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Workshop Memo
My Ethnography workshopping partner was Ms.Knudson. She read over what I had
wrote of my ethnography but explained to me that they are more notes than a paper. Ms.
Knudson explained to me that my observations needed to be in a separate file and they could be
in bullet point. She helped me come up with my topic of inquiry which led me to my thesis
statement through my observation notes. I also asked for help on how to structure my paper.
After the workshop I went and reanalyzed my notes and then started my paper structured around
my thesis statement.

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Haleigh Riley
Professor Laura Knudson
UWRT 1106-1109 Combined
19 April 2016
Thoughts while visiting Sams Club
Since I was a young child and even now I wondered why so many people went to Sams
Club and what they thought while visiting Sams and why they bought so many items in bulk.
My family always went on Sundays after church to buy cat food, dog food, and multiple cases of
water, gallon milk, with the occasional party food. My mom and dad also have accounts for work
to buy boxes of copy paper and envelopes but my favorite part was the free samples of food. I
always wondered how they could afford to give out so many free samples. But why do other
people go and what do they buy? Now that Im in college I understand why people buy items in
bulk for example toilet paper. The first thing an outsider notices about Sams Club is that most
items are sold in bulk. A question I asked myself while observing is why do people act the way
they do in Sams Club? What kind of attitudes do the customers and cashiers have? Why do
some people buy ridiculous amounts of stuff? Within my ethnography I will observe social
groups to examine the types of behavior that they present while shopping at Sams Club. Sams
club is a family friendly environment while also being helpful for businesses. Another thing I
have always wondered is why Sams club doesnt have bags for smaller items. Is it to cut cost or
for environmental concerns?
Sams Club is constantly busy no matter what day of the week or hour but closed on
holidays unlike most grocery stores. There are hundreds of Sams Clubs around America that
serve all members. They serve businesses, families, and anyone who can afford the membership.

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Most the time when in Sams club you see a mother and father with their child or children. You
do see a high membership rate for businesses too. But you also have your elderly and single
people that also shop at Sams Club. While I was spending time at Sams to observe I saw all
kinds of people while noting their behavior.
Sams Club sells about any merchandise you could want but often it is in bulk. They have
everything from fresh fruit to home to garden supplies. They even have car products such as tool
boxes, new batteries, car wash cleaning supplies, car mats, and new windshield wipers. Besides
buying car products they offer tire changing and oil changes. Sams also had fresh food you can
buy at the front of the store such as pizza, pretzels, salads, yogurt parfaits, icees, and sodas.
Although Sams is a warehouse store they have a deli and bakery just like your normal groceries
store. Walmart and Sams Club are owned by the same owner but they differ because Walmart
offers a larger variety of brands and products because they dont sell in bulk. Walmart and Sams
also have their own brands Walmarts being Great Value and Sams being Members Mark. Both
companies get an abundance of business because products you cant buy at Sams or dont want
in bulk you can buy at Walmart for cheaper prices than most grocery stores. Another similarity is
that both Walmart and Sams club have regular checkout lanes and self-checkout lines.
I visited Sams Club twice in the same week to obtain my observations for a total of two
and a half hours. My method of observation was simply watching what people bought and the
way they acted while writing it down in my notebook. On my first visit I walked around to
observe people that were looking for their items to purchase and noted their behavior. Also while
walking around I noted the types of products they carry and observed their prices. To end my
observations on day one I tried some free samples to get an idea of the quality of the food Sams

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Club sells. The second day was spent sitting down at the front of the store where they sell food to
watch people as they check out also watching customers who bought food.
While observing in Sams Club I noticed multiple types of behaviors. On my first day
while walking around the store I observed walking by a Hispanic man with his daughter who was
upset and screaming with tears running down her face. The father of the little girl had a very
calm facial expression and calm tone when trying to cool her down. Most of the customers
seemed to be in a good mood. One young man that caught my eye was in a grey chefs coat was
walking down the main isle peering down each isle he passed with a look of confusion on his
face he kept pushing his buggy full of vegetable oil, shredded cheese, and various types of meat.
I wonder what was going through his face my conclusion is that he couldnt find the product he
was looking for.
On many cases I observed people looking at the price of an item and making a remark
about it. On my first day walking around I observed a women with her son become very excited
with a price of shorts she was walking by. She exclaimed Wow Calvin Klein for that low
price? Although she did not purchase them she walked away with a smile on her face. Another
instance that I observed was an elderly woman flipping through multiple cookbooks looking at
the different recipes then she would flip them over and look at the price and put a few back and
grab more. Then on the same day I watched a man dressed in business clothes (black pants a
striped button up) as he proceeded to buy a pair of khakis pants with a white long sleeve shirt in
a clear package. While he was looking I overheard him on his Bluetooth headset about stocks
and that he would be back to work soon.
A human behavior I am intrigued by is why so many people went through the selfcheckout lane over the regular lines with the cashier. Is it to ignore the social interaction? Is it to

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save time? On the second day while sitting at the front of the store I observed that there was two
self-checkout lanes open and four regular cash registers open but even when the regular lanes
were open people still went to the self-checkout lanes even though they had people waiting in
line. Going through a regular line could be rewarding for example asking the cashier how their
day was and if it was bad you could give them encouragement with a smile. One smile can
change a persons day. In my observation I did note that people with a higher amount of items
went to the regular check out probably so they didnt have to scan all of their items. According to
The Washington Post article by Lydia DePillis, Forget the haters. Grocery self-checkout is
awesome. She said They work well enough in a pinch-when you want to check out a handful
of items, when you dont have much produce, when you arent loaded down with coupons. But
for any standard order, theyre a big pain. She suggests that self-checkout lanes are best used
when you a few simple items without coupons.
The behavior and attitudes of the workers of Sams club overall was positive and happy.
While I was walking in the door I was greeted by an older man in a plaid shirt with khakis in a
blue vest whom checked my Sams card. The atmosphere of Sams is buzzing and full of life just
walking through the store many associates greeted me with a smile and asked me if I needed help
finding anything. They all greeted me with smiles and asked if I need help. Another behavior of
the workers is that they are hard working. While at Sams Club on my first visit I observed a
young male worker restocking different brands of dog food, cat food, and also cat litter. The
young man was working in a fast efficient manner only stopping once to ask me if I need help
when I replied no he told me to have a nice day. Another worker I observed at Sams club was
the young female cashier that I bought my icee from she was extremely friendly and helpful to
everyone that came up to order food. She also got them their food in a timely order.

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According to The Fishy Bowl the article by Emma Higgins, The Social Psychology of
Ferguson, she said Many other social psychology studies have demonstrated how easily we
identify with a certain group, and develop biases in favor of our group and against other groups.
Meaning that if we are in a group then we are going to identify as such group and have biases
about other groups or develop biases in favor of your group. As an individual in a group you can
have different biases than the others within your group. An example of this in my observation is
me identifying with the groups of families in Sams Club and developing a bias against business
people. We do this because we are used to our own group and most the time are uncomfortable
identifying with a group other than our own even if we fit into multiple. A group such as the
cashiers would probably not identify the same as a group of customers. The workers know each
other and are close creating possible biases against customers that come in.
Sams Club is a store that sells most their items in bulk and target a large diverse area of
customers that shop there. Sams Club provides services to all genders, ethnicities, race, ages,
and social status. My research was to discover why people act the way they do in Sams Club.
My conclusion for why people like buying in bulk is because on some items it can save money
while lasting longer therefore having to take less trips to the grocery store. No matter what time
of the day you shop at Sams Club you will see a variety of behavior from the customers,
managers, cashiers, and workers. Every trip has a welcoming environment from when you first
walk into the door to checkout and then to the exit each worker greets you with a smile. Also
each visit I have taken to Sams I have observed hard working employees. For the customers like
most store you go to you observe babies crying, people talking on the phone, families
laughing/talking, and possibly business workers exploring products. Any environment you can
observe similar situations but not always the same groups.
Works Cited

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DePhillis, Lydia. "Forget the Haters, Grocery Self-checkout Is Awesome." The Washington Post
9 Oct. 2013: n. pag. Print.`
Higgins, Emma. "The Social Psychology of Ferguson." The Fishy Bowl (2014): 1-20. Web. 19
Apr. 2016