Open AccessThe Rollercoaster: How to Go from Global to Local and Back Again—The Case of a Walking Drive Model in Paris
Author(s) -
MORIER MARCANTOINE
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/epic.12010
Subject(s) - neighbourhood (mathematics) , ethnography , demographics , gentrification , scale (ratio) , marketing , work (physics) , sociology , business , computer science , advertising , geography , economics , engineering , cartography , mathematics , economic growth , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , demography , anthropology
The act of shopping for food is a very local experience, yet large food retail chains have built their business on homogenizing and standardizing the experience. In this article, we mobilize an ethnographic study carried out in 2018 for a food distributor regarding a new model of online retail pick‐up. The goal of the project was to understand how a new method for food shopping could be scaled across different types of neighbourhoods. We created a scale model that incorporates both individual shopping practices and the demographics of the neighbourhood; using ethnographic methods as the basic unit. Using concepts from gentrification, we also contextualize our insights within the changing dynamics of a neighbourhood—because places are not static entities. We discuss how the scale model could be used to duplicate results from one neighbourhood to another and the reception of our work by the client.