Sunday, September 21, 2008

Coffee Shop Secret Survey Part 1

While working for a cafe in a little bookstore I shall not name for legal purposes I secretly conducted a survey which to my ability is as accurate as possible without offending people. The Data is as follows:

Body mass index (BMI) is how i measured most of these people. Since I did it secretly I had to do it by eye. It was very obvious which people were overweight obese or not. I probably cut people a lot more slack than they deserved, but with that said here is the BMI percentages I used and how i roughly judged by eye which category they fell under.

# A BMI of 18.5–24.9 is normal weight (meat on their bones or skinny)
# A BMI of 25.0–29.9 is overweight (protruding stomach and thick legs/arms/neck)
# A BMI of 30.0–34.9 is class I obesity (overlapping fat and as well as the overweight symptoms)

Photobucket
this guy is way too hardcore to drink coffee! haha

Approx 1/3 or 33% of the coffee customers were found to be not overweight, but they weren't in top physical shape either. 80% of them bought regular brewed coffee the other 20% either got coffee with flavored syrup or with liquid ice cream in it.


Photobucket

Around 45% of the coffee consumers were most definitely overweight and seemed to favor the espresso coffee with more syrup and ice cream than the lower weighted consumers.

Photobucket

The Obese customers which comprised of about 22% of the coffee customers also found the sweater syrup filled coffees and ice cream based coffee malts more appealing.

I believe the Age relation to these weight levels has a lot today with how each of the generations was raised. Here's that data:

Ages 10-14 99% loved the ice cream based coffees
Ages 15-19 80% purchased the espresso coffees with syrup or ice cream base.
Ages 20-29 about 90% of them went with the espresso coffees adding syrup and whip cream
Ages 30-39 purchased approx. the same data as the 20-29 year olds
Ages 40-50 were split down the middle, 50% going with regular old fashion coffee
and the other 50% branching off to try the newer generation's choice of
high calorie and sweat caffeine beverage.
Ages 50+ there wasnt a large number elderly coming to the shop to buy coffee, but
if they did buy coffee it was just a regular brew either medium or dark.



With this rough data and my own personal experience of selling this product every day it seems to me that people over the age of 40 are more prone to buying a regular brewed coffee as compared to one made with espresso shots and liquid ice cream. The espresso drinks with added syrup and the ice cream based coffees are more popular with the younger crowd. could this be due to some cultural changes in the past couple of decades? I would think so.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Oppression, and Do We Have It!?

The signs of being oppressed are all here. Just like the signs of a cold, you may have one or two or maybe all of them at once, sometimes they don't show up till a later time. Sometimes they are so common that you get use to the idea and shrug it off like it's no big deal until it gets worse that is...

Today's American society is far more worried about obtaining a false sense of wealth rather than what some call true power. The wealth advertised in the media displayed to the united states citizens is just a mere smoke screen to what having true wealth or power is really like. These same people also known as the elite call most if not all of the shots dealing with our economic, political, and social decisions as a nation by what I'd like to call Mass Distributor Influence. That is basically when one or more persons with a highly ranked economic and/or political, and/or social status has enough power to influence one or more huge corporations to shift the direction they are going, whether it be a message or product, creating a domino effect among all the businesses affiliated with the huge corporations to benefit the common interest of the elite. Which there after the products and/or message of these corporations either have a negative or positive effect. Most often a negative effect that is unknowing to the consumers that ignorantly support it and therefor support the elite's interest and agenda.

This is definitely one of the major ways we are oppressed, by the controlling of products whether tangible or not (information) we are further oppressed by the lack of debate of these issues and the erosion of civil liberties such as freedom of speech. These are most certainly no the only ways the people of the united states are oppressed and we are certainly one of the less oppressed compared to other less fortunate countries, but the guilt resulting from the actions of these corporations should not be thrusted upon the minds of this countries citizens when they are unknowingly contributing to the demise of other countries and their people. Instead they should be made aware of these actions and be allowed to judge for themselves whether it is right or wrong to support the elite and leave it up to people of other countries to see that our country is made up of a variety kind hearted people with individual ideas that are rendered unselfish and that the people hurting the less fortunate countries (a.k.a. corporations) and if anyone should be held responsible it should be the ones oppressing the less fortunate countries as well as the ones that oppress the citizens of the United States.