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Gabriel Gjyla

Professor von Uhl

21002-C

3/7/2018

Box 11 Assignment

As I ponder about my time spent at the field site I chose, which is the Arthur Avenue Food Market, I am able to see how certain things happened because of my privilege. I think that if I were someone else, I may not have gotten all the opportunities to get into conversation with all the people I talked to, maybe I might have gotten the silent treatment from some merchants. I can concur that some obvious privileges that I have are based on my age, gender, nationality, freedom of travel, education level, among others.

The Little Italy section in Arthur Avenue is known for having an historic Italian community, which is why there are so many Italian restaurants that are highly rated. Since I am Albanian myself, I was able to use that privilege to gain more knowledge from the people at the merchant stores. Albania and Italy are very close to each other in Europe, and their people tend to welcome each other. I feel like the Italians in the stores welcomed me with open hands. One big part of the warmness towards me might have been because of my Albanian nationality, but I think a bigger reason is because the community in there is just welcoming in particular, towards all people. The main goal is to attract customers, so the employees have to think outside the box and try different methods to make their stores stand out. I would say that I feel like family to these people, in the way that they started to talk to me about their own problems like I was their own family. I have to say that they succeed in making the customer feel important.

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The age factor also played a big part in my privilege as well. As soon as I told them that I am 19 years old, that’s all they needed to hear! Throughout my essay on the field site, there’s some stuff that I decided to leave out due to spacing issues. However, the four friends in the cigar store treated me like a man, if I really think about it. They talked to me like I was part of their group, giving me advice on relationships and family. Furthermore, they even gave me a free cigar after showing me how to roll one and determining which kind is the right one for me. I don’t know if I am old enough to legally buy a cigar, but they just gave it to me and I smoked with them like I was one of the Italians in The Godfather movies.  To add, I feel like my age would be a big factor for attracting the younger people. I would assume that the merchant employees saw this as an opportunity to try to branch out for people my age, giving me free food samples in the hopes that I would tell people of my generation about this retail market. It seems like a good business opportunity, but I just really love the free samples. I guess that it would be a win-win for both sides involved. I would give them more customers by telling my friends about the market, who would tell their friends and so on, while they would keep a loyal customer and I still get my free samples.

A privilege that I didn’t really pay attention to, but is still very important, is my socioeconomic level.  Having two parents that work very hard to support my brothers and me, I have always admired their work ethic. Their hard work meant that my brothers and I usually get what we want when we ask for it. In terms of food, we never have gone hungry, with my dad always making sure we eat what we want. Case in point is this retail market that I chose for my field site. I do get free samples, but we spent more than others when we buy our groceries. My dad wants to buy food that is always fresh, which is why we shop at the food market at Arthur

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Avenue. However, the total bill means that we spend a majority of our money on food/groceries because we are a big family. What I am trying to say is that if my parents didn’t earn the kind of money they currently do, my family might not always get to shop for the freshest and more admired food we want. I take into consideration the yearly wages my parents make, and although it doesn’t add up to six figures, they still find a way to make it work. I can understand how my socioeconomic level allows me to fill the grocery bags with the freshest foods I want, even while the food prices are always rising.

To sum up, my experience in being in the field site of the Arthur Avenue Market allowed me to witness a community of people going about their everyday lives, such as shopping, eating, communicating, and just laughing with their friends. I felt really welcome and loved by the people that I interviewed, although that might be a smart and effective way to make the customers want to come back every time and spread the word about the warmth and hospitality about the market. I got to acknowledge the privileges that I have which usually give me special access to certain things. In all, the privilege that I have has allowed me to be a good enough researcher in order to fully position myself in my field site.