Introduction
The Mixing Bowl is a Gourmet Kitchenware store in downtown Salida, Colorado. As written on their website, http://salidamixingbowl.wordpress.com "Not only do we strive to offer you quality kitchenware, gifts, and top-notch friendly customer service, we also are proud to partner with Starpoint agency in hiring adult sales associates with disabilities. With the help and supervision of a job coach, which Starpoint provides, our staff learn the fundamentals of retail sales and other skills that will be transferable to employment opportunities throughout the community. Experience at the Mixing Bowl enables these employees to be more self-supporting and gives them a sense of pride in all that they accomplish."
I chose to study the Starpoint Consumers at the Mixing Bowl because I wanted to get an inside look at how they operate in the store environment. I wanted to get a better understanding of their world and get inside their head. I wanted to know how they view the world and their opinions. If i had more time, for instance if I worked there and could see them everyday, I could have had an even better understanding of all those things.
Assumptions and Research Questions
Going into this project I had many assumptions and research questions. Some assumptions that i had was that the consumers would not live alone, and would be very dependent. I thought that in doing my research I would find that they have learned how to work well with others, can help around the store, and are fun to work with and be around, most of the time.I thought that i would find clues to help me infer the way the consumers think and what goes on in their mind in a normal work day.
My research Questions were:
- How do the Starpoint Consumers working at the Mixing Bowl operate when working?
- How do they handle the work environment and people?
- Do they get stressed out or frustrated with their work?
- How do they deal with the stress/frustration?
- Do certain employees work when it's busy?
- Does working there help them in life with people skills as well as life skills?
- What is their thought process?
- How do they relate to the customers?
- What do they do when not at work?
- Is their life and everything they do centered around work?
I did end up answering a few of my research questions. Through observing and paying attention to how things are run, i was able to see how they operate. Each person is different, and the events of the work day depend on those differences. All of the consumers that I worked with handled the work environment and people very well. They were always on top of it, if anyone needed anything, they were ready to immediately assist them. Sometimes some of the consumers do get frustrated and stressed with their work, and the way they handle it is just different for each person. For instance when Jack starts to get stressed he will start tapping, and then everyone knows that he needs to take a break and calm down. From what I could understand, working there has helped the consumers in life. They can be more independent, and now know how to work a cash register, and all the things that come with working in a store. They can relate to people better because they have to talk to strangers every day in the store. As for thought process, it varies with each person, but I could see that a lot of the consumers could multi-task fairly well. Mike could ring up products on the cash register and hold a conversation at the same time. John could stack the shelves and count and talk at the same time. When a customer would come in, the consumers would always greet them and offer any assistance, so there were no barriers there. They even held regular conversations with the customers about things like the weather, just normal small talk. When the consumers are not at the Mixing Bowl working, some of them have other jobs, and some are just home, but almost everyone participates in the Special Olypmics. If you ask someone about the special olympics, their faces light up, and I can tell that that is one of the things they really enjoy doing.
Research Methods
Primary Research
My primary Research was all of my field notes, observations, and interviews. I spent a lot of time at The Mixing Bowl just observing what was going on and paying attention to every little detail of each person. In spending so much time there, i began to build somewhat of a rapport with some of the people there, including the consumers and managers.
A Typical Day of Observing at the Mixing Bowl
I illegally park my little green truck in the Pueblo Bank and Trust parking lot (to which I am not a customer) and write down the number of fieldnotes, the date and time, in my notebook. I get out and walk across the street to the Mixing Bowl. I look through the windows to see who I will be observing today, and I see Mike. I pull open the big glass door and am greeted with a warm welcome from Mike, "Well Hello, there girl, how you doin?" he says as he looks up at me through his round glasses and big brown eyes.
"I'm good Mike, how are you doing today?"
"Oh, fine." The second you walk in the door, you smell this wonderful aroma to which i can still not put my finger on, after 4 weeks. It's a spicy yet...warm smell. I'm not sure how to describe it other than that. It just brings a homey feeling.
I immediately get distracted by whatever the newest item is. They have something new every time I go in there. The shelves are flourishing, it's insane how many things are lining those walls; it would probably take six years to go through all of it! (that may have been a little exaggerated) Then one of the managers,Tammie, comes out from the back room and greets me. Soon, a customer walks in and is greeted by Mike. They continue to look around and debate on purchasing a hot chocolate mix or not. Mike is sitting at the counter after finishing stacking a shelf. His blue Harley Davidson hat matches with his blue Mixing Bowl apron. He dons a brown and white plaid shirt with brown pants and a black belt with black shoes. The customers finally decide and proceed to checkout. Mike picks up each item, reads the price and punches it into the cash register. Then he tells them the total, and they pay him. After he rings it all up and is giving them the receipt he says, “Thank you so much, you come back and see us again. Have a good night.” He always says the exact same thing to any customer when they are leaving.
There is a lull in business, and the store is empty for a little while. Lisa is walking around and I point out to her a product I like, some wine toppers. She looks at them for a minute and says, “Oh, No, we can’t have that, I’ll ask Mike what we should do” there were glass toppers and metal toppers and they were all mixed together. She calls him over and asks him if there is a way to better display them. He thinks for a second and then blurts out, “Oh! These, with these!” (metal with metal and glass with glass)
Lisa- “Yes!, I’m so glad I asked you!”
Mike- “I just thought a it” then Lisa accidentally drops one of the toppers. Mike reacts in saying, “Ooh, you got the dropsies!” they both laugh as Lisa picks up the topper and they continue to arrange them. After that, customers come in and out, and everything just runs as normal. Mike is going back ad forth between the back room and the store, just stocking shelves. He puts on what I call his “conentration face” and a sort of blank, deep in thought face comes across his face, and every few seconds he keeps “hmm-ing”. He does this same routine, whenever he is doing something that requires a lot of concentration. He grabs the Windex and some paper towels and begins to wash the windows. He continues to “hmm”, and hum to the music. He makes sure that there are no streaks in the windows and that they look good. Then he goes outside to finish the outside of the window. He greets someone as they walk by him on the sidewalk. Still “hmm-ing”. When he is finished, he comes back in. He looks up and sees me watching him walk back in through the door, and smiles at me.Secondary Research
For my Secondary Research I decided to look up information about when babies are born with "water on the brain". I decided to look this up because in talking to Mike, he said that that is what happened to him when he was a baby, so I was interested to see why that would have happened.
From the articles i read, "Water on the brain" is called Hydrocephalus, and it is caused by excess Cerebrospinal fluid in the brain at birth. This happens because the body makes too much of the fluid so there is an imbalance, and the body can not process all of it. So the fluid then creates pressure on the brain, and can cause brain damage. Some of the symptoms are if your baby is born with an abnormally large head, or if the soft spot of the skull is buldging.Also if your baby sleeps too much and eats too little.Water on the brain also may be caused by some infections that the mother might have caught before birth like, meningitis, but Hydrocephalus is a rare condition. Only 1 in 1,000 babies are born with it.
Bibliography:
http://children.webmd.com/tc/congenital-hydrocephalus-topic-overview
This is a credible source because it is WebMD and even doctors use this site for information. The info i got from this site was the symptoms and causes of Hydrocephalus as well as the definition.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001571.htm
This site is a credible source because it is a service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The info i got from this site was just more on what "water on the brain" is and the causes and symptoms.
Research
Jargon
Consumers- The people employed at the Mixing Bowl from Starpoint.
"Let's go fill out your papers before you go"- the manager has to fill out a sheet of paper for each consumer after each shift, to show what they did, and how they are progressing, because they are on disability. And it goes to the state.
The two consumers that I observed the most were Mike and John because when I went to observe, they were usually the ones there, so I know the most about them.
Mike
Mike was born in Salida in 1949. Then he lived in Gunnison for 26 years, and Springs for 9 years, then Texas for 9 1/2 years, and then he finally moved back to Salida in 1997. When he's not working at the Mixing Bowl, he also works at Patio for the last 12 years. He's been working at the Mixing Bowl for 5 years. He also really likes to bowl. He bowls in a league with some friends from Starpoint every Wednesday, and every Tuesday he bowls with a different league. When he's actually home he likes to just "take it easy and watch TV. He also enjoys participating in the Special Olympics. For the last 9 years, he's competed in Bocce Ball which is a lot like "bowling on grass". "lil white ball we throw first, then big ones, try to get big balls closer". He loves to watch all sports, but bowling is his favorite sport of all. Mike is also on the board of Directors at Starpoint and has been for 9 years. “first time I went to Denber at the captal I did the Pledge Allegiance in front of all citizens. I didn’t screwed up at all. That was back in. . . “ puts finger below lip- thinking – looks up. “back in 2000…” When I asked him what his favorite part about working at the Mixing Bowl was he said, meeting people and geting to know them, and learning how things work. He said that one of the differences of working at Patio and Mixing Bowl was that one was retail and he had never done retail, just always the food business. I asked him what he did when he gets nervous, and he said, ".it could get a lil hectic too, it got crazy.”
“I’m kinds getting used to it”, “slowing down”. Then we all just got to talking about his past and how he got here and he was telling us about when he was born, "then when I was born I had water on the brain. I was a sick baby. Then the Dr. told me I wouldn’t live past 10 but I made it. Then I put in institution in Grand Junction. I was there for 22yrs. Then public school when I got out of institution I went to special ed school for 2 years. Then Grand Junction high School 2 yrs and graduated in 1970. Then I been with Starpoint since 1999 I been with them.”
In talking to Mike about all the aspects of his life, i recognized that he is very very good with numbers and time frames. When he was telling me where he lived and for how long he knew the exact dates and lengths of time. Also when we were talking, i was writing a mile a minute, and I noticed that he would tell me things and then wait until I stopped writing, and then tell me more. He also has initiative. He would just start doing things without having to be asked, and they were the right thing. I think part of why Mike does such a good job at everything he does is because of his past. He's been working since he was a kid and he knows what to do and how to have a good work ethic. Mike is the kind of guy that would just do anything for anyone, and that's becoming more and more rare in society today. He;s been through a lot in his lifetime. To have a disability in the 50's and 60's, I mean geez, back then blacks weren't accepted, so what was it like for someone with a disability? I can imagine it was just as bad. But all the things that Mike has gone through, have made him such a strong person, and you can see it in him.
John
The first time I observed John, he waltzed on in with his blue plaid flannel shirt and jeans carrying over 100 pictures of his dad's tractors. (and most of them were duplicates) His face lights up as he rifles through each picture, proudly showing everyone his "tractor" adventures. John's parents live in Alamosa, and he gets to visit them every so often when his dad comes to Salida to deliver mail, in which John hops a ride on the mail truck back to Alamosa. He was very proud of the fact that he was helping his dad build a truck. When Lisa asks him what something is in one of the pictures, he thinks for a second then, moves his hands as if he was using the tool, and then answers, "it's . . .hoist". He even got to drive one of his dad's tractors, as h explained, "I dr I dro I drove this one".Then the phone rings and he answers, "Good evening, Mixing Bowl." then he waits a few seconds and points to Lisa, showing that the call is for her. Then he puts the phone back up to his ear, "one moment please", before giving the phone to Lisa.
A few moments later when Lisa thanks John for bringing in his pictures he replies, "Cuz I like em". One thing to know about John is that when he speaks, he kind of mumbles and then at the end of his sentence the words are more clearly and defined. Its like he’s still thinking, and then it comes out clear when he thinks of his answer.
Soon, they put him back to work, using the price gun to put price stickers on new items. He puts on his big, round glasses to change the price on the gun, then he prints them out and sticks them on his finger to be put on the item.His countenance shows his deep concentration while he puts the stickers on the items. His bottom lip moves up and he purses his lips. Anytime John is priding something, he sets it all up in even numbered rows- usually of two, and then counts them, and puts the stickers on. When the store got a new shipment in of California Olive Oil, and John was helping with the inventory, he noticed that the bottles looked just like wine bottles.But that they were indeed olive oil. Lisa:" “what is that John? Is that wine?”
"My, my these bottles are really cold," he says before he begins to continue counting the bottles. Then he sets up the bottles in 2 rows of 6 and proceeds to count them, "1,2…1,2,3,…1,2,3,4,5,6,…1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12."
“lo loo looks like ‘ol’" (oil)
Every time John is pricing something, he goes through that same routine. Glasses, price gun, stickers, and product.Through watching him, I have learned that everyone learns in their own way. If it works for John to line up everything before he does it, then that's great, but someone else might do it differently, but what works for John is what he should do. Every one is different in their approach to getting a job done, and it's always fun to see all the different views of how to do one thing.
Lisa Interview (with some Mike too)
Lisa is the Manager at the Mixing Bowl. She is second in command below the owners. Lisa grew up in Salida, and enjoys spending time with her big family in town. She has been working at the Mixing Bowl for over 3 years now, and does everything from, ordering, stocking, job coaching, and maintaining Customer Service.
Do you enjoy working with the consumers, what do you like?
“Yes, it really puts life in perspective. Without a doubt I have learned way more than I have taught. I have had the opportunities to discover the depths on my own character, to learn and feel unconditional love, commitment, and patience, way beyond my own understanding. I am reminded every day just how precious this life is and I am more aware of my own fortune. Knowing and working with this staff has given my life purpose and meaning.”
What do you do to help them if they are nervous or overwhelmed?
Depends on person
If really nervous/overwhelmed- have them go to back room tell them to get something or do something that might take a little while – just so they can calm down. So they don’t know what she is doing. Way to distract them. Certain techniques. Stephanie –butterfly Jack-tapping
Does it get frustrating? Why , when?
Yes (sigh) a lot of the consumers don’t understand their feelings so it scares them and they don’t know how to communicate what they’re feeling so they hit, bite, blow nose on u. just have to know take it personally- have to realize that they are in this program for a reason. Doesn’t stop ur adrenaline, just have to be calm and know its not personal- not really meaning to hurt you…”
How does everyone get paid? How does it all work?
Mgrs employed by Starpoint.
MB pays Consumers
Since on disability- have paperwork, tells what learning, etc.
(what I always see them filling out)
state comes and looks at book
if says too many things the same, state would say “why is she working here”
they need to know that she’s not just walking in off the street and running everything. So they can’t write that she “did cash register helped with items, etc.” would have to say “with prompting, etc”
Do the consumers make fair wages?
Yes- used to be that they were tested on quickness and then they were paid more. Used to be paid on performance. But now it’s above min wage just like normal. $7.25
M- “ya, some little faster than others”
“if we don’t have teamwork, we in trouble- big trouble”
even when not working at Patio he works – gets a free meal in return.
Gets up at 4 am EVERY morning ever since worked on the dairy at the institution @ 17, 18 yrs old.
Asked M if he liked bein in the institution?
“It was rough, yeah it was rough”
there when he was a baby – “when got a lil older it got a lil rougher- I wasn’t same person I am now. I was bad. When I was younger I used to have a real bad temper, then got a lil older and I got over it”
had a twin brother that was a min older than him. Died in 1980 @ 19
don’t even have institutions anymore- illegal – have group homes.
Leaving @ 5:45 pm
“Bye mike!”
“Bye Anna, you have a good nite!”
“U 2!”
“I c u again”
Conclusion
Going into this project I had many assumptions. I was nervous about observing a group of people that might not understand what I was doing, and why I was there. I haven't had a lot of experience or time around people with disabilities, so I was nervous that I wouldn't know how to handle it if something happened. I thought that my prolonged presence in the store with a notepad and furiously scribbling notes might make them uncomfortable, but they were really ok with it. Everyone that I talked to about my project was very gracious and willing to work with me. No one had any problems with me being there, they were all very nice and talked to me. Over the 3-4 weeks that I was there observing, I began to build somewhat of a rapport with some of the consumers as well as the managers and other employees. I also thought that the consumers would not live alone and be very dependent upon others, but most of the consumers that I got to know were older, and did live alone and were actually quite independent. My assumption that the consumers would have learned to work well with others and can help around the store, and are fun to work with and be around most of the time, was proved to be true. In my time around the consumers, all of them were doing an amazing job at the store, and were very fun to work with and be around. There was a lot of laughter in the air, and each person made each of my observations enjoyable. Almost every time I would go to observe, I would spend at least an hour, because the time would just go by SO quickly. The only obstacles I ever ran into were that i needed permission from Starpoint before I could do any filming or take any photos of the consumers, and since I started that aspect of the project only a short time before the project was due, I was time crunched, but everything worked out. Other than that, there were really no problems whatsoever.Overall, I really enjoyed this project because I got to meet a bunch of new people and and now I know that anytime I go into the Mixing Bowl, I will be greeted by a familiar face and the memories of of a fun 4 weeks in which I got to hang out with some of the greatest people you will ever meet.
