The sound of blenders and the smell of burnt coffee grinds buzz in the air. Drains flush loudly, and milk steamers scream like teapots. Two female baristas work the Starbucks conveniently located inside of a Barnes and Noble. One takes orders, and has on gold hoop earrings and purple eye shadow. The other shuffles her feet when she walks. She makes the drinks and hands them to the customers over a short clear class partition. They both wear green aprons and black caps. Two customers wait near the partition, tapping away on their iPhones. They don’t look up or at one another although they entered the shop together. The female counterpart wears a bikini top underneath her tank top. The male wears a stuffed backpack and oversized jeans. As the female approaches the counter to retrieve her hot beverage, I notice a large tattoo of wings in black and grey ink located across her entire upper back. She also has sunglasses on top of her head.
A woman across from me is eating hot tomato soup. It smells like pasta. There is an elderly couple behind me. The male gets up about every five minutes to ask the barista if his drink is ready. Each time he returns to his seat, he wonders aloud if the next drink being thrust over the partition is his. A woman in a blue and white floral blouse orders a drink. The blender is on. Refrigerators are being opened. Two men enter the shop. They open the small drink refrigerator before they approach the counter. One man is young with a blue star tattoo on his elbow. The other man is older with grey hair, a tan cap, and blue jeans. A woman waiting in line behind the two men shifts back and forth from foot to foot. She stares at the case concealing cookies and cheesecakes and other treats, and shifts her feet some more.
Now, the barista taking orders is a short female who can barely see over the register. She has a pink flower stuffed in her shirt pocket. A man stares up at the Barnes and Noble level above us while waiting for his drink. He wears a green button up shirt, and has an afro. Three women, two brunettes and a blonde, sit to my right. One brunette puts her fingers up and waves them in the air when she talks. The blonde keeps her drink in her hand the whole time and nods. The other brunette woman has her back to me but her head shakes from side to side occasionally.
The line is growing quickly, and people continuously shift their eyes to see if anyone in the seating area is getting up. It’s a crowded Monday afternoon. A woman sits punching in things on her white iPhone, and a man is coughing next to her. He is on a large black laptop, wears a pink shirt and has ear buds in his ears. A man with a green collared shirt grabs a banana and walks off. The barista refills the espresso machine. Two women with backpacks sit down and begin talking in a high pitched tone. One checks her makeup in a compact mirror, and begins touching and dabbing her face all over. She has glasses on. The woman at the table next to them reads a book that says Thailand on the cover. It’s a National Geographic edition. She is Asian.
A woman in a purple knee length jacket and green skirt enters the shop. She wears sunglasses on her head and has a large brown leather satchel on her shoulder. She is looking into the case of cookies. A man in a blue collared polo shirt has been anxiously searching the shop for a place to sit. After pacing back and forth and moving his backpack from one section of the store to another, he finally grabs the table the two women with backpacks were sitting at. He motions to a female to come sit with him. He pulls out a Macbook Air and a notebook. The female companion is writing something on a sheet of paper. The man in the blue polo switched from the seat on the right of the table to the seat on the left. He pulls his laptop along with him. He crosses his feet.
An older woman enters the shop with a blue and white striped cap and dark brown sunglasses. She has grey roots but the rest of her hair is red, or at least what I can see of it under the cap. She has long fingernails and wears a large ring on her left hand. She has a white coat hanging from her shoulders and wears beige, sharply ironed pants. She orders at the counter and her male companion enters the store to pay for her order. He has unruly grey hair and lifts each leg cautiously when he walks. He has a yellow polo shirt and a large belly. His pants are also perfectly ironed. He has brown suede shoes. They talk to each other and he smiles. Unfortunately, I can’t hear their conversation. The woman turns around and her blue stud earrings and red lipstick show brightly. The retrieve their coffees and walk out of the shop together side by side. There is a lull in customers and the two baristas are counting the change in the drawers. One emerges from behind the counter to wipe of the few empty tables and to refill the condiment bar.
A girl in a green T-Shirt and black leggings orders something at the counter. She is hunched over and her hands are clenched in front of her chest. She bounces up and down while talking to the barista. A tall woman with short blonde hair stands in line behind her. She fluffs up her bangs. She wears a black suit jacket and black sweatpants. She orders and scratches the side of her face. There is a woman dressed in running attire behind her. Her shirt, pants, and bag are all some shade of blue. She has a magazine under her arm. The woman with the black suit jacket stands at the condiment bar. She leans over when she pours the sugar into her drink.
A woman with a pink black and white floral print dress enters. She’s digging in a bag that is literally as long as her torso. There is a blue clip on the side of her bag. She digs for a minute or so, but the walks away. She drags her feet as she exits the store. She had on black sandals with approximately two-inch –tall heels. The woman in the black suit jacket stands, coffee in one hand, weight sitting on one hip, and looks at a rack of magazines. She sips quickly.
A girl next to me writes frantically on a piece of paper. She has books and journals strewn all across her tiny table. She has a coffee sitting there that she hasn’t touched. The steam rises from its open lid and I can smell the caramel. A woman with small legs and a short torso with a green jacket tacked with silver buttons down the sleeves and red hair stands at the counter. She has a brown purse strap trailing across her back. She leans over to sign her receipt. She wears black and white pumas and dangling green earrings. Her jeans stop right above her ankles. She’s smiling. She stands at the side of the partition looking around at the shop, and the people occupying its space. A man stands behind her wearing a blue cap and glasses with a neck strap.
A woman in short shorts and a white zip up jacket stand at the counter next to a guy in a plaid shirt. He licks his lips as he looks into the air. She plays with her long light brown hair. After ordering, she stands at the partition with her arms crossed and back turned to the barista. A woman stands in line whistling loudly. She has blonde short hair and large bangs. She holds what looks like eight magazines in her arms, and sets them down on the counter when she orders. A woman in a red long sleeved shirt enters, but goes straight to a seat. She orders nothing. She has a backpack on and immediately begins talking on her cell phone. I hear her talking about how she can’t afford the trip to Santa Barbara, but she says she will keep the person on the other end posted. The plaid shirt guy and the girl in short shorts walk out of the store. He puts his hand in her back pocket. She’s holding a large black purse and a pink beverage. She twirls strands of her hair in her free hand, and they leave.
What the entire above observation becomes, is a construction of identity. Each thing mentioned in the ethnography has its own constructed truths. The Starbucks itself has characteristics that signify it as what it is, baristas with green aprons and black caps, the saturating smell of coffee grinds and sugar, and the display case of sweet treats. The cups with the green Starbucks mermaid logo: clear ones for cold beverages or solid white for hot ones, is a sure identifier of the brand.
Has the Western world become so obsessed with the notion of identity that even its stores must possess and hold true to one? The Starbucks store itself has a social identity. People expect all of the aforementioned things to appear in the Starbucks they enter. If they don’t, then that store sure isn’t Starbucks. Perhaps it’s a Coffee Bean.
Each person who entered Barnes and Noble and then trekked up the two flights of escalators, cell phones and laptops in hand, before reaching the Starbucks was projecting an image that helped to create their social identity for that moment. In a place as packed as that particular store was on a Monday evening, asserting ones identity was as easy as pouring sugar into a coffee. Each customer’s identity seemed to be “formed through difference as constituted by the play of signifiers. Thus, what [they] are is in part constituted by what [they] are not” (Barker 221). It was evident that the baristas were not the customers as signified through one’s uniform and physical position behind the counter, and another’s “everyday” clothing and ability to enter and leave the store as they wished. It was clear that some were in a hurry and others weren’t, as it was that some were male and some were females, and some were older and some were younger.
However, if looking at one specific example from the theoretical perspective of Ernesto Laclau, in which he attempts to dissolve the constraints and connections imposed by cultural and hegemonic commonalities, one can see that perhaps the labels applied to the customers of Starbucks are lackluster, elementary, and even stereotypical. Using the older couple as a prime example, it might be difficult to identify them as older than other customers when understanding that “the concept of articulation suggests that those aspects of social life, for example identities, that we think of as unified and eternal can instead be thought of as the unique, historically specific, temporary stabilization or arbitrary closure of meaning” (229). Although it is true biologically that the couple was older than most at the store, evident by the grey hair, wrinkled skin, and the slowness of their movements (which could be seen as their social identity), their self-identity emanated beyond their physical appearance. It shows that they care about their outward appearance. They appear to take better care of their clothing and their appearance than younger people, which is interesting to note being that this seems to be a culture so focused on appearance and looking attractive. The woman of the couple wore perfectly sculpted makeup and pretty jewelry. By no means did this couple assume the American stereotypical appearance of elderly people. They were not trapped in decades past, and were not abusing their identity as elderly people. They seemed to focus more on a connection with one another, and presented a quite strikingly young identity, if one is looking solely at outward accessories. This understanding of the two people breaks down the “links between discursive concepts” (229). This couple’s true age is more complex than it seems at first glance. Sure they may have lived more than sixty years on this planet already, but they seem to refuse to succumb to societal restraints that the age supplies for them.
Truly ruminating on identities takes more thought than an hour-long observation at a public place. Each person mentioned in the observation can be broken down and understood (just as the “elderly” couple was) in terms of Laclau’s idea that connections between discursive positions and essential identities are temporary. Perhaps all of society’s notions of the surrounding world are just that: simply ephemeral.
Word Count: 2,170
Works Cited
Barker, Chris. "Issues of Subjectivity and Identity." Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2008. 229. Print.
