Dunn Bros
When we were given our assignment to study the Macalester-Groveland area, we wanted to really try and hit somethinfg that wasn't just IN the Macalester-Groveland are but try to include something that would relate well to that first word, "Macalester" and its effect on the surrounding area. Naturally, the focus of ours on the school led to a further focus on the student body and how they interact with the area. This consideration is very reflective of the location that we picked. As you can see by the maps, both the proximity and the purpose of our location are such that students will likely be prevalent in this location. In our case, a coffee shop right across the street from the school.
Throughout interviews and observations patrons have proven to gather frequently at Dunn Bros to enjoy the company of others in this social space. Dunn Bros is a coffee shop in which people are encouraged to socialize however not all patrons are as willing to interact among each other. The main reason we found corrolates with the fact that some of the older patrons are long term residens of the Mac-Groveland area.
These field notes all display the average days at Dunn Bros. Be it inside, outside, morning, noon, or evening, Dunn Bros has patrons frequenting the establishment. Of those patrons, the most observed generational groups are younger, college-aged people and older, gray hair, retirees. In terms of race, nearly everyone in the shop is white. People came in primarily to do activities independently like doing work, reading, or listening to music, even if they came in with a group. Additionally, we found that younger folks like students and young adults came in with a friend at a far higher rate than older folks did.
While the primary motivation for people to sit down and spend time in Dunn Bros on Grand was to do isolated activities, these interviews reveal that there is a keen willingness in both the younger and older generations to interact with strangers and different generations.
This interview snapshot illustrates how an established patron of Dunn Bros and community member of Mac-Groveland perceives comfortability in a social space such as Dunn Bros. He conveys that there is not really an opportunity for students, who make up nearly half of the diverse demographic, to have an oppurtunity to establish themselves in Dunn Bros because they tend to graduate and move away from Macalester-Groveland before establishing comfortability.