Friday, January 4, 2013

Toys R Us and my wrap up.

What better place to put myself in then in the midst of crazy shoppers and parents determined to check off their children's list. Toys R Us was where I chose to do my final research, being known as a "kid's dream land" I was interested in seeing how these costumers would deal with a teenager. As I began my project I was shocked and a little confuse at how to react to some of the reactions the employees gave me. Knowing that this was one of their busiest times of year I wasn't surprised to see double the amount of workers out on the floor. As I walked in it took awhile to actually have someone come up to me. Finally I was greeted by someone who automatically asked if I was looking for a list of toys that I guess they had popular for teens. I followed him, after he left I began walking around and again was greeted by another worker but definitely with a different reaction. Realizing after that I had been by the baby section the woman treated me as if I were a teen mom, it was possibly one of the most awkward moment of my life. I stayed a little bit later and finally left with two very different reactions that where quite surprising.
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The wrap up of this project was both surprising yet a little predictable. Putting myself into three different locations I was given various reactions. Although I have visited these three stores, I was a little taken back by the treatment I never payed attention to. Ageism was definitely present with all reactions I was given. It did upset me a little at how Neiman Marcus thought I was shopping for my mom and Toys R Us thought I was a teen mom but it was a big eye opener. I was finally given a small dose of what ageism really feels like and how present it is today even to the younger generation.Forever 21 should me how age restricted the workers where trained to be when it came to their costumers. This also was true for Neiman Marcus, I almost felt uncomfortable being their because of how much of an outsider the older workers treated me as. Finally Toys R Us definitely showed me how ageism has grown today, with so much talk about teenagers becoming mothers I think it is affecting more then ust those teens that are now called "mom". Ageism holds so much hurtful and unneeded treatment towards people, being put as the victim, I myself so only a small portion of what it feels like and it was scary.  Overall the experiment was worth doing at the end of the day for me.