This was a great mini-ethnography; a wonderful re-construction of a social reality that m
ost customers and workers would not notice.Ruehl No. 105: What About the Bulldog? by Lisa F.
The entire document is viewable at:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhnm7kdd_202365rzkw
The Abercrombie and Fitch moose is a dominant symbol in American style. The Hollister Co. seagull is very distinguished as well. But what about the bulldog? A French bulldog named Trubble represents RUEHL, pronounced “rule,” the more sophisticated and most expensive branch of the Abercrombie enterprise. Of the three largest counterparts of the whole Abercrombie company, RUEHL is much lesser known than Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister. Although lesser known, RUEHL is just as culturally significant as its sister companies. Currently, I am employed at RUEHL in the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey. Through participant observation and an interview with my manager, Lisa Rella, who is my key cultural consultant, I will explore the cultural significance of “my” store, Ruehl 105.
RUEHL is the most expensive of all the Abercrombie stores with a look that hails from Greenwich Village in New York City. RUEHL’s target consumers are college and post-college adults ages 22 to 35, so the clothes have higher quality and a more sophisticated look than the others to appeal to older customers. By this I mean that the clothing is less marked with “RUEHL” or Trubble on it, which appeals to older customers who are “over” the loud exclamation of where their clothes are from. “Ruehl is the first to focus on this new core customer: a person in the early stages of a career who can afford better quality but still wants youthful looks”(Hazel). The outside of the store resembles a brownstone house because brownstones are popular residences in the Village. The layout of the inside is very different from the typical store; it has several dimly lit rooms, ladders, vintage books, couches, intricate lighting, and something employees call “the bed,” which is a little section of the store made up of huge pillows. With the loud music, dim lighting, and the ubiquitous smell of cologne, customers either love or hate the RUEHL experience (Scardino, Ruehl No.925).
Lisa Rella, my key cultural consultant, was born in Hackensack, New Jersey but has lived in Rochelle Park all her life. Her father is Italian and Polish and her mother is Irish and British. In October 2004, when she was 18, she began working at RUEHL, in the Garden State Plaza, as a model, which is a person who works on the sales floor and does any number of jobs, such as ringing on the cash register, greeting customers, folding clothes, monitoring fitting rooms, among others. One must be 18 to work at RUEHL. After seven months of working she left the company to concentrate on school. In May 2007, Lisa graduated Ramapo College of New Jersey with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. To be a manager at any one of the Abercrombie companies, one must have a college degree. In June of 2007, Lisa came back to RUEHL as a Manager-in-Training, and now she is one of the stores full-time Store Managers (Interview).
My employment at RUEHL began in September 2007 when a friend, who worked there in the summer, called me and asked me if I wanted to work at RUEHL during the school year because I live at home. I agreed, filled out an application, and went to the group interview, and I have been working there as a model ever since. Almost immediately, you observe the clientele, coworkers and the interactions they have with each other. The interview was done in the stock room of RUEHL on April 21, 2008, and it lasted about 40 minutes. This was after the store closed because there would have been a large number of interruptions if we did the interview during operating hours. Also, while working, I did some participant observation of the customers and employees. Some things I saw immediately made me realize that there are anthropological concepts in progress, and other times I had to decide what concept it was and connect it to the observation. Everything that I observed I jotted down on paper so I would not forget because some really great anthropology topics occur in and around RUEHL.
Bibliography
[Must include 2 – 3 anthropological concepts discussed in Kottak. You may reference Conformity & Conflict. Must include at least 3 other sources found through AnthroSource, Lexis-Nexis, NYTimes, and Wikipedia. Must include 2 references from your pre- and post- interview. Read up on your subject BEFORE you start interviewing. Learn as much as you can BEFORE to expand your listening and questioning. This bibliography is missing the followup interview Lisa did. It would be listed in this fashion: Rella, Lisa. Telephone Interview (dialogic editing feedback). 10 May 2008.]
- Hazel, Debra. (2005). Abercrombie’s RUEHL No. 925 Makes Customers Feel at Home. Retrieved April 20, 2008 from http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0205/retailing_3.php
- Kottak, Conrad Phillip. 2008. “Mirror For Humanity.” 124, 133, 201-203, 206. McGraw-Hill
- Rella, Lisa. Personal Interview. 21 April 2008.
- Scardino, Emily. (2004). Ruehl: A&F’s Hip New Retail Concept. Retrieved April 19, 2008 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_18_43/ai_n6212855
- Wikipedia. (2008). Ruehl No.925. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruehl_No.925
Posts
15 comments:
From reading the little excerpt from Lisa’s ethnography report I got a little bit of a feel of what I should do. I feel that Lisa did a great job from the little that I read. She included emic and etic concepts in her report. I found it interesting that she used her job in her report and it made me think about my jobs and the differences between the two places that I work, Duane Reade and St. Vincent’s hospital. The differences between the two jobs are so vast, and I witness them all the time even though I work at each job once a week. It may be interesting to actually sit down and compare the way both jobs work and even the different people that work at each job.
I agree with Nuzzy about getting a sense of what i need to know. Lisa used the knowledge she had learnt from the class and applied it which i think is great. When i am doing my mini-ethnography i will try to do the same.Was rather interesting to hear about that store as it is new to me.
Jeffrey Lam
Ant1001
I find this mini-ethnography extremely similar to what we may find I our everyday lives. The observations of customers are what really caught my attention. Without even noticing, we ourselves become mini-anthropologists in our everyday life. We all go shopping for clothes in stores like Abercrombie and Fitch and in these certain stores there are models. What came to my mind is the thought of how we learned through enculturation to know what is beautiful and what is not. No one has ever told us that certain qualities make one pretty or ravishing. It’s just the way we grow up seeing other individuals grow up and acting around other who is so called beautiful and ugly. An hourglass body is what we learned to be accepted and beautiful. Because of this, many women strive for nothing less than that hourglass shape. It seems as this figure has become a standard for women to follow. People who prefer anything else besides the hourglass body is frowned upon and can be described as disgusting.
I was surprised that Lisa found anthropological ideas in circumstances which we can unintentionally pass. We can find anthropology in our every day life. And most attractive opinion is why people want to buy expensive goods. And also marketing and organizing stuff are connected anthropological concepts. It may be enough to find anthropological concepts near my life for writing mini-ethnography
I have to admit that at first I was pretty nervous about this mini-ethnography project. From the way we had been talking about it in class, it seemed too much to handle. But from reading the exemplar, I believe i have a better understanding on what we really need to do and how to approach the project. It will be fun, especially since we get to choose what or who we want to do it on. Lisa's paper was clear and interesting. I had a different thought on what this project was going to be like.
Caroline C.
Ant 1001 TV24A
Wow! I would have never thought shopping could be considered anthropological in certain ways. Us humans don't notice how much anthropology surrounds us. Reading Lisa's exemplar helped me realize that this project won't be as difficult as I made it seemed to be. I think that the best way to be successful in this project is by enjoying what us as participant observers decide to write about.
Since I love to shop I might decide to interview a sales person from one of the stores that I shop at, so I can get a sense of how helping customers feel. I already know how shopping feels, so getting a picture of how a sales person or model feel about their job helps me understand where they're coming from and if they love their job as much as I love to shop!
I love shopping at that store. They have couches and mattresses to sit on. Its soo cool and the models are incredibly beautiful. Well now I know how to do my ethnography report. I will do it on my t mobile store location and how I meet different types of people from all over the world. I will talk about they types of vibes they give off and their fashion sense.
I learned from this mini-ethnography that you can basically create a ethnography from anything. As long as there are people present, it will be a separate culture incorporated to that particular area. Its amazing that you don't have to look for to look for ideas for the project and after reading Lisa's mini-ethnography I gained a sense of what needs to be accomplished to receive a good grade as she did very well in her project.
Lisa definitely did a great job in her ethnography report. She used very good description and also used the terms in Kottak well. Its like she painted a picture of that store. I would have liked to know more about the follow up interview, like what kind of feedback she got back from her manager. Even though I’m not planning on interviewing an employer I plan on using this ethnography as a guide line.
I thought it was really interesting that 'Ruehl' was created for more sophisticated yet still youthful adults and how one of the main differences is that Ruehl does not advertise its brand all over the clothing . I never noticed that before. This made me also realize that in every location no matter how insignificant and everyday it may seem, (such as the mall), there are many observations that mini ethnographers can make that the simple eye won't see.
Actually this article reminded me of my first job at Washington Mutual bank as an intern . I started day after i turned 16 and this was a 2 year internship. And you can't believe how much you learn from working with customers all of them have their own way of doing thing but you see similarities on how people act according to their status and how much money they make. This was like an eye opener to me. After 2 year you know what clients want before they even speak and it doesn't matter you new or old client.This was s great experience i learn a lot about peoples behavior that helped me on later in life.
I loved this mini-ethnography. I thought it was going to be harder but it’s very straightforward. I found this a very interesting topic. Lisa's example gave me a possible idea on what to do my project. I’ve never realized that the stores did that. I find it very interesting how they decorate their stores.
This gave me a possible idea on what to do my project. Well right now I'm working for a cable company as a Customer Support Specialist. Basically what I do is answer calls from customers that have problems with their cable. It’s very different than when you call the customer representative with a problem, being in the other side of the phone gives me a different perspective about the situation.
that was cool, i was actually freaking out a bit on how to make the mini-ethnography look sophisticated and stuff. I realize i can be pretty much straight-forward, but im not gonna stop there. Ill make it sophisticated-like cause i want to. I like how she just makes it seem like she's talking to you, instead of making it seem like the reader is just reading information. Its weird how you can find something anthropological in just about anything. It makes you wonder how everything you take for granted actually shapes your well-being.
I feel more comfortable after I read Lisa's mini ethnography paper. Now, I can get concepts and some ideas of our project. I think I know what I have to do and I could write a proposal paper.
I enjoyed Lisa's paper.
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