Field-notes from Netto

Thesee notes are from a small 15-minute field session, with the purpose of getting experience with doing field-notes. The session takes place at a smaller mall in the northern of Aarhus, just opposite a smaller grocery store, Netto.

General observations:
A lot of people at this particular time. All seems to be in a hurry, and the mood is tight with all the stress surrounding the store, and everyone is stepping and waiting for their turn in the queue, to get out of the store, as quickly as possible. People seems to be buying a lot, and there is a lot of packing going on, with people putting groceries in bags and all kinds of purses and bags.
There seems to be very little, if any, kind of communication between the cashier and the customers, almost everyone is just putting their credit card in the terminal, waiting to hit the green button, to leave the store. One of the registers had a new employee, and people in this line seemed kind of frustrated, and despairing,

Situation 1:
A father with his child daughter. The father is wearing working-clothes, and the daughter has a very bright colored jacket on. While the cashier is registering the items, the father is standing in from of the register waiting, looking at every single item scanned. The daughter is going to the end of the belt, to pick up the registered items, and put them in a bag. The packing of the bags seems to be very challenging for her. The father pays is waving with his credit card until the cashier is ready, and after paying the cashier, smiling, he joins the daughter packing up the bought items. While packing the bags, the daughter is imitating the father, packing her bag in the exact same way. He helps her with some of the larger items. The daughter tries to carry her bag, but the father takes it, leaving her with only a small item, for her to carry.

Situation 2:
A young man is standing in the line with the new employee. Everything seems to be processing in a very slow pace, and the man is rocking on his heels, awaiting the the cashier to register the few items he has placed on the belt. After the registering of the last item, the man is watching, and waiting, for all of the items go to the end of the belt, before proceeding to pay by credit card. He packs up a few of the items in his backpack, and walks out of the store with the rest in his hands. While leaving the store, he hands over a single item to his friend, who is waiting outside the store.

Journal (thoughts on the session)
As quite new in the world of ethnography, it was some kind of challenging to do the observation. It is hard to know what to look for, and just observing different situations while judging if this particular situation contained enough to be mentioned and written down. I started by just watching the whole scenery, and the people within, to be able to have an understanding of the situation, and how everything was happening. By luck I found a table to sit by, and not have too much focus on myself as a person while observing. This was definitely a plus, and helped me retain my focus on the situation, rather than focusing on keeping myself out of the situation. This type of behavior would be termed by Spradley as a nonparticipation.

As a note to myself, and my forthcoming field-session, I think I should have some kind of focus prior to going to the site, and have something particular to look for, instead of just people's purchases in a store. It could be things like, their behavior when paying or in the queue or something completely different! But to have a more clear focus, would be very helpful. I think.