Brianna Ruiz
English 115
Linda Overman
October 2, 2012
Ethnography: Jons
Jons is located on Roscoe and Winnetka. It is a single building attached to numerous amounts of shops to it’s right. It was first founded in 1977 and has since grown into an international organization. It is the biggest building among all of the stores surrounding that corner and does not have any competition for another block or two. It has a vast parking lot to accompany the growing amount of customers and a park right behind it. Its logo is the business name in bright red letters with a small yellow triangle cutting off the hook for the ‘J’. Without this small difference, the logo would appear similar to that of its competitor Vons.
Jons functions as an everyday grocery store that regulates from seven in the morning to eleven at night, even on holidays (except for Christmas, in which they close an hour early). They have a variety of choice as any grocery store does and have an online website to order your groceries before even stepping onto the property. They pride themselves with offering every brand a customer can thin of and look for. Unlike its competitors, it is open to the diversity of the community around it and welcomes all cultures both in and out of the system as their site claims to “reflect the character of each community”. They also function to provide friendly customer service, health and nutritional information.
There are three managers that run this location. Each manager is in charge and supervising his employees while still attending to customers. The employees are sectioned off to different areas within the building. There are baggers, cashiers, service deli, bakery, custodians, produce, meat department, guards and stockers which are also referred to as the “night crew”. The job is implied in the title however; as I was corrected that service deli and the meat department are two different areas of work. The meat department handles all sorts of meat whereas the service deli only handles deli meat or sandwich meat and cheese. Stockers are employees that walk up and down the aisles, restocking any items that were taken off the shelves and bought. Guards are also special in the sense that they are seasonal workers. They are only hired during important holidays in which the chances of theft are increased.
There is no hierarchy when it comes to the social aspect of this business. When the employees talk to each other, there is no person who is better than the other even if it is a conversation between the manager and a custodian. The social grounds are open and friendly, even inviting the customers to start up a quick chat. Though, each person knows their boundaries as an employee. As I have observed, once a task is given it is done almost immediately afterwards even if the previous exchange was a friendly one. Help is offered when needed to whomever, and the store as a whole cooperates as a team so there is no obvious hierarchy unless you are looking at uniforms.
The rules as an employee at Jons are to provide excellent customer service and do your work with your best efforts. I asked a fellow employee who I am good friends with and he states that the rules besides doing your work are simply implied. When I inquired further into the rules or the way things were run, his answer stayed the same even after time for thought. When I asked the manager on the procedures to be followed he simply went on a lengthy mini rant of each rule and how important it was to maintain it.
As far as relation to its members? I need to ask further about this question because I do not understand what it is asking.
Works Citied
"Jons - About Us." Jons - About Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jonsmarketplace.com/about.aspx>.
No comments:
Post a Comment