Last Day's Thoughts...

It is my last day here at Alderman Ave. Bokhandle, so I suppose today should mostly be a day of reflection. First off, I would like to start off by discussing my location as a whole: cosy, fairly quiet, user-friendly, conveniently located and all-around inviting. It has a certain leisurely charm to it, as demonstrated by the relaxed natures of the clientele, and is large enough to accommodate and small enough to envelope. It caters to people of all races, nationalities, and ethnic groups, and has managed to invite in more than enough persons to keep the lights on and the doors open. It is located in the area that without a doubt needs it the most, and it stocks its shelves accordingly. It manages to attractive the kind of people that will eventually serve as clients, as well as those who simply are looking for a place to sit down, study, and relax (and oftentimes people who just come in to take a load off eventually end up making purchases). Bean and Brew Coffee Shoppe is strategically located downstairs near the front entrance, as to invite people in immediately if only for that (many of whom, again, eventually end up staying and buying something). All of these aspects and more contribute to the overall success of Alderman.
    Second off, I would like to discuss my overall experience at Alderman Ave. Bokhandle. I have been a pretty satisfied visitor, all in all. The personnel are quite friendly (despite almost never being present at the Customer Service counter) and ranging from all ages and ethnic backgrounds, are just as diverse as the customers. I also noticed that they each manage to make people of different races and nationalities all feel comfortable enough to freely call on them (which is to say, the Hispanic customers don’t only go to the Hispanic employees, and the Black customers don’t only go to the Black employees, which is arguably a fairly common occurrence at many other establishments). The diverse range of customers has also given me a chance to see sociocultural customs/norms up close (e.g. the fact that teenagers tend to be the loudest in a store, but many, when speaking in Spanish, tend to lower their voices a tad, or the fact that African Americans were the least likely group of people to come and stay for a while at the store, or the fact that Asians [Chinese, Indians, Koreans, etc.] were the quietest group I observed, even among the teenagers) and has sparked my interest as to why those norms exist, amongst new immigrants as well as the descendants of immigrants. My time at the store has also given me a new spin on the little habits of people. They seemed so insignificant before, but now I tend to notice them more and often find myself trying to rationalize them. I am starting to see the world as not one big whole full of little parts, but as little parts working side-by-side and meshing together to form a whole.
    Overall, I must admit, there were slower days at my location during which I had to scour through the junk of human nature to see the treasure of the human psyche, but many a day was filled with interesting and thought provoking tidbits about people that that have expanded my worldview scope. I mean, even today, where I once would have only seen a middle-aged woman and her companion and about four to six teenagers, I now see about 5-6 people with Bean and Brew (no doubt an integral part of their daily habituation) and a few people without it in comparison who are contented with only their water bottles or nothing at all.