Food Choices In The City
The pilot study I conducted at Highpoint Shopping Centre allowed me to
observe how food choices were made amongst different people. There are many
factors that influence food choices. Therefore I conducted this observation to
develop into food choices. Some factors involved gender differences, this
effected the food choice and the process of eating, how the effect of age plays
part in choosing food, along with which cultures foods were eaten most; Chinese,
Turkish, or Italian. I also observed whether culture had an effect on food
choices? What these people were wearing? How long it took for them to decide on
what they were going to eat? Does the time of the day and the days of the week
have an effect on the selection and amount of food eaten? And how the food is
eaten? Children and how their food selection is analysed?
This topic
interested me because eating is a process we go through every day in order to
survive therefore it is interesting to see who eats what in this ongoing
process. The variety of foods offered today in a multicultural environment can
give people a wide choice to choose from, this I think makes it more
interesting.
Methodology
The pilot study was conducted at the food
court in Highpoint Shopping Centre on the second level, where I spent a total of
six hours, broken into three, two-hour sessions. The reason that I chose
Highpoint Shopping Centre was because there is a large choice of different
culture foods, including McDonald’s and KFC (those two not being a part of the
culture foods), which play a major part in the selection for the
children.
During this observation I could say that I saw more than 200
people. Interaction was not part of the observation at any time; therefore I had
no effect on peoples choices. But because some people realised that they were
being observed, that could have had a major effect on my discoveries. If people
knew I was watching them, they could have felt intimidated and left the setting
out of fear for their protection/safety. The facts that some food placed were
very large in the food court and had more of a variation of foods was a major
effect when choosing food.
Table 1-setting of food court
Tables
rubbish area
The Patterns
The major patterns of focus were gender
and age, and how they have big effects on people when they are choosing food and
when they are involved in eating. I observed patterns such as the time people
spend on choosing and eating the food, proportions of food eaten. I also
examined other patterns such as how people vary when eating in a group and when
eating alone and the effects of being around the opposite gender when eating.
The pattern I concentrated on the most was which cultures of food were eaten
most and which age group and gender choose to eat which culture
foods.
Children seemed mostly to eat the quick and easy meals, it was
mainly McDonalds, or KFC. Although the majority were McDonalds, this does not
seem hard to believe. It was always the happy meal, with a burger, chips and
drink, not to forget mentioning the toy that came along with the meal. Which I
found very interesting, because after a few bites of their cheeseburger, a
couple of fries and a sip of coke, that was it for the meal. The toy became the
centre of attention, so that to me was why the children were always eating
McDonalds or KFC, they were not interested in different culture foods. They
stuck to what was familiar to them, only because the media chocks down what they
want to see, and play with. Middle aged people walked around the food court and
thought more about what they were going to eat, what was going to satisfy them
more. They were the type to try something different to the same old stuff. The
older age groups were more fussier of what they wanted, they took a while, some
conclusions that I came up with may have been, prices, not familiar with some
culture foods, diabetes could have been a problem, or even cholesterol. You
could tell their food choices were not as satisfying to them.
Gender
played a major part in this observation. The females ate lighter foods and fewer
proportions than males. For example, at the kebab shop more of the males brought
the large size kebab, were-as the females almost always brought the half size
kebab. What I also found very interesting was that female seemed to eat slower
and eat less when around males. They were more conscience of what they were
eating, and how they were eating it. But the males did not care how they ate
their food, if it wasn’t dropping some portions of food on themselves it was
eating with their mouths open. The younger males even yelled and played with
each other while they were eating, making big fools of themselves. You would
never see a female doing those kinds of things in a public area.
I found
that the overweighted looking females were conscience of what they were eating,
they mostly ate from the health shops or just ate fewer portions, although there
were many that did not care if it were fattening or not. On the other hand many
males that were overweight seemed like they did not care at all, they would have
a huge plate in front of them and just eat away, it was never healthy, it was
almost always greasy more fattening than ever!
The tables were scattered
everywhere, but what I noticed was that as soon as someone got their meal they
would sit close by to where they got their food. This could be from the fact
that maybe they are too lazy to find a good spot, or they are just hungry and
want to eat. So therefore it was mainly crowded around McDonalds and KFC because
they were always the busiest out of them all. This could have been that the food
was familiar to them, they knew how much it was going to cost, and what they
were going to get out of it. Whereas if you went to another food shop you
wouldn’t know what to expect. For example, when I went to buy a sandwich; a roll
with chicken, lettuce, cheese, and tomato, it costed me $6.30. If I knew that it
was going to cost me that much, I would have rather gone to McDonalds, were I
could have got a meal, including fries and a drink, for less than the price I
got the sandwich for.
Culture played a major part in the decision –
making to what food people were going to eat. I noticed that many Turkish or
Arabic families stuck to eating kebabs. (I knew this because I speak Turkish and
understand Arabic) The result of this is because on one of signs in the shop
said “Halal Meat” this means that there is no pork in the food. So the Turkish
and Arabic families have this feeling of ‘safeness’. They cannot trust other
food retailers because eating pork is against their religion. This only applies
to the Muslims. I noticed a lot of Chinese people eating from their own foods.
On the three occasions I was at this food court I also noticed that the women
and men that were dressed more formally (in suits) chose to eat at the Italian
restaurant, this could have been because it had more of a formal
setting.
During the hours of 12:00 – 2:00 the food court was very busy,
this was mainly due to the fact that this is the lunch hours and everyone
working in the centre is out for lunch. You could tell whom they were, they
would either have uniforms on or they wouldn’t take their nametags off. They
seemed to be very picky at what they ate. They would walk around the food court
several times until they figured out what they were going to eat. This could be
because they are here everyday and their sick of what to choose, or their
looking for a big meal, something that would keep them going for the rest of the
day. After 2pm it became quite and you wouldn’t see many people buying a big
meal.
The Explanation
The pattern I examined was to find different
answers to aspects involving different culture foods; which culture food was
most popular etc. When observing the food eaten, we can see from Graph 1 that,
the younger age group (18-25), out of all age groups, was always less when
compared to the other age groups on the graph. The females in this age group
preferred to eat Italian, the males chose Turkish. The majority of the younger
aged (18 and less) ate fat foods such as McDonalds or KFC. Chinese and Turkish
food were the most common food eaten in the people aged from (25-35). In Graph 1
you can see that the females and males were the same when considering eating
Chinese food and males were slightly more than females in eating Turkish
food.
I noticed that middle-aged people seemed to like trying different
choices in food. The pattern I noticed with them was that Italian cuisine was
most popular in the middle-aged group, followed by Chinese. The most common food
eaten among all ages as seen in Graph 1 was McDonalds and KFC (this may not seem
hard to believe) this was due to the fact that their food stores were larger
than the rest, everyone knew their food, including the price
range.
Discussion
I realised that there are many factors, which
can effect us when in a social setting. Sociology helped me to understand more
open mindedly interesting social aspects, which effect us when engaging in
certain activities. It helped me think and develop explanations by recognising
patterns which have big effects on people when engaging activities such as
eating.
In doing this research it made me think a lot of how I am when
I’m choosing my food at the food court, I think that helped me a little in
understanding what others choices were. If I were to do this research essay
again, I would concentrate on listening to people when they are purchasing their
food, walk around to the food stores and listen in, instead of sitting down all
times (different area of the food court). If people noticed that I was writing
about them, or they knew I was watching them, this could have caused a major
problem to my findings, so being very careful in finding explanations is very
important in this research.
Summary
Gender, age, time, dressing
style and culture were what occurred in different age groups and genders. The
younger aged eat unhealthy food such as McDonalds and KFC, whereas middle aged
people ate more healthy. Middle aged people ate more of a variety than the
younger aged. Elderly people showed attendance in eating healthier food; this
could have been because of health reasons.
Time had effects on the social
aspects of food choice and the proportion of food eaten. At lunch hour’s people
ate more than later on in the evening.
Dress style had effects on food
choices. Most dressed formally dined in the take away store. This was the
Italian restaurant.
These are just some of the findings in my
observation. As you can see food choices are a major part in our lives.
Observing helps us have a better understanding of how choices are made when
involved in activities such as eating. Therefore it helps us think open-mindedly
and perceive about sociological aspects and how patterns are formed when you
observe