Let's Go Camping . . . In the Mall

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Shannin Mae Olivarez

2 AB Political Science

Sociology and Anthropology 21

August 27, 2013 

#settingupacampinsm
#tentpotandspatula

Let’s go Camping . . . In the Mall

The shopping mall is usually where people from different walks of life would go to when they need to shop and buy things. People from different ages find the mall as an interesting spot to do a variety of activities that caters the different tastes of movie getters, trendsetters and the like. In the case of SM Sucat Parañaque City, it is able to accommodate different types of people that have different wants and needs. That is why, it attests to its famous slogan We got it all for you. When someone steps into the mall, they expect people walking inside different stores, people eating and walking around. Normal isn’t it? But what if one day, you see a group of people suddenly being blocked by the guards in one of the entrance doors of the mall with a tent, pots and plates, along with a few loose branches?

Setting up a camp inside SM Sucat was the main goal of the breaching experiment. Breaking the usual norm of the mall, as a place to eat and shop around was the purpose of the experiment. The experiment started at around 10:45 in the morning. The props of the experiment consisted the following: One tent, two cooking pots and a spatula, and a bunch of leafy branches freshly picked during that day.

My friends and I settled the tent in the middle of the food court. In order to add a little twist to the experiment, I decided to make one of my friends go around the food court with a cooking pot and a spatula, and asked him to go near to the people eating in the tables in a manner of trying to ask for food. We did the breaching experiment in the food court for a total of 20 minutes: 10 minutes for the tent experiment, and another 10 minutes for the pot and spatula experiment.  

I decided to conduct the breaching experiment in SM Sucat, because this is the place wherein almost all of the social classes in our city (the rich and the poor) shop and hang out. SM Sucat, being the nearest mall for subdivisions and depressed areas, serves as an equalizer and as a convenient place, which enables the rich and the poor to be in the same place at once. Lastly, I decided to choose the food court as the place for the breaching experiment, because its one of the main places in the mall that encapsulates the people with different age groups, genders and social classes in one place.

Before saying the different reactions of people, let me first classify the types of people that were in the mall during the experiment: Let us start with the types of ages. There were kids that aged from five to 10 years. There were also young men and women aging from 18 to 25 years old. The older men and women were usually located in the food court, aging from 50 to 70 years. The rest of the age groups were scattered around the mall. All of the age groups and genders belong to different social classes. The different roles that I saw in the mall were parents, children, grandmothers and grandfathers, and a group of friends. Finally, the people who were working in SM Sucat were also attracted by the experiment. These were the two front guards of one of the main entrances, two supervisors, and sales talk ladies that were also very intrigued by the experiment.

                  The general reaction that I garnered from the experiment was suspicion. Regardless of the gender, age, and the role of the individuals that were in the mall, they were all suspicious about the tent and the loose branches settled in the food court and in the main entrance of the hypermarket. Upon entering the mall, my friends and I were blocked by the guards. They were wondering why we had a tent and a bunch of loose branches with us. They were asking why a tent and a bunch of branches were needed inside the mall.

As we hurdled our way into the mall, people from different ages and genders could not resist looking at us as if we were different from them. Along the candy stall, children aging from five to nine pointed to the tent while they nudged their parents about the things that we brought. The sales ladies on the ground floor atrium wondered about the things that we brought. As we went towards the elevator, there was a young woman who was very reluctant to go inside. Pretending that we didn’t notice her reaction, the young woman was making faces and whispered: ano ba yan? As we exited the elevator, the sales ladies of the hypermarket whispered to each other, as they pointed to the props.  

When we reached the location, we slowly settled in the middle of the food court. As we passed by, all people from different ages, genders and roles wondered of why we have such things. When we settled down the tent and the loose branches, almost everyone in near the tent and the loose branches could not help but to look into what was happening. What I personally observed during the set-up was that the kids were usually the ones that wanted to go near the tents in order to inspect of what was inside. Once the tent was settled down, the fathers with kids would usually grin and wonder about the tent. Some of them even went near and circled around the tent. The older people just looked and wondered while sitting down. The young females just looked at us and the tent. It did not take long when a supervisor of the food court went near to us and asked us of what was happening. What I have personally observed while talking to that particular supervisor, was that his tone of voice was shaky and pointed. He asked us if we got a permit from the head manager of the mall. After a short conversation, I made one of my friends go inside the tent, in order to see if there would be more people looking. After a few minutes, the assistant manager came near to us and was worried and shocked about what happened. What seemed to be the trend was that both the supervisor and the assistant manager asked us whether we had a permit to do the experiment.

After 10 minutes, my friends and I started the pot and spatula experiment. A friend of mine who volunteered, went around the food court in order to go near to the people eating in the tables to ask for food. What I have observed was that the older men and women were less suspicious and more vulnerable. They were more willing to give a portion of their food to my friend compared to the younger men and women who were eating. The children just looked at my friend while he was asking for food, while the younger men and women would just ignored and talked amongst themselves. Luckily, this part of the experiment did not consist of any managers or supervisors going near to my friend to inspect him.

                  The reactions of the people that were around, in general, were suspicion and shock. What caused these reactions could probably be the fact that that setting the tent along with loose branches is not considered to be a common norm in the mall, most especially in the food court. One of the main evidence of this was how the supervisors reacted to tent. Their question of whether I had a permit to set up the tent could be a possible correlation as to how the pop-tent was not an acceptable norm in the mall, particularly in the food court. Setting up the tent did reinforce the existing norms based on the people’s reactions since the tent is not what an individual typically sees in the mall, since the tent is usually an object that is being set up in the middle of the forest or in the beach.

In the case of the pot and spatula experiment, the general reaction was also suspicion. Most of the young men and women were reluctant to give food to my friend, since the mall is not the place where people beg for food. The older men and women seemed to be more giving and vulnerable, possibly because their emotions were more dominant over their sensitivity and awareness about the environment. They possibly felt piteous over my friend, because their focus was not on his appearance, but rather on the pot and spatula that he was showing. The pot and spatula, in the case of the young men and women, along with the children reinforce the existing norms based on their reactions, because it is not common for an individual to go around the food court asking for food with a pot and spatula. These people only found it normal to see people begging for food outside the streets and outside the mall.

The people in the mall reacted with reluctance, shock and suspicion, possibly because setting up a tent in the middle of the food court, and seeing someone beg for food with a pot and spatula, rarely happens in that particular place. Since the tent, pot and spatula experiment is considered to be a deviant situation, that technically breaks the “socially accepted” norms of the mall, the people in that place would not take it as something that usually happens in the mall. Thus, it goes to show that deviant acts such as the experiment that I have done inside SM, is hard for the customers to accept because of the rooted social norms that the customers have been oriented from before going inside the mall, along with the previous experiences that they had while they are in the mall. While we were blocked by the guards, the first thing that I have noticed was a “reminder board” coming from the management that basically states the “do’s and don’ts” inside the mall. An array of messages were encapsulated with graphics that told customers what to bring and not to bring, shows that the mall is controlling the individual’s behavior while making them realize what the “socially accepted” norms are inside the mall, in order for them to have access to the contents of the mall. That is why, they are in state of shock as they saw the tent and the other instruments, because they knew from the beginning that those were not considered be “socially accepted” inside the mall.

Aside from the given norms of the mall, the reactions of the people could have been generated in a certain way, due to the different sociological themes such as age, gender, roles and social class. Primarily, age might have played a major role in the formulation of the reactions of the people in the mall, since what I have personally observed is that children that are aged five to 10 years were more interested in the tent. People that are within this age group (most especially the kids that are 5 years old) would not be fully aware of the social norms of the places that they go, such as the mall. The young men and women, who are 18 to 25 years old, were the most intrigued about the experiment. This could be because this particular age group is very sensitive about their surroundings, which enables them to know the different kinds of social norms, and to expect the social norms in the places that they go to. In the case of the older men and women, who are 50 to 70 years old, most of them did not care about the experiment and just kept on eating their meals. The most that they did was just to look at the tent for a while. This is because they tend to careless about their surroundings, since they are less focused and would care more about resting and enjoying their food.

With regards to gender, in general, males tend to just look at the tents and are less intrigued about the experiment. On the other hand, females tend to be more intrigued, and most of them would comment and whisper to their friends while looking at the experiment. Females would tend to be more meticulous and more suspicious. They would tend to have an attitude that if they saw or heard something intriguing, their reactions would be more obvious and showy. On the other hand, males would tend to be quieter and are considered to be more of an observer. Men would usually keep things to themselves, rather than talk about what they think and feel.

In the case of the different roles seen in the mall, the parents of the children would try to discipline their kids. Whenever they see their child going near the tent, a parent (whether it is their mother or father), would come near to them and tug them away and say: anak, don’t go near. Sa iba na lang. In the pot and spatula experiment, when a child gets attracted to the utensils and the urge of wanting to touch them comes into play, their mothers would usually tell them not to touch it. This insight is also important to take note of, because the role of gender also comes up in this particular incident. Between the father and the mother, the mother is usually the one who is more concerned, when it comes to the behavior and attitude of their child. This goes to show that females are really more meticulous and conscious, which further solidifies the “mother-figure” image of a woman.

The other roles that were evident in the mall were the guards and the supervisors. Primarily, the two guards that were reluctant to make us enter the mall reacted in that particular way, because they only expect customers like us to only bring our personal bags and belongings. Another reason being is that it is their job to ensure that what we are bringing inside the mall is actually safe and harmless. It is the role of the guards to inspect and make sure that we, as customers of the mall, follow the rules and regulations of that said place by ensuring that the things that we bring inside are “socially acceptable” in that mall. On the other hand, as I have mentioned earlier, two supervisors went near to us during the experiment. Their roles as supervisors have made them ask to whether we have a permit to set up the tent, because they are expected to react that way. As supervisors, they are responsible for the peace and order of the mall. It is their responsibility to question and fix situations that are not considered to be “normal” inside the mall, such as the event of setting up a tent in the middle of the food court.

Social class is also another sociological theme that plays an important role in analyzing the experiment. What I personally observed during the duration of the experiment, was that the upper classmen that were in the food court tended to be less intrigued than of the lowerclassmen. This was very evident, during the time that the tent was being set up. Most of the upperclassmen would just glance as they passed by the tent, and some of them just ignored the tent. On the other hand, the lowerclassmen would tend to stop and look at the tent and observe it well. This goes to show that even if the upperclassmen does not really take the experiment as their primary concern, it could also possibly mean that their failure to pay attention to the experiment could connote that the experiment does not affect them personally. In the case of the pot and spatula experiment, some of the upperclassmen would ignore my friend, until he moves to another table. The others would get irritated and would tell my friend to go away. In the case of the lowerclassmen, even if the tent experiment did not personally affect them, they were more intrigued about it. In the pot and spatula experiment, the lowerclassmen would tend to laugh and giggle to my friend.

The initial feeling that I have felt during the experiment was nervousness and reluctance. I was a bit scared to break the “norms” of the mall, because I knew from the beginning that this was going to be very intriguing to the customers, most especially to the people working in the mall. While my friends and I settled the tent inside the food court, I felt very scared and embarrassed at the same time. Setting up the experiment was very embarrassing, because all eyes were on us. The waiters, cashiers, sales ladies, and the customers were just looking at us as if we were very different from them. At that point in time, I knew that the experiment was working, because most of the customers around us were very reluctant to come near us, because what we were doing was not “normally” accepted inside the mall.

With regards to deviating from the norms, it felt embarrassing, funny, awkward and scary. I was personally scared and embarrassed at the same time, when the two mall supervisors went near to us about the experiment. I was a bit hesitant to do the activity the first time, because I realized that the feeling was a whole lot different when you are already doing the experiment itself. It is easy to say that you are doing this type of experiment in order to break the social norm of a particular place, but is quite hard to do. This is because you, as the designer of the experiment, have to put up with the reactions that you get, and try to ignore and observe these reactions in the best possible manner.

In general, I could say that trying to be a deviant or an outlier is harder than what others think. Being a deviant is more than just trying to stand out from the crowd, or to try to get attention from the people around you. It is the ultimate test of whether you are sociologically capable of understanding the people around you. Based on what I have learned from this experiment, being a deviant is not about the attention that you get, it is about the reaction that the people say towards you, towards a particular situation or getup that you are trying to pull up. Conducting a breaching experiment is not easy. It takes guts and concentration. It is important that the deviant individual, or the one conducting the experiment is open to the positive and negative comments of the people around him or her. In the case of the tent, pot and spatula experiment, it was against all odds. The breaching experiment teaches us to be more open-minded about the different opinions of people and how these are shaped by their different cultural upbringing, religious beliefs and their way of living.