Week 7

The main thing my subculture needs is for corporate to pay attention to the needs of the stores. This is evident in many of the interviews that I did and in the basic research. Certain items sell well in our region and yet corporate makes no changes based on store location and demographic. Many interviewees described corporate's lack of caring as their least favorite thing about the subculture. I don't really know how I could give back to the subculture. I work there, so I can continue to work hard and put forth effort when I work. As far as making corporate understand our needs, I don't think that is ever going to happen. We've tried to communicate with corporate before, but it always somehow gets lost in the web that we have to go through to talk to the higher-ups.  

Box 19

Observations:

red/black/green/yellow plaid flats. black soles. used for walking outdoors. stylish.

flats differ from other shoes in a number of ways. they're less athletic than tennis shoes. more dressy than flip flops. not as dressy as heels. assuming she bought them at a shoe store. they also could've potentially been a gift. they're clean so I'm assuming they're relatively new. 

Interview:

Are they your favorite shoes?

no, but they're cute

Where did you get them?

Payless

Who were you with when you got them?

mom

Is there any signifant meaning they have to you?

no, just like how they look

Theorize:

To better understand the artifact and further understand its significance I can research flats and Payless shoes.

Survey

Click here to take my survey.

Survey

Click here to take my survey.

Groundwork Activity

First Impressions: The first time I became aware of my subculture was about four years ago. At that point, I was an outsider. I was a customer. I don't really remember anything about the people in the store, just that I liked the clothes, so I shopped there. I do remember that the manager at that particular time was always super friendly and got along with my mom really well. The 'landscape' of the store was well organized and not cluttered. There was never very many people shopping there, so it was easy to move around. It was a convenient place to shop. The Fossil I know now is much different than that Fossil I experienced then. The main things I would like to ask questions about are; why has the store changed so much? and is it all the new management's doing that it has changed?

How You Feel in the New Space: Four years ago, when the store was a 'new place' to me, I felt very comfortable there. I liked that the music was soft and that not many other people where ever in the store. There were never tons of employees crowded me to 'try to make the sale' and it was all just really laid back. 

How do you Know You're an Outsider: When I was an outsider, this was marked by the places in the store I wasn't allowed to be in. As an outsider, I couldn't go behind the counter where the cash registers were. I wasn't allowed to go into the back rooms of the store either. I also had to ask an insider anytime I wanted into a dressing room or a watch case. As an outsider, most of the insiders would talk to me differently than they would talk to each other. They were much more casual in their talk with each other, and with me the conversations almost always only revolved around items in the store. 

Week 6

"Fossil." Fossil. 2009. 18 Feb 2009 .

            This source is the official website for the subculture my subculture is a part of. The main purpose of the site is to display the different products Fossil stores sell. They also have a “style guide” that helps the viewer figure out how to put a Fossil outfit together. At the bottom of each page there are links that take you to various things like “customer care” and “investor relations.”  

            This source will be helpful in creating my mini ethnography because it’s the main site for my subculture. It will give insight into the subculture my subculture stems off of. Learning the different policies the corporation has will make the behaviors in the Greenwood Park Mall Fossil more easily explainable.  

 

 "Fossil Appoints a New Retail Division President." Internet Retailer. 13 February 2009. 18 Feb 2009 .

            This source is an article announcing that the Fossil Corporation appointed a new retail division president. This was a newly invented position given to women named Jennifer Pritchard. For the job, Pritchard reports directly to the CEO of Fossil. She is mainly responsible for the retail concepts in all of the Fossil stores worldwide.

            This article will be helpful to my mini ethnography because it shows how Fossil has changed. The article was written in 2006. Pritchard has had an effect on every Fossil store, including the one in the Greenwood Park Mall, since that point in time. The article also outlines the number of each type of Fossil store worldwide. The fact that Fossil is a relatively small chain corporation is telling.

Box 18

One focal point I've noticed in my subculture is the check out area. When the members interact with one another, they are usually standing on either side of the check out area. When I did a few of my interviews, they were conducted by the check out area. This seems to be the main gathering area in the store for the members. This is the spot that they feel most comfortable. I would assume that that is because it's located in the direct center of the store. Every part of the store can be easily viewed from the check out area. The thought that the members of the subculture feel most comfortable at the check out area is sort of ironic though. It is store policy not to be around the check out area unless there is a customer that needs to be helped there. Socializing around the check out area is really a sort of deviation from the subculture's higher powers. 

Week 5

I have done some observations at the field-site of my subculture. I've also researched some online. I'm having difficulty figuring out where I want to go with my ethnography, however. I don't really know what central idea I want to focus on, or what I really want to share about the subculture. This is making research really difficult too. It's not like there are tons of blogs and other sites about Fossil stores, so I need to broaden my research. I don't really know what I want to broaden it to, though. I was hoping to already have interviewed most of the members of the subculture, but couldn't come up with good questions. I thought that after observing the field-site, I would be more clear on what I wanted to ask and where I wanted to take the ethnography. That wasn't the case. Interviews are deffinitely going to play a major role in my ethnography, so I want to get those done as soon as possible, but I also want them to be informative and useful. I also need to get the interviews done and ready for the anotated bibliography, which is coming up soon. 

Box 15

Sitting in my room at my parents’ house is my favorite chair.  It’s a pea green color, the color often associated with the seventies. This association is heightened with the surrounding rust orange colored walls and patchouli sent. The chair is the same style as a Lazy Boy, a knock off, of course. The fabric of the chair is old and worn to the point that it almost looks like it’s covered in shag carpeting. The chair sits in the corner of the room. The blinds in my room are meant to keep out all sunlight, but an uncovered edge of the window allows light to pour in during the early afternoon, hitting the chair’s corner. Sitting in the chair is unlike sitting in any other chair. It’s almost like it gives you a big, warm, cozy hug. Immediately after getting the chair I felt a sense of belongingness and safety with it. I bought the chair at a garage sale a number of years ago for twenty dollars. It was worth every penny. 

In Class Writing

I think the video was both an ethnography and a work of entertainment. There was significant research and tons of interviews that really gave the viewer insight into the culture.

The interview subjects were the main people in the subculture. That was important because, since the subculture was so exclusive, an outsider's view would be very different than the reality of the subculture. The interviews tell the story. The narrative just fills in a few places with the facts of what was happening during the time period. The narrator would inform the viewer that there was a drought in California, and then the interview subjects would talk about skating in dried up pools.

The subculture was very exclusive and very territorial. They grew up in poor neighborhoods and felt like the outsiders couldn't relate. The saw themselves as surfers, first and foremost. Because of the wind, they could only surf in the mornings. That gave them the rest of the day to skateboard. They acted as a group and never allowed someone else into the group without consulting the rest of the group. The obvious artifacts that played a major role in the subculture were surfboards and skateboards.

The documentary was organized chronologically. The interviews were edited to tell the majority of the story and the narrator filled in the blanks. I think this really helped the viewer understand the subculture. The filming and the editing all seemed very raw, which played into the overall feel of the subculture.

I previously thought that skateboarders were very anti-mainstream. This still holds true after seeing the video. The subculture did everything in its power to stay exclusive and not mainstream.

I trust what the creator is telling us because there are so many interviews. You don't ever get an outsider's view of the subculture, but I think the insider's perspective is more interesting. Sure, it is bias because there are no outside interviews, but I don't think it makes it any less credible. I don't think the video would be as entertaining if it had the outsider's opinions intermixed.

Week 4

So far I haven't officially observed my subculture. I'm going to do that this weekend, so right now I can't make any specific conclusions. However, I definitely think that geography does play a huge role in the behaviors of my subculture. The only other Fossil retail store in Indiana is located in Castleton. That's not too far from Greenwood, but the store is completely different. Even though the employees are mostly Caucasian, the Castleton store is more diverse than the Greenwood store. The Castleton store is also much larger than the Greenwood store meaning that they have more employees. Having more employees means that the workers aren't as close to one another. I don't think that different religions will affect the different stores. The employees at the Greenwood store have religious beliefs ranging from Pentecostalism to Athism. Those different beliefs haven't really had much of an impact on the relationships or the subculture as a whole.

In Class Writing

*never been hungry

*parents together

*have a sibling

*white

*easy job

*able to go to college

*middle class family

*own room at parents' house

My privileges are going to have an influence on my research. In my subculture I share many of the same privileges as the other members. None of them have ever been hungry, most of them have an easy job (except for the manager), all of them have gone to college for some amount of time, most of them have at least one sibling, and most were raised in a middle class family. Many of them, however, don't still have parents that are married. I don't think that's going to make too much of a difference in my research, especially since no one that works there still lives with their parents.