Week 6 Social Class

The mall that I chose to observe is the Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara. The Valley Fair is made up of a variety of stores. Some of these stores are Nordstrom, Macy's, Gap, Gucci, Forever 21, Louis Vuitton, Payless, Betsey Johnson, Abercrombie and Fitch, Guess, Armani Exchange, Hot Topic, and many more. There is a price range from low to high between these stores, but the majority of these stores' have high prices.

The three stores that I am going to assess in detail are Forever 21, Nordstrom, and Gap. In Forever 21 the clientele the stores is designed to serve is teenage girls and young women. They do this by making the store a shopping wonderland with clothes everywhere in every color, shiny, and sparkling. the organization and layout is to make the store look like a dream closet of clothes. the prices range from low to a little high but still affordable by the females that shop there. To top it off most of the music is upbeat music, which usually puts females in a good mood to shop.

Nordstrom tend to serve a clientele that consists of middle aged sophisticated married women. At least that is what it seems like in my opinion. The store usually play classical or soft music. They sometimes even have a live music with a hired professional playing a piano on the first floor that can be heard throughout all the floors. The layout and organization of the store is simple. Everything is fairly spread out and there are usually only about ten items of each different item. In my opinion this shows that these clothes are expensive since they only carry so few of the same item.

The last store is the Gap. The Gap seems to serve a clientele that consists adults, meaning not teenagers. More like people who are twenty and above. The Gap is a very casual place. It is not completely organized as Nordstrom but yet there are not clothes everywhere like Forever 21. Instead it is has moderate selection of clothes. The prices of their clothes range from reasonable to a little high.

In Forever 21 there are a couple of teenage girl shopping in the store that seem to be representative of the people shopping in the store. I would say that they are part of the working and middle class. They may be part of the middle class through their parents but if they are working and paying from their own profits then I would consider them part of the working class. The status markers I use assess their social class is by the shopping bags they are carrying. They are both carrying small bags which suggests that they are only buying one or two things which may mean they are paying for these things with their own money. At their age they probably do not have a lot of money to spend. Also their purses do not look like any designer bags, they just look like fun colorful purses.

In Nordstrom there are a couple of white middle aged women shopping. They seem to be of the upper middle class. They both are dressed sophisticated and elegant. The status marker that determines their status to me is their purse and shoes. Their purses are designer purses that cost a fortune and their shoes look expensive. In addition they are wearing jewelry such as earrings and bracelets.

In Gap there is a middle aged couple shopping together. They represent the people shopping in the store because everyone else in the store looks about the same age as them. I would say that they are the working class working their way to the middle class since they are still young in their life. They are not dressed like teenagers but instead more modestly. For example there are not writings on their clothes, they are all solid colors or patterned.

These status markers are good indexes of social class for many reasons. For example if young girls are paying for their own products that can mean that they are have a job for which they use to pay for their own belongings. Which can explain why they are not walking around with bags and bags of clothes. Purses and shoes are good indexes of social class because designer bags can range from a hundred to thousands of dollars. Many people do not have this type of money to be spending on bags which means they are most likely part of the upper middle class or the wealthy class. In addition many people do not have a lot of shoes because shoes can be expensive too. Therefore, in my opinion if someone has nice shoes it can indicate how much money they have to spend on such a pair of shoes. Age is another index for social class. Although everyone is born into a class, they can still move up in class. Therefore someone who is in their twenties may still be part of the working class but maybe by the time their in their thirties or forties they will be part of the middle class.

All of these status markers can be misleading. Maybe the teenage girls only had a few bags because that is all the allowance their middle class parents gave them. Maybe the two women shopping are wearing knockoff products or they know how to buy cheap items and make them look expensive. Or maybe that is their only nice pair of shoes and their only nice bag that they use on special trips to the mall. With age as a status marker is can be misleading because people are usually born into a class as mentioned before. Therefore maybe someone who looks young is part of the wealthy class because they were born into it.

I would say after observing the mall that Valley Fair Mall is predominately a middle and upper middle class mall. It only becomes a working class mall when things go on sale! Therefore their prices are usually high and not affordable for everybody.