Naturalistic Observation 1

Naturalistic Observation: What Time of Day Do People Often Get Dessert?

Lisa Soeur

Cerritos College

PSYC 220: Research Methods

Dr. Sabine Huemer

September 9, 2022
Naturalistic Observation 2

Observing Human Behavior: Time of Day People Often Go to Meet Fresh

This naturalistic observation will be focused on what time of day a majority of people

crave something sweet to eat; in the morning or the evening? Meet Fresh is a Taiwanese dessert

shop located in a plaza in Cerritos that offers shaved ice, delicious soups, tofu pudding, cold

beverages with a variety of toppings, and other sweet snacks. It is very popular amongst the

Asian demographics; the customers range from young adolescents to the elderly as our desserts

are suited for many different pallets.

Study Design

I will be conducting a naturalistic observation to come up with a possible conclusion on

what time of day people would often go to Meet Fresh to buy a dessert. I will be observing the

number of people who will walk into the store and buy a dessert during the day and during the

evening. I predict that the store will be busiest and make the greatest number of sales during the

evening due to people being more likely to get a dessert after dinner. The large group of people I

will be conducting the observation will not be specified to one age group, ethnic group, sexual

orientation, etc.; it will include all participants. This report can be useful for those who are

deciding what is the best time and day to visit Meet Fresh or those who are thinking of owning a

store similar to Meet Fresh.

Study Detail

The study will take place on Monday, Saturday, and Sunday at Meet Fresh, which is

located inside the Lincoln Station Plaza. The shop opens from 12 pm to 9 pm on weekdays and

12 pm to 10 pm on weekends; I am a storefront associate and will be operating the cashier and

making products in front of the store for 6 to 8 consecutive hours. I will be conducting the

observation more than once during these hours of operation. I will observe how many customers
Naturalistic Observation 3

will come into the shop to purchase our desserts. This data will be recorded using the cashier and

will be stored under store sales and transactions to easily view the number of orders that were

made in the morning compared to in the evening.

Report

I conducted this observation for two weeks long. During the first week: I observed the

number of people from 12 pm to 5 pm on Monday; 5 pm to 10 pm on Saturday; and from 2:30

pm to 10 pm on Sunday. During the second week: I observed the number of people from 4 pm to

9 pm on Monday; 2 pm to 10 pm on Saturday; and 5 pm to 10 pm on Sunday. The data I

collected from the first week showed that the morning made only 37% of the total sales while the

evening made 63% (this includes the total sales from Monday, Saturday, and Sunday). The

second week showed that the morning made 43% of the total sales while the evening made 57%.

During the process, I’ve noticed that during the holidays, the morning sales and the evening sales

are relatively closer together. The second week was during Labor Day which resulted in more

growth in sales than average. In other words, it was busy throughout the entire day and many

people bought desserts in the morning as well as in the evening. Conducting this naturalistic

observation was not difficult due to the fact that it took place at my work, which was convenient

because I was able to stay for a long duration of time and get reliable data from the cashier. The

total sales and the number of people that stop by to buy a dessert from Meet Fresh are not always

consistent and tend to fluctuate due to many outside factors. For example, it is busier during the

summer compared to during the school year and Sunday nights tend to be slower because it is a

school night; weather can also be a factor. Overall, my data helped me come up with the

conclusion that a majority of people tend to buy desserts at night than in the morning.