Blog #3: People Watching

Target

Observations:

·             Mom and two daughters walking through the food aisle (one in cart, one walking beside; both very young). Mom is dressed up in dress pants, blouse, and cute flats.

·             Two people (young man and young woman) walking past giggling to each other

·             Older girl and younger boy walking to the register with some type of electronic.

·             Father and son going up the escalator together. Both dressed casually, son in football jersey, dad in a t-shirt.

·             Group of girls come in wearing their uniforms (all matching)

·             Two older women walk in, both dressed up in dress pants and blouse. One has a jacket on the other doesn’t. Ones in heels but the others in flat type shoes.

·             Older woman walking with older man.

·             Woman walking alone, in jean shorts and a casual shirt, toward the pharmacy part

·             Man pushing a cart filled with groceries. He has work clothes on, but also has earbuds in his ears. He seems to be alone.

Interpretations:

·             Must be running errands for home, and just getting home from work

·             Just newly dating (couple)

·             She’s his babysitter, or maybe even older sister

·             The group probably goes to private school around the area

·             Married, retired couple running errands

·             Picking up prescriptions for her family (possibly kids)

·             Grabbing groceries for his family before he goes home, either listening to music or an audio book.

Parking Lot:

·             Maybe she picked up her kids from school and came straight here

·             Father should be at work

·             Maybe work friends who decided to grab a few things before heading home

·             She’s a stay at home mom

·             Doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone

Reflection: 
I am typically someone who finds myself staring at people, not intentionally though. I find people watching very amusing, so this assignment felt tailored to me. When watching people, I usually try to form a background story in my head. I think I do this in order to make sense of what some people are doing around me. You could say that I really like to rationalize things. I do it so that things can make more sense to me. I felt myself trying to figure out situations more than just observing from the outside. The first thing I would try to figure out would be peoples relationships to each other, being if they were in groups. After that, I found myself trying to figure out their reasoning behind being at Target; what aisles were they shopping in or where did it look like they were headed. I also paid a lot of attention to things like what the different people were wearing. I then made interpretations, and even a few assumptions, about where they were coming from, or even what they were doing. It makes me wonder if some of my interpretations were correct. I have always been a very curious and nosy person, so this exercise seemed to enhance my curiosity.