The range of consumptions choices offered in Peet’s Coffee & Tea would appeal to the taste culture defined by Gans as “upper middle culture.” Located in Winthrop Square, Peet’s is in a beautiful location. To its left is the fancy Upstairs at the Square restaurant, a well-known expensive dining location, and to its front is a well-maintained park with benches to sit on and enjoy the view. Peet’s itself is inside a New England style house and exudes a very welcoming vibe. I had walked into the store with the intention of only staying for a few minutes, but because I felt so comfortable, I ended up sitting down for more than ten minutes. Smooth jazz was playing quietly in the background and the store was filled with lounging customers: couples sat on couches and giggled, students flipped through textbooks as they sipped their coffees, and everybody seemed relaxed and happy. As I scanned the drink menu, I realized that some cultural capital would be needed to negotiate Peet’s. With over five options for each drink category, (frappe, expresso, tea, coffee, cappuccino), a more than basic knowledge of beverages was required to understand the menu. Even ordering a simple hot chocolate, I discovered that Peet’s offered three different types of hot chocolate. The complex menu, along with the modern artwork on the walls, both cater to an audience with cultural capital. People of lower classes would not appreciate the ambience, jazz music, and visual display that all play a role in developing Peet’s upper class taste “package.” The financial status of this site’s clientele is obviously upper class as seen by the location’s characteristics and the prices themselves. The prices ranged from three to five dollars, even for a small cup. At Dunkin Donuts, on the other hand, prices started at $1.50 and only went up to $2.50. The range of choices offered at Peet’s Coffee & Tea appealed to my tastes. As I sipped my hot chocolate, I wandered the store, appreciating the artwork on the walls, and then relaxed on one of the couches to listen to the soothing jazz music and the murmur of other customers talking. Most of the conversation I overheard was on educational topics, leading me to assume that most costumers of Peet’s are part of the educated elite. I view myself as an educated elite and as a member of the upper middle class, so the taste public that Peet’s offers appealed to me strongly. As Bourdieu said, “taste classifies, and it classifies the user.” My taste for Peet’s was shaped by my upper middle class habitus, and this in turn has placed me in a taste public with those of a similar class background.
Dunkin Donuts, on the other hand, caters to a lower class demographic, and because I do not have a working class habitus, I felt very uncomfortable at that consumption site. Although Dunkin Donuts is only a block away from Peet’s, its surroundings are quite different. The store has a parking garage above it and has two busy roads on both sides. There is no peaceful ambiance surrounding Dunkin Donuts and no loitering customers. In fact, the only people present in the store besides the employees themselves were two homeless men, each sitting at their own respective table. At Peet’s, I was inclined to linger in the store but at Dunkin Donuts I felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave as soon as I was given what I ordered, a cookie. When the worker at Peet’s had given me my hot chocolate, it was given without a lid or cup sleeve, as though they had expected me to stay in the store to drink it. At Dunkin Donuts, however, the cashier put my cookie in a plastic bag so I could take it to-go. Although neither place asked me if I wanted my order “for here” or “to-go,” each place made a different assumption. In my opinion, this difference reflects the differing habitus of each place’s clients. The habitus of Dunkin Donuts patrons is that of a lower class background, so it is characterized by a taste for necessity. Because of this, Dunkin Donuts provides products that appeal to an audience that prefers practicality. The menu at Dunkin Donuts is very limited- you can order either tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or juice. Also, the prices are much cheaper. Since the working class prefers substance over form, informal over formal, and sensual over intellectual, Dunkin Donuts has arranged its set-up very differently than Peet’s. The visual display is very simple, no artwork hangs on the walls, and music does not play in the store. To me, this silence and undecorated space left me feeling awkward and unwelcome. I prefer the stylized feel of Peet’s over the practical layout of Dunkin Donuts because I have a dominant class habitus characterized by a taste for freedom. My high cultural capital resources and my distance from economic necessity have enabled me to appreciate the realm of self-expression rather than fixate on functionality and practicality, as one with low cultural capital would.
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