georgia. Unlike Kroger, Sav-A-Lot grocery store is situated in a low to middle income society in Georgia. The store is as well organized with colorful menus which display the trademark of the store. Employees are from different races and ethnicities around America, but mostly African Americans and Latin Americans are employed in this store probably because they are among the dominant races in the region. While customer complaints are always handled, the decision to fix the problem is not as instant as at Kroger. The customer complaint is always maintained to be anonymous and direct satisfaction from customization of products is rarely achieved. Modes of communication within the grocery among employees takes horizontal communication models and vertical communication when senior employees are involved. However, communication with the customers is maintained to be informal to allow effective service delivery.
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Adamsville healthcare is located at 186 Sunset Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. The healthcare center is a local public health center run by the Fulton County Healthcare Board. The healthcare facility is run in an organized style especially with topnotch cooperation between nurses, clinical officers, doctors, among other staff members. The staff are from diverse cultural backgrounds based on their ethnicity and race. Also, patients in the hospital cut across these boundaries since the facility is not discriminative of patients. Communication between healthcare workers, social workers, and patients is always effective: healthcare workers are friendly to patients and people visiting the facility beginning from provision of directions, answering inquiries made, and general advisory. On the other hand, doctors are keen to understand needs of the patients by asking about their background so that they can provide bespoke services. Deaf patients, and those facing the challenge of communication in English especially Latinos, are usually accorded help through nonverbal communication and interpreters.
For the case of public transportation, whether commuting from Metropolitan Atlanta to Amtrak train station, or any other location, behavior of people is all the same regardless of location. However, significant differences are exhibited due to disparities in their cultures which influences how they relate with others in public transport means. A passenger would be required to get to a marked bus station or grain station, and patiently wait for the train or the bus, and pay an agent either before or after boarding the bus or train. However, in some situations, especially when almost everyone around town is using train transport for commuting, passengers get into a lot of pushing and crowding hence indicating the daily problems on a train system in a metropolitan area. The train personnel are always friendly while on the other hand drivers of public transport buses express support at all times. Although lines are something that need to be observed for purposes of order, the speed of the staff members is excellent because the lines are done in a record time. Lively conversations are rare during these trips; passengers tend to keep to themselves alighting one by one till the last commuter is dropped. Also, both the staff and the passengers using public transport means cut across all ethnicities within the country and Georgia state as well.
Reflection
Social interaction is handled differently in varying settings of culture, tradition, or geography. For instance, use of communication models such as nonverbal communication vis-à-vis verbal communication, and minimal verbal interactions are aspects I observed and affirmed to be different based on the nature of the setting. Customers at Kroger grocery store did little social interactions: people stood orderly in lines awaiting their turns to be served without holding conversations among themselves. On the other hand, customers at Sav-A-Lot grocery store ranged between medium and high social interaction levels: customers exchanged conversations while staff members also exchanged words either for purposes of serving or usual banters. This aspect was parallel to my expectations about high end grocery stores among other stores of this social calibre. I assumed since these stores are high end, people who visit them are probably in corporate jobs and rarely have the time to hold conversations around places such as grocery stores. On the other hand, low income and middle income individuals are driven by collectivism rather than individualism hence their nature to socially interact freely regardless of the place they meet. Although public transport is a means used mostly by low income and middle income people for lack of private transport means, especially for short voyages, I expected to witness rowdiness and lots of social interaction. However, contrary to these stereotypes, the people in the train talked less and were more orderly.
The aspect of ethnicity and race was also a factor I was keen about regarding the response of different settings towards race. As a person living in a modern world, I was positive about finding diverse cultural backgrounds on different settings regardless of social status and class. For instance, the aspect of inclusivity was one that got fulfilled across all the places I visited: the train station, the grocery stores and Adamsville healthcare center. Latin Americans, African Americans, Asians, and Whites were well represented in the work force. I felt that this was exactly what I had pictured. Modern America is driven by aspects of social democracy, personal liberty and freedom which are expected to be effective everywhere across the country. Security was a major concern in these areas though. The Sav-A-Lot grocery store did not have enough security compared to Kroger which had many cameras to the extent most customers complained about privacy issues. I expected to witness a few security glitches in the public transport system, the public health center and the low end grocery store. However, as much as I witnessed this at Sav-A-Lot and the train, Adamsville was a public health center with good security systems and friendly personnel.
Theory
The person-in-environment social lens embodies the aspect of the interaction of an individual with their environment. The behavior of customers, passengers, and patients visiting Adamsville was a key aspect to check against this social lens. Customers at Kroger probably interacted less with each other due to busy work schedules, or tradition. Individuals in these spaces are mostly used to private spaces such as offices and might enjoy their own company more than that of other people. On the other hand, patients visiting Adamsville for free clinics probably did that out of lack of money to visit high end healthcare centers or just choice. However, despite their motives, the reaction from the patients illustrated satisfaction from the services offered.
Also, the aspect of employment of different ethnic cultures and races in the grocery stores, the train station, and the public health center as well as openness to any individual regardless of their ethnicity was consistent with the diversity perspective. The doctors among other staff members in specific, gave required attention to everyone regardless of their race and even helped those with language barrier problems. Also, the social interaction among patients, and between patients and doctors, is parallel to the social framework of strength perspective where through awareness of an individual's abilities, healing and wellness can be achieved. Individuals who must use public transport, and low end stores should be frisked for security issues because it is never assured.
Conclusion and Recomendations
The two primary social justice issues evident in my experience are social discrimination and stereotyping as well as racial discrimination. The aspect of dominant culture and mainstream causes social injustices in several ways especially involving social classes and ethnicity (Ford, 2016). Dominant cultures within the society are defined by social classes or ethnicities. Based on social classes, people with affluence and high social status tend to dominate access to quality healthcare services among other privileges ( Waldegrave, 2009) . Also, cultures with majority members tend to impose their tradition and practice into marginalized cultures hence violating rules of social justice ( Sibley & Liu, 2012) . However, these imbalances can be rectified by investing in boosting public security using CCTV cameras in public spaces which can by default monitor public transport used by low income people (Hirsch, 2018). Also, high end places should consider repackaging their products to cater for low income earners, while campaigns against discrimination of free medical care should be run to create awareness and destroy associated stereotypes.
References
Hirsch, D. (2018). The ‘living wage’and low income: Can adequate pay contribute to adequate family living standards?. Critical Social Policy, 38(2), 367-386.
Ford, R. (2016). Who should we help? An experimental test of discrimination in the British welfare state. Political Studies, 64(3), 630-650.
Sibley, C. G., & Liu, J. H. (2012). Social Representations of History and the Legitimation of Social Inequality: The Causes and Consequences of Historical Negation 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology , 42 (3), 598-623.
Waldegrave, C. (2009). Cultural, gender, and socioeconomic contexts in therapeutic and social policy work. Family process , 48 (1), 85-101.
