Ethnographic Research
Project
Human Behaviors As Observed in a Shopping
Mall
Christopher Janney
1/23/2011
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ANTH 105
Student: Christopher Janney
Ethnographic Research Project: Human Behaviors As Observed in a Shopping Mall
Introduction
In this project I was directed to conduct a participant observation of a population within a
location of my choosing. The time frame recommended to obtain an accurate data set was a
minimum of three hours. I chose to conduct two sessions which totaled close to 2.5 hours.
Initially a third observation period was scheduled, but I found that the patterns that presented
themselves were so exact from one period to the next that I felt it unnecessary. My original
location of choice posed a problem due to time and distance, so as a fan of movies such as Mall
Rats and Bad Santa I decided to follow my second choice of shopping malls. As a teen I
personally spent an inordinate amount of time at malls in my area as a way to engage socially
with peers, and now as an adult I always find myself “people watching” while at malls and
curious to know more about the people I see. The mall I selected for this project was The Mall
in Columbia in part due to the proximity to my home, but further due to the stereotypical
format of the mall itself. While Arundel Mills Mall is slightly closer in physical distance I found
that it represents more of the outlet mall style versus the typical suburban mall. One of the
main factors I used to differentiate between an outlet mall and a typical suburban mall is the
lack or inclusion of department stores, which The Mall in Columbia has and Arundel Mills does
not.
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The time of day chosen for my observations was similar, around 12:50 PM. My first observation
took place on Saturday, January 15th, 2011 and the second took place on Friday, January 21st,
2011. Something I felt was important in conducting this project was to compare observations
collected on a weekend and on a weekday. My assumption was there would be glaring
differences in behavior between the two, although I had no expectations of what those
differences would be.
The location within the mall that I chose to observe from was the same both times and is
indicated in Figure 1.0 (General Growth Properties, 2011). Further detail of the area where I
was observing from is provided in Figure 1.1 as I recorded it in my notes. From the vantage
point chosen I was afforded a clear view of the immediate upper level, further into the upper
level, as well as the lower level. It was also a fortunate position due to being positioned
between multiple department stores and exits, as well as central to the flow of traffic.
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Figure 1.0
Banana
Republic
Abercrombie
& Fitch
Anne
Taylor
(Open to Lower Level)
(Open to Lower Level)
Bakers
Empty
The Body
Shop
Figure 1.1
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Observations
As I stated previously I came into this project with no specific expectations for the outcome. I
was not surprised to see a larger ratio of females to males (approximately 3 to 1) however
there were other trends and patterns that were certainly surprising and interesting. In total I
had eight major patterns that became apparent and that I was able to quantify (Figure 2.0),
which I have grouped in to 4 major themes and an “Other” category. Along with the measured
data that I collected were certain trends that I was unable to quantify, but took notes on
nonetheless which make up the “Other” category. One thing I found interesting was that most
behaviors were readily apparent and could be easily observed during each observation period
with a few noted exceptions.
Theme 1
The first major theme that became apparent was the use, or rather lack thereof cell phones. I
first took notice of this after a woman sat down next to me on the bench while on her cell
phone discussing personal and family matters, including financial issues that some other family
members were dealing with and her own decision to go back to work after being without a job
for a period of time. Prior to her sitting next to me talking on her phone I had not even thought
about looking at phone use. Once I began to actively look for this behavior, I found the number
of mall patrons walking around compared to the number using their phones was surprisingly
low. On Saturday it was approximately 5% (1 in 20) of people, while on the following Friday it
was only approximately 1.43% (1 in 70) of people. It was also observed that in general those on
cell phones were walking alone rather than with others.
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Theme 2
The second theme observed involved people carrying things. As observed, relatively few
people actually traveled around the mall with food and/or drinks. On Saturday it was only
approximately 1.5% (1 in 65) and on Friday not much higher with approximately 2% (1 in 50).
This measurement was based strictly on those who were visibly carrying a cup, bag, or food
item in their hands. The comparison of men to women with food is not represented, however
it was observed as being essentially even.
Since the location chosen involved shopping the presence of shopping bags was expected and I
decided to track the number of people carrying shopping bags. On Saturday the number of
people was almost 63% (5 in 8). Interestingly on Friday that number dropped to just over 37%
(3 in 8). This measurement does not differentiate between male and female, nor does it define
a difference between carrying one bag, multiple bags, or the number from any one brand. In
general there were more women than men with bags.
Theme 3
Theme 3 began looking at the largest population seen at the mall in more detail: women. As
they were the greatest number of mall patrons it was easiest to collect detailed information
relating to them. The two specific areas observed were women carrying purses and women
wearing jewelry. On Saturday almost all women were carrying purses (95% or 19 in 20). This
number was reduced by almost 25% on Friday to 75% (3 in 4). Of those women carrying purses
the majority of women carried them on their shoulder, specifically represented by 83.33% (5 in
6) on Saturday and 66.67% (2 in 3) on Friday.
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The second trend observed was the wearing of jewelry by women. For my intents and
purposes jewelry included earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, and watches. No differentiation
was made between obvious costume jewelry versus high-end jewelry. On both days that
observation took place the number of women wearing some type of jewelry was the same with
approximately 88.89% (8 in 9).
Theme 4
The final theme observed involved families. For this study a family was defined as a nuclear
family of a mother, father, and at least one child. It was decided to use this definition as it was
difficult to determine whether two women or two men together were in a relationship or
simply friends. It was observed that many families used strollers to transport their children in
the mall. Of those families using strollers on Saturday 87.5% (7 in 8) of the men were the ones
pushing the strollers. I was unable to measure this on Friday due to a lack of nuclear families
walking around.
The second observation was made due to a question received by a family member while
discussing the project and results from the Saturday observation. The question posed was,
“How many people with strollers are carrying their children or letting them walk?” As I had
already completed the initial observation, I have no data for that day in regards to this
question. I decided to track this during my Friday observation and found that about 37.5% (3 in
8) people with children and a stroller were either carrying the child or allowing them to walk.
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Other
Amongst the quantifiable data there were other notable observations that were not calculated
in terms of percentages, but that I still feel were of note. One of these includes the observation
that the most common color of clothing seen on both days of observation was some form of
black, which includes gray and charcoal.
I also found it interesting that although the temperature in the mall was a comfortable
temperature of approximately 70-75 degrees, the majority of people continued to wear their
coats and scarves while walking around. The major exception to this was children.
Another notable observation involved the movement of people in to stores. I observed many
people walking by stores, and while they would look at them at times, they would generally
continue walking by without entering them. It appeared as though most people entering a
store were going to that store on purpose and not simply enticed to enter as they passed.
The final “other” observation was probably the most interesting to me. It was observed that
traffic in the mall travels in nearly regular waves, and that these waves were made up of
strangers traveling in a pack without conscious decision to do so. An even more fascinating
point is that certain characteristics of these waves were apparent such as some waves would be
predominantly male, some would be predominantly female, some would be primarily of one
ethnicity, and some would be constructed of primarily families.
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100.00%
95.24%
90.00%
75.00%
80.00%
83.33%
88.89%
88.89%
87.50%
66.67%
70.00%
62.50%
60.00%
50.00%
37.50%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
37.50%
1.43%
2.00%
5.00%
1.54%
0.00%
On Phone
(Texting or With Food or People with at
Drink in Hand
Talking)
least one
Shopping Bag
0.00%
Ladies
Carrying a
Purse
0.00%
Ladies
Carrying Purse
on Shoulder
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
Women
Wearing
Jewelry
Men Pushing
Stroller
Parent
w/Stroller,
Carrying Child
or Child
Walking
Friday, January 21st, 2012
Figure 2.0
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Discussion
Theme 1
It is a fact that almost 70% of the world’s population owns a cell phone of some type
(International Telecommunication Union, 2010). For most, including myself, there is a general
feeling that people spend quite a bit of time on their cell phones. While this may be true in
many cases it appears that while at the mall that behavior, while not completely removed, is to
some degree reduced. Observing such a low use of cell phones was quite a shock to me. My
hypothesis upon observing this pattern of behavior was that people generally become socially
removed or closed off when on the phone and therefore by not using the phone they are
behaving in a more social manner. I conducted some further research to determine if there
were any studies related to cell phone use in public places and/or the relation to social
interaction in relation to cell phone usage. The best example I came upon was an article in The
Open Communication Journal from 2008 (O. Banjo, 2008). In the study cell phone usage is
“defined as any application of the cell phone as a tool, including talking, text messaging, game
playing, or the sheer accessibility of the instrument.” (O. Banjo, 2008, p. 127) For my purposes I
did not include the accessibility of the device.
In support of my hypothesis relating to the use of cell phones reducing social connection and
interaction, and thus the reduced use in the mall being affected by this I found that Banjo, Hu,
and Shyam Sundar cited two different works in stating that “Although observational research
shows that most cell phone users retreat from social settings when they are using the cell
phone in a public place (Ling, 1999b), findings also suggest that cell phone users use the cell
phone in public spaces as a form of exclusion (Bugeja, 2005; Ling, 2002). According to
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observational studies, cell phone users have been seen to acknowledge the presence of
strangers, by glancing or gazing, but, by their body language, appear closed to the idea of
pursuing any interaction (Ling, 1999b).” Based on this information it would seem plausible that
people consider the mall to represent a social setting and therefore would prefer to reduce the
amount of cell phone usage as appropriate.
Theme 2
I was unable to find any documented research on people eating in the mall including eating in
the food court versus carrying around their food. In my own experience I know that I tend to
eat in the food court if choose to eat mall food, and in general I will discard the cup or bottle of
drink. In large part throwing away the cup or bottle is to reduce the amount of stuff that I am
carrying so that my hands are free to look at merchandise in stores, and so that I don’t have to
worry about entering stores that frown upon shopping in them with drinks and food. I believe
if I were to conduct interviews with patrons in the mall the responses would support the
reasoning of not carrying food and drink.
My observation of the volume of people carrying shopping bags was surprising to say the least.
In large part my surprise comes from the economic downturn that we have experienced over
the last 2 to 3 years. My expectation was that there would be a minimum of patrons that were
actually purchasing merchandise. I believe that this is an expectation that many people would
have as is shown by Randy White in his paper The Grounded Consumer: Changing the Paradigm
of Shopping Center Entertainment (Randy White, 2009). While we would like to believe that
the overwhelming majority of the population has been affected by the recession and changed
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their behaviors (Randy White, 2009), the concept of “conspicuous consumption” is very much
alive and well. Also of note is that even though the outlook on shopping malls as a whole has
been bleak for a few years now (Dokoupil, 2008) it would appear that they are still thriving.
A final note on the observation relating to people carrying shopping bags that I think is
important is the difference between results on Saturday and Friday. It appeared as though
more of the people visiting the mall on Friday were there for food, socializing, or some other
reason than shopping. I believe this hypothesis is clearly evident in the difference of almost
half as many people with bags on Friday as on Saturday.
Theme 3
The finding that most women carry purses was not all-together surprising. In a report from
CNNMoney.com and Fortune Magazine it was found that “Ninety-five percent of women aged
18 to 64 carry a purse every day.” (Boyle, 2007) The second observation concerning women
carrying their purse on their shoulder didn’t seem baffling either. Initially my assumption was
that it simply keeps it out of the way and is more convenient. As a male who does not carry a
purse I knew that my experience in this area would be limited. After digging further for
information I found that women tend to carry large quantities of stuff in their purses, which has
steadily increased over the years causing the need for larger bags as well. (Shrager, 2010) The
extra weight associated with these larger, more full purses creates a need to find an easier way
to carry them, leading to putting them over the shoulder to bear the extra weight comfortably.
With regard to women wearing jewelry I was unable to find any sustainable references or
studies. It would appear, based on my observations, that many women use jewelry as simply
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an extension of their outfit. In many cases it was apparent that there was a mix of costume and
high-end jewelry being worn. My assumption would be that for many there are items of value
that have meaning behind them on a personal level and are worn for that reason, while the
fashion or costume jewelry is often worn as a way to add detail to the outfit. I believe in order
to test this hypothesis it would require a study all by itself.
Theme 4
As a parent, and even more so as a father, I was not completely surprised by the finding that in
general men were seen pushing the stroller. Based on my research it appears that this is a
trend that has been changing since the 80’s as evidenced by two articles in the journal Sex
Roles. The first article was written in 1989 and presents information relating to female and
male attention to toddlers while at the zoo. (A. L. Burns, 1989) In this article it was shown that
women were more likely to be the caretakers and to push the stroller. (A. L. Burns, 1989) In the
second article, only three years later in 1992, it was shown that women would be “more likely
to push empty strollers” (G. Mitchell, 1992), while men would be “more likely to carry
toddlers.” (G. Mitchell, 1992) It is my belief that since then the trend has continued to evolve
and change to present day when it is considered normal for a father to have a larger role in the
life of his children. The observations made during this project support this theory strongly in
my opinion.
With regard for the observation of people with strollers having their children walk or carrying
them I was unable to find any related research or statistics. I can speak from personal
experience however in stating that as my son gets older, the more he wants to get out of the
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stroller and move on his own. I would tend to believe that this is the case for many other
parents as well.
Other
As stated before, these observations were things that I felt were important enough to be
included but that did not have quantifiable data to be placed in their own themes. Even though
I did not have a tremendous amount of data to go on I still conducted research to support the
findings that I presented in this section. The color of clothing was something that interested
me because I truly didn’t expect to see such a lack of color among clothing. After further
research I found an article that describes black in this way: “Black is the color of authority and
power. It is popular in fashion because it makes people appear thinner. It is also stylish and
timeless.” (Johnson, 2007) Statements such as this could potentially give some reason for such
a large population wearing so much black.
One of the more random events that took place during my research project was a chance
encounter with some of the undercover security personnel. On my first day of observation I
noticed approximately 3 people whose movement in and out of stores, as well as around the
mall, did not match with the general movement of the general population. At the same time I
noticed that they seemed almost hyper-aware of the environment around them in comparison
to the majority of people walking around. At one point they walked away and one of the
females circled back to come and sit down on the bench beside me for a few minutes. The
male of the group showed up after approximately 15 minutes and they left together, only to
both return and sit down after another 15 minutes. As I listened to the conversation between
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the two I quickly learned that they were watching people as well. I asked them if they were
“people watching” and they replied that yes they were, to catch people stealing. “Jack” and
“Jill” asked me exactly what I was doing, and when I explained my project they asked what
trends I had spotted thus far. I shared some of the patterns I had picked up on so far, including
the observation about most people continuing to wear their coats and scarves regardless of the
comfortable temperature. Jack told me that as he is training new people for the job, one of the
first lessons he teaches is to always dress as though you just came in from outside, which I
believe validates my observation. I was not able to find any further research or statistics
relating to this topic.
Amazingly I was unable to find any research to substantiate my observation relating to people
entering stores intentionally versus randomly, so again I will fall back on my own experience as
well as observation. Personally as I travel through the mall it is rare for me to stop and enter a
store simply by walking past it. Generally speaking I have some idea of what I am looking for
and where I want to go when I make a trip to the mall. Something else that I noticed as I sat
outside of the Abercrombie & Fitch store on Friday was that even as the music blared in a very
party type atmosphere, and the employees danced and acted goofy just inside the doors,
patrons would look at them, smile, and possibly make comments but not enter. I found it
interesting that even when obviously entertained patrons seemed no more likely to stop
without having already been intentionally heading to a specific store.
The “herd mentality” seen in my observations is well documented by many social psychologists
such as Freud, Jung, and Le Bon as well as philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. In
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fact the commonality between the waves of people that I observed, some being more male,
more female, etc., is in fact at the very heart of the herd behavior. Gabriel Tarde, a French
sociologist and criminologist who challenged the sociological model of his time by Emile
Durkheim, began the study of the “group mind” which was furthered by Le Bon to the “herd
mentality.” While my observations were not groundbreaking, it is exciting to see that there is a
strongly accepted and supported scientific history of the observed behaviors.
Conclusion
During my observations I was stunned to see how obvious the patterns became so quickly.
Later I found an article from a UK publication, The Telegraph, from February 2010 that provides
the results from a study involving tracking movements and behaviors of people using data from
cell phones. In this article it states that the “location data from mobile phones has indicated
that 93 per cent of human movement is predictable.” (Warman, 2010) I completely agree with
this conclusion, and I believe that given more time and resources to conduct this research there
are even more specific results that could be derived and that would support this.
One of the major changes I would make if conducting further research would be to conduct
observations while utilizing a video recorder to make counting people and categorizing them
much easier. I attempted to track the number of males versus females, as well as the number
of people walking alone, in groups/families, and couples but the sheer volume and speed of
foot traffic made this task nearly impossible. The same problem presented itself when
attempting to track ethnicities as well.
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Overall I was pleased with the information gathered, both in amount and quality. I was
disappointed at the lack of better quantitative data and would certainly work to improve that in
the future. I believe it might also be beneficial to conduct multiple random interviews as well
to gain a better, more qualitative, perspective on some of the observed behaviors such as the
wearing of black clothing, as well as the observations relating to women and families. The lack
of specific resources documenting some of the behaviors that I observed was frustrating, but
could be due in part to a lack of knowledge of where to look. All in all, I look forward to future
projects and to continuing to observe and study the creature that is Homo sapien, and the
many interesting behaviors that we represent.
Bibliography
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Toddlers at the Zoo. Sex Roles , 309-315.
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http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/25/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_Boyle_purses.fortune/index.htm
Dokoupil, T. (2008, November 12). Is The Mall Dead? Retrieved January 23, 2011, from Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/11/11/is-the-mall-dead.html
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White, R (2009). The Grounded Consumer: Changing the Paradigm of Shopping Center Entertainment.
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