Mary

Mary is a quiet pretty girl who brought a whole new dynamic to my interviews. Where as Katie and Shiana were outgoing and forthcoming (for the most part) Mary was a bit of the opposite. She was very quiet, to the point that I could barley hear her even though I was sitting right next her. I had to ask her to repeat herself a few times.

The first thing I noticed about Mary was that she was sitting alone. I don't know if I noticed this because of her very pink sweater overlapped by her very blond hair or just because she was on her computer. I know they are normal in coffee shops but I always have to take a second glance to make sure they have a personal computer with them and they can just walk away with it.

She didn't seem overly thrilled to do an interview with me but she said yes. I have a feeling she just wanted to stay on Facebook. I made a note that she stayed on it and only made eye contact with me if she was talking. I don't view her poorly for this, like I said she brought a new dynamic to my interviews.

She said that she felt very comfortable with the Mt Cup and thought it was a good place to take her niece. "I like to come here a lot. I know I can come by myself or with my niece or my friends. It's a safe feeling here."

When I asked what her first impression of the Mt Cup was she said, "A friendly place but intimidated me by how many people were here. You know, just it was so popular."
I understood what she meant. The first time I visited the Mt cup it wasn't as busy so it was very intimidating to go back on a day it was packed.

Something else I found significant about my conversation with Mary was she was the first person to mention a thing about coffee. "The Mt Cup gives people a place to join together and have really good coffee at really good price."

Finally! Weeks in a coffee shop and they mentioned coffee without me asking!

I probably looked weird because i did a double take when she said that.

Usefulness

My conversation with Mary was useful because she was so different to Katie and Shiana. It also helped solidify my idea that a coffee house has very little to do with the coffee. Her mentioning coffee just made it click for me. The coffee is just a bonus, it's the atmosphere and people that make it worth going. I think this might be the idea I go with for my final paper. This idea was kind of there before I spoke with Mary but she just proved it for me.

While the interview was a little strange I got some good things out of it. She was shy and what I call socially challenged. I say this because i had to endure a conversation where the only time she looked at me was when she was talking. Other than that she was on facebook. I liked this only because it may connect to those who are not as outgoing as Katie and Shiana. She was also by herself so people didn't think you had to go solely for social events. It's an everything place and she was an example of that.

Shiana's interview

This is just an example so you can see how my interviews were set up. The blogger is being difficult so this is the onlypaper I've been able to get up, but now you have an example.

Katie

It is late afternoon and it is windy and cold outside. The inside is welcoming and I see two girls behind the counter moving at warp speed. There are three people waiting for their orders and a car at the drive through. I wait and look around to see if there is anything else going on. I decide even though they are busy I will interview them first because I knew it would only get busier.
Sometimes while I am being a fly on the wall I forget people can see me just as plainly as I can see them. I felt a little stupid when I realized one of the girls behind the counter was asking me if I needed anything for the second time.
“Yes, I do actually. It’s kinda weird-“
“Uh-oh,” the curly haired girl said, “I don’t do weird.”
I just laughed a little trying to figure out if she was joking or not. She added a smile at the end but I still wasn’t sure.
“I am doing a paper for my English class and I need some interviews. I was wondering if I could interview you.”
I had hoped for a simple yes with maybe a smile. I would have even been fine with a less than enthusiastic “sure”. That wasn’t what I got. Instead I was interviewed.
“What’s the paper on? Why do you need to interview me? Who are you? What does this have to do with the Mt Cup?”
I understood where she was coming from but didn’t really want to be on the other side of the interview. I knew this might happen though. That was one of the good things about having an interview planed rather than ambushing. I got annoyed by the interviews that were set but never seemed to work out. So I explained and the other girl behind the counter was listening. She seemed interested but kept working on the drive through orders.
Finaly the girl I was talking to said yes. Her name was Katie. I wasn’t sure I would even be able to get that out of her so I didn’t press her or any one else for their last name. She was nice but this was the set up to the rest of my conversation with her. She did get better as Shiana got involved. She never let her gaurd down all the way though.

Useful Things

She was a little difficult but gave me good answers
When I asked what the Mt cup does for the communite she gave me examples.
"We donate alot of gift certificats and do a lot of benefits upstair. The wine tasting money went to a chuch" she paused and looked confused, "somewhere. I don't know where." It was a good enough answer for me. I did kind of like that she was so diffrent compared to Shiana. It gave a diffrent point of view to the people at the Mt Cup. She was just nervous I think.

Shiana

I had seen her in the Mt Cup before but never spoke with her. When I went to in to do interviews she was the largest presence there. She has short hair, like a bob. It is brown with blond highlights and today was wearing a black head band. She was wearing a pretty black shirt. I was interviewing another person and she kept chirping in. She came in at the part where I asked Katie, the other worker, what kind of people they noticed regularly come in. Katie said "unique people mostly-"
"I'm one of those unique people!"she almost shouted. She had a big smile that made her nose and lip ring more noticeable. I liked her almost instantly.
She was very easy to talk to and welcomed me as a regular. It seemed that was her word for family. She obviously loved her job and the people she met. She also worked at Motini's which is upstairs. Something I found interesting about her was that she made no mention of the coffee as being a reason to come to the Mt Cup. It was all about the atmosphere and friendliness. The other thing was she wanted to talk about cars with me. I am slightly retarded in that category so that didn't work to well. She likes everything about cars though. that is one of the things she does at the Mt Cup.

Here is a hard copy of the interview. I didn't have a recorder so it is a little sloppy but legible. I also wrote the paper right after my interviews so I had more to remember about their body language and what they said that I couldn't write down. Well maybe I will get it up later since blogger wont let me do it now.

What I thought was most useful about this interview was how open she was. She just jumped right in there an actually wanted to be a part of it. As I was walking away after teh interviews she goes "aw now I feel important!" She was also very informative. She had no problems telling me what she thought of the place and liked that her oppionon mattered. She was really the spirit of what goes on at the Mt cup I thought.

No Luck

I was not able to get any interviews in before spring break and since I am not in Muncie now I wont be able to until after break. It's not a big deal, just annoying. I know it will still be there when I return. I think I am going to give up on the planning of an interview and just walk in when I know it wont be busy to talk to the employees. I will talk to some people in South Bend just to see what their thoughts are on coffee and stuff like that. So hopefully the next time I update I will have something worth updating about.

Interviews

My dates are still kind of up in the air.
I know I will have at least one interview this Thursday. Hopefully I will have another this Wednesday but if not I know I will be able to finish all of my interviews in the week after spring break. With break coming up no one really wanted to make a for sure date it seemed like.
I know I will try to intervie Terri. I may try Liz but I have not been able to get ahold of her. And for the third interview I want to interview a customer. This may mean I have to interview more than three people because I would like to try and get a regular. This way I would get interviews with both the insider and outsider prospective. Just making anything certain is proving to be a pain.