Panera Bread Ethnographic Analysis

In his scholarly article, “Culture”, Raymond Williams defines the word culture as “an independent noun, whether used generally or specifically, indicates a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period, a group, or humanity in general” . Various forms of cultures and all walks of life come together to make up the human race. A particular culture in which I have grown fond of is located in Topsham, Maine home to a Panera Bread. Over the course of the months of March, April, and May of 2017, I observed and analyzed, through participant observation, the culture present within the Topsham Panera Bread. I conducted an ethnography at Panera Bread to garner a greater understanding of the types of people that dine, fellowship, and commune at

The inception of Panera Bread occurred in Kirkwood, Missouri in the year of 1987 . For the majority of its existence, Kirkwood, Missouri has been home to a homogenously white, with statistics as recent as 2010 stating a 96 percent racial makeup of white individuals . As time has progressed Panera Bread has become a staple in suburban white communities; with exactly 2,024 bakery-cafes residing in these uniformly white communities across the United States . These facts are important in analyzing the culture of the Topsham Panera Bread because history of geography is crucial to understanding phenomena, as asserted by Franz Boas in his journal, “The Study of Geography” . As I illuminate my findings in relation to the Panera Bread based ethnography, I hope to reveal various insights about the culture and community within this

This study included numerous victories but was also comprised of a few faults. Overall, the utilization of participant-observation illuminated the social, cultural, and psychological intangibles that cultivate the Topsham Panera Bread eating experience. Understanding anthropological insights about places such as the Topsham Panera Bread are and will remain important because this type of community is crucial to recognizing racial patterns and deciphering why they exist in America. Hopefully as cultures such as this continue to be examined, a greater depth of knowledge regarding racial dynamics will become more prevalent in homes of individuals across the