MIGRATION IN THE CITY

            For this presentation, I decided that the best place for me to observe migration within our metropolitan borders was at a Food City.  For me, the location at Glendale and 35th Avenue was the perfect spot as I have been there before and knew that many migrants frequent this location for their weekly grocery shopping.  I spent some time at this “border within the city” to note both the attributes of the location and the actions of the shoppers.  I came to a strong conclusion from my study.  In comparison to other grocery stores in the valley, this Food City definitely attempts to accommodate its Mexican and American customers.  While some customers were obviously Americans, the definite majority of the shoppers were Mexican, and the Food City officials know it.  To explain how I came to this conclusion, let me point out two attributes of the store: 1) the signs inside and outside of the store, and 2) the products that are sold. 

The Signs: Most, if not all of their signs are printed only in Spanish, or at least in Spanish first, then English.  This is exactly opposite of many other grocery stores in the same area.  Other grocery stores print signs only in English, or English first, then Spanish.  This definitely shows that the executives of Food City are well aware of the consumers that shop there.

            The Products: Rather than detail all of the products, I will use just one – the magazine rack.  Most of their magazines are printed in Spanish. 
For example, the object that I chose to share with the class is just that.  A magazine that I purchased from Food City: Christina.  While this magazine is clearly not exclusive to Food City stores, I did notice that Food City tends to have more Spanish magazines that most others, again showing how executives accommodate the majority of customers.

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