Sport Chek A Subculture Analysis

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I am part of a subculture, as are many people, even if they aren’t aware of it. A subculture is a group of people who operate based on shared values, norms and practices within a larger culture (Brym and Lie 2012). I work for Sport Chek as a sales associate and we have our own subculture, not only as a corporation but as a staff. As a staff, we are expected to have a certain set of values based on sports, but mainly on the lifestyle of an athlete. We are expected to be active and have an athletic background, whether it is an individual or a team sport. Since we are a sporting good retailer we are all expected to have some background knowledge when it comes to athletics. As a corporation, we are expected to work towards a common goal based on …show more content…

Values are defined as “ideas about what is right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly (Brym Lie 2012:31).” Sport Chek hires people who have the values of an athlete such as understanding the importance of team work, being able to perform a task that will benefit the team, what makes a good athlete; and we are supposed to share these values with our customers. Sport Chek’s goal is to get Canadians to live a healthy and active life. As a corporation, we want to achieve our goal and make all those necessary steps and norms clear. A norm is the way of doing something that is accepted by a society or subculture (Innocente 2016). If an employee does not adhere to the norms, then we stop being consistent. Consistency is important in a subculture because if we are unable to prevent deviation from our norms, then our subculture will not function efficiently. Our main goal could be misinterpreted as selling product because Sport Chek only cares about profit, which is only half the truth. We care about making budget but we want to achieve that in a way that we believe is a genuine road to a healthy Canada, versus one that is based on money. Sport Chek operates in a non-commission based environment because competition and goes against the values of Sport Chek. Although competition may be healthy, it allows employees to focus on personal gain rather than team …show more content…

We connect with people through small interactions like the shared expressed frustration of waiting for a late city bus, or through the shared sorrow we feel when our favourite team loses an important game. The sociological imagination lets me connect my small work experience to how we assess advertisements and associate brands. When we see popular symbols like a Nike swoosh we either think of sports, or the corporation. Small things like inspirational stories of people from disadvantaged backgrounds encourage us to better our lives. My mere Sport Chek example helps me connect the goal of a certain brand with the goal of the corporation behind it. We are all subjected to these corporations that try to impose their ideas on us through small things, like their logos and jingles. Corporation is the company that represents a certain idea within a corporation, that idea being the brand. Corporations benefit from our tiny interactions with their brands, and make millions whether we are aware of it or not. Although Sport Chek has good intentions, they are still a corporation based on the healthy

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