The Old Sun Shop

Fieldwork Week Four

 

               As I show up to work today I notice that the weather is wonderful. Blue sky and sunny with temperature about 70 degrees. It’s not hot nor cold and I see a few people walking around the plaza. When I open the shop I do not light the candle that I usually burn. The owner has a bouquet of gorgeous fresh flowers that smell divine and filled up the shop. The smell is not as strong as the candle and not a lot of people smell the flowers. However, I still received comments all day about how good the store smelled and that it smelled fresh. A few people said it did not smell like flowers. Maybe this could have been because the smell of the candle still remained slightly in the room. After all we burn the same scent of candle every day.

              Today started off pretty slow and within the first hour and a half to two hours, only five couples came in. I thought it was a bit peculiar that no one came in by themselves or in groups. It was five couples at different times. The first couple that came in have been in the shop a few times before. The girl looks partly Asian and was wearing a big hat that covered a part of her face. The man was Anglo and was a little bit taller than the women with her hat on. They seemed very nice and they carried a light conversation between themselves and slightly with me as well. Some of the products they talked about were the black pottery, jewelry and of course the little pigs. They joked around and laughed and seemed to be enjoying each other’s company and their day. They walked through the store as if it was their first time being in the shop. They looked at everything. It seems as though they were keeping an eye out for something new or something they might have missed last time. I could tell when they already had seen something because they did not take as long to glance at it. They ended up not buying anything today but they look like they will be back later on in the month or in the year like I’ve been noticing they do.

              The following couple were extremely chatty. The women was either Hispanic or Anglo (I couldn’t tell). The man was very tall and was Anglo. They had such a positive attitude and seemed very energetic and happy to be walking around and enjoying their day. They were looking for something specific but at the same time not specific at all. They were one of those people who are looking for something different, perfect, and special but don’t really know what they are looking for. They said “I’ll know it when I see it”. As they looked at the horse hair potter, Ms. Chatterbox shared a personal story with me. She told me about her daughter making her a beautiful piece of pottery and when she was moving to Las Cruces, it broke. She said that piece of pottery was so special to her and it broke her heart to see it broken. What was worse was it could not be glued back together. She continued to walk around admiring all the art in the shop especially all the different pottery. As I saw them walk around I noticed Tall guy was holding a painting that looked like modern art. It was red with a few other bright colors that did not exactly make a picture or at least that I could tell. The way they took their time and talked about and admired all the different art in here made me realize that they could be very artistic people. I could see that they had a very open mind to new things as I could tell a lot from their conversations. They would say something about it being different and never seeing anything like it and liking its unique features. They seemed to like getting to know people even if it was for a few minutes. They left with such a positive attitude and told me to enjoy my day. Surprisingly, not a lot of people say something like that to me. It was so nice having someone wish me a nice day.

              The third couple did not so much walk as one. There seemed to be a dominant which in this case was the lady with short red hair. Her hair color unlike most people looked natural so I believe it was her actual hair color and it looked very pretty. This couple was possibly in their late fifties early sixties. The man was slightly taller than her and seemed a little goofy and seemed to crack his private jobs as he would look at something and start giggling slightly to himself. He followed redhead everywhere she went but stay a foot or two behind her. Surprisingly to me they seemed very happy. He had a big smile on his face and the lady had more of a neutral face expression.  They did not converse very much. In fact they were quite most of the time. The only time I heard them actually talk was when they were about to leave and the lady hurried back in to look at a wind chime. It was a little bit funny because the man walked ahead of her to open the door for her and did not notice her turn back. As soon as he noticed he quickly walked back to be at her side and see what she was looking at. They both agreed it was very nice and then left.

              The next couple were Hispanic. They did exactly look happy neither did they look mad. They walked in the store and seemed as if to be in a small rush. The lady was glancing at mostly jewelry but did not look at many other things as she quickly kept walking. The guy seemed very impatient and walked around the store looking a bit annoyed. They did not speak to each other at all while in the shop. The guy didn’t even seem to look at anything he just look like he wanted to leave. They were even in the shop for two minutes when they left. However, they walked around the store. Maybe they were looking for something very specific and did not see anything like it in here and decided to move on to another shop.  

              The final couple were Anglo. They were quite for the most part but still held a small conversation between the two. They took their time and looked at whatever would catch their eye all of a sudden but did not spend a lot of time in the store. Soon enough the couple left happily and as they were leaving for the door they began to chat a lot more and spoke a little louder.

              Soon the very nice sunny day turned cloudy. After being at work for two hours finally people started to come in a little more. The couple thing stopped and groups of people were coming in. Unfortunately nothing was selling today. This could be because a lot of people might be choosing to spend extra money in the festivals going on in town. The exception to this were three ladies that came in and another couple. The three ladies; mother, daughter, and cousin to mother, were visiting and shopping. They took a long time looking at everything and decided what they would take. Mother would leave a few items near the cash register and would constantly take an item back and bring back another one. Prima (mother’s cousin) bought a small rooster magnet. She thought it would be so cute for her kitchen. Mother bought a bunch of semi-precious stone bracelets, a pig, and an angel bell. Over all it was a pretty good sale for a slow day.

              Finally the other couple bought a Native American silver cross with a turquoise stone in the center. She bought it with a silver chocker. It looked very nice on her. Over all the two sales came to be slightly over a hundred dollars so it wasn’t so bad of a sale day after all.

              Since we did not have our candle burning not a lot of people looked at the candles or bought any today. However, I noticed that almost everyone looked at the pigs. Today no one commented on them like I usually hear customers do but at least people took a look at them and one sold today.