For this weeks analysis of class, I went to Santana Row in San Jose to observe the people and atmosphere. Santana Row has an "upper class feel" because of the shops and the people there. Most of the stores are very expensive and often designer boutiques such as Burberry, Gucci, BCBG Maxazria and many other stores that I had never heard of (most of them one of a kind boutiques). There are a couple of mainstream stores such as H&M, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters that are still on the expensive end of large clothing stores. Most of the stores are small and specialize in something. Almost all of them have elegant music playing and a couple of workers who come up and talk to you about their products which are usually available to test if that is necessary. The stores have simple decor on the walls and windows and the organization is usually pretty spaced out and nothing is clumped in the stores. I would definitely say that almost all of the people in one store that I was in, Shuz at the Row, appeared to be upper-middle class. I would say that most were wealthy as well because they didn't seem to be working people since they were out shopping on a Wednesday at 2:30 in the afternoon. These people were all wearing expensive clothing, (as someone who likes designer clothing, I can tell very easily), and even their children were wearing expensive clothes. They did not have any visible tattoos, which is supposed to show respect and high-class. All of the three that I observed were white or some type of Caucasian and looked physically fit, wearing a lot of make-up and had nice, clean, pretty hair. Also, two of the women I saw had many shopping bags from other expensive boutiques. One of them had a huge diamond wedding ring on her left hand which also showed her wealth. These status markers show that these people are upper-middle class and wealthy because they are willing to show off their assets and wealth by getting a lot of shopping bags and wearing very expensive clothes for an ordinary shopping trip. However, these indexes could be mistaken if the person only has one good outfit or had just gotten his/her hair done that day. But overall, I definitely feel that Santana Row is a place for upper-middle class shoppers.
A few weeks ago my sister and I were at Santana Row looking for prom dresses for her and we noticed too how a lot of the women shopping there had nice clothes, hair, and jewelry. We also talk too about how maybe that's the only nice outfit they have and they only wear it out when they go to Santana Row. I agree though, Santan Row is mostly an upper class shopping center.
ReplyDelete