Ethnographic Report Essay Example for Free

Ethnographic Report Essay In order to make an ethnographic report, I visited a shop of Toys â€Å"R† Us in my native city in California. It was located in a big new shopping center in the main street of the city. It was not a very big toy shop, but there was quite a good variety of different toys, and also there was a small section of the goods for babies Kids â€Å"R† Us. That day it was really very crowded there, because it was Saturday afternoon and many parents could take their children out for shopping. Besides, as this mall was a brand new one in the city, there were dozens and dozens of new interested customers, arriving all the time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     First of all, I paid attention on numerous young couples and teenagers, who came there definitely without intentions to buy something, but rather to do window shopping. This could happen because the shop was, again, a brand-new place. Of course, there were many children there, who came mostly with their mothers or elder siblings. There were a lot of young women in the section of Kids â€Å"R† Us, who were interested in clothes, footwear or toys for little babies. Therefore, I could notice almost total absence of mid-aged men in the shop.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was not easy to estimate correctly, whether those children were mostly boys or girls. Probably, the amount of male and female children in the shop was approximately equal. Boys were very energetic. They enjoyed mostly action toys, plastic guns, remote controlled cars and basketball sets. Some of them insisted on buying different toys from Spiderman and Hulk series, some chose Spiderman comics, and two of little boys became happy owners of Lego sets. Also, miraculous but rather expensive multifunctional Robosapien Robot was an extreme attraction for all the male part of the visitors. Certainly, little girls were very greatly interested in Barbie-dolls and their all possible accessories. Many girls were asking their mums to buy special sets of toy cosmetics and little dresses for their Barbie dolls. Some girls decided to buy new back-bags, stationary or other accessories for school, and one girl asked her mother to buy a big set for arts and crafts. Some little girls preferred to buy little plastic toys, like My Little Pony with a long tail and mane to be brushed by a little brush, included to the set. Extreme crowd of children of both genders could be observed in the section of stuffed animals, where lots of beautiful dogs, cats, horses, tigers or teddy bears, small and big in size, were waiting for their owners. There were many adults in this section also. Three-four of young men bought some cute teddy bears for their girl-friends, and one couple bought a huge stuffed dog. Teenagers and young people were more concentrated on electronic games, PC games, table games, and especially puzzles: I guess, more than a dozen of different puzzles was bought that day. Also, any little child could receive a huge colored balloon from the consultants of the shop in the exit: that used to make many little customers of Toys â€Å"R† US go almost ecstatic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During my visit I could observe overwhelming majority of White Americans among the customers of the shop, but there was a family of Blacks: parents and their two little daughters, who were not in hurry and slowly walked, watching around with great interest. Black girls were very silent; they enjoyed plastic sets for playing on the sand, and then they chose a little doll of black color, which late on was bought by their parents for their pleasure. Besides, there were some children of Latin origin, who seemed to be there without parents, so they were extremely noisy and active. They were running around and trying many different toys without special preferences: balls, guns, cars, etc. But in the end they did not buy anything proper, but some sets of plastic water guns and a cheap rubber ball. Generally, I would classify social status of all the visitors like low and mid class. I think, about 70% of all the buys were made by adults, mostly mothers or elder brothers, but there were children, who had some own money and could get something they want for themselves. But, certainly, serious expensive toys could be bought only by adults. To my mind, the most popular toys are action figures and accessories for Barbie. Visiting a toy shop is always pleasure for anybody. Shops of Toys â€Å"R† Us are really very beautiful, very optimistic places, where everybody seems to become very happy and joyful. It is so great to have such wonderful places all around the country, where every day thousands of smiles and good emotions are brought to so many people! Bibliography:  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Toys â€Å"R† Us. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Online. 4 Oct. 2005. 6 Oct. 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_R_Us.