Applebee's Restaurant Research Paper

Applebee’s Restaurant

For our assignment we chose to do an Applebee’s restaurant. We were able to set up our camera next to the bar area and facing the transition zone. We began taping in the early to mid-evening time, and taped for about 20 minutes. The information that we received was rather interesting.

One thing that we noticed right away was that the majority of people entering the restaurant came in pairs (typically, but not always, one male and one female.) All patrons are greeted by someone who opens the door for them. Upon entering they are then greeted by another person who asks them where they would like to be seated (smoking or non-smoking.) The typical wait to be seated during this time was about 1-2 minutes. Another interesting point was that people who arrived by themselves tended to go straight to the bar. They usually didn’t even talk to the hostess and they seemed to be walking with a purpose (they were walking at a very fast pace straight to the bar.) The patrons who walked to the bar were typically men. One interesting conclusion that we came up with was that maybe perhaps, since it was about the time at which Thursday night college football started, the men were heading to the bar to watch the game.

One very common theme that we noticed was that upon entering the restaurant, women almost always lead. The woman is typically the first person in the restaurant followed by the men. Also, in many instances, a woman would come into the restaurant by herself and get a table, but shortly thereafter a man would come in and find her so that he could sit with her, but once again it was the woman who came first (interesting.) Also, if a family entered the restaurant and they had a child with them it was typically the mother/woman who was holding or walking with the child.

As people entered the restaurant, it seemed as if they were pleased or