An exploratory study of why the foodcourts in Singapore are very packed during peak periods.

Title : An exploratory study of why the foodcourts in Singapore
Polytechnic are very packed during peak periods.

Date : 30th July 2008, AY 2008/09, Semester 1
Conducted by : Muhammad Fazil (P0628866, DEEE/FT/3A04),
Hoo Chan Hung (P0764658, DME/3A03),
Gan Ze Hao Alex (P0720193, DBIT/FT/2A/02),
Syirin (P0707480, DAC/FT/2A/02),
Siti Wahidah (P0730301, DEC/2B),
Looi JieHui (P0720474, DBIT/FT/2A/11),
Foo Dun Jie (P0727301, DCMD/FT/2A/02),
Zhen Zhen (P0663111, DMA/2B/21)

AIM OF STUDY
The aim of this study is to answer the main research question as below:

The aim of this study is to achieve a better knowledge on why the food courts are very crowded during peak periods such as lunch time even with six foodcourts build around Singapore Polytechnic; and hopes to provide a better understanding on why this is a problem and to provide possible solutions to ease the current problem.


This main research question is fragmented into the following sub questions:
a) Why are there not enough tables and seats to accommodate the students and lecturers?
b) Who are using the foodcourts?
c) When is the food courts crowded?
d) Where are the crowded food courts?
e) How do the students deal with the crowding?


DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS METHODS

This study is conducted in Singapore Polytechnic food courts by various students from different schools. This study takes the total of 3 weeks to complete. The research stretches from 9 July to 23 July 2008.


The forms of data collection for the research are as below:
a) Non participant observation of the students’ behaviours in different food courts, taking a total of two observation sessions of 30 minutes each over a period of five days.
b) Selected informal open-ended interviews of the sixteen students taking an average of 5 minutes per interviews.

The forms of analysis used are as follow:
a) Open Coding
b) Noting relations between variables
c) Finding intervening variables
d) Clustering


FINDINGS (use diagrams or tables to supplement your report when needed)
The findings for this research are as follows:

a) The conditions that causes the foodcourts in Singapore Polytechnic to be overcrowded are as follows:

i) Types of lecturers
In this study, it is shown lecturers are considerate as they just use the eating areas for just eating. They do not use the tables for marking papers, chit chatting, and playing game. We overheard them saying ‘Lets talk in our office’, and left the place instead of sitting at the foodcourt and occupying the seats.

ii) Types of students
There are many different types of activities that the students did in the foodcourt besides eating. There are the students who simply eat and go off as soon as their done eating. The rest of the students stay in the foodcourt to do other activities. They do activities such as playing games, cards, talking, studying, reading comic and looking at eye candy. Even though there are other students around waiting for seats, they continue to do these activities. They pretend that they are not aware of their surroundings.


b) Three categories of coping behaviours employed by students in the various food courts evolve from this study. They are named as the categories of procrastinating behaviours respectively in this study.

i) Procrastinating Behaviours
Procrastinating behaviours are subdivided into self procrastinating behaviours and group procrastinating behaviours.

Self-procrastinating behaviours

Undesired course of actions of individuals
Individuals sometimes feel that they are obliged to “reserve” seats for their friends who are not present in the food court at the point in time. They will occupy the empty seats first and wait for their friends to come. This is something we generally observe among individuals.

Inconsideration
Upon observation, we realised that some students are inconsiderate in their actions. For instance, a student who comes to the food court alone to have his lunch is found utilising an empty table for four. He could have occupied an empty table for two users instead. Meanwhile, for other large groups, they have to wait until the individual user gives up the space in order for them to occupy it. This self-centred, inconsiderate and procrastinating behaviour of students lead to the overcrowding problem of food courts.


Group procrastinating behaviours

Group procrastination
During lunch time, many students are found doing other activities instead of having their lunch. These activities include studying, talking and playing games. It is commonly known that the principal activity in a food court is to eat, but most students utilize the space to complete tasks that are unnecessary. Students who realise that other groups are waiting for empty seats are ignorant of their surroundings. They do not bother to give up their seats.

Deliberate actions
Students are observed to portray deliberate ignorance and negligence towards other groups who are waiting for the seats. Actions include, averting their gaze towards another direction and also, intentionally keeping themselves occupied by checking the time once in a while and text messaging someone through their mobile phones.

ii) Delusive Behaviours
Delusive behaviours are divided broadly into two subcategories- self-deluding behaviours and teacher deluding behaviours.

Self Deluding Behaviours
Refusal to give up seats
They presume that others will give up their seats for those who are waiting for seats. They also presume that it is their rights to use the seat as they wish after they finished their meals. They presume that they have the rights to occupy the seats unless someone asks them to leave. They presume that it is everyone’s personal rights to find a solution for them when they cannot find a seat.

Refusal to eat outside school
They presume that it is too much of a rush for them to go out of school to eat and avoid the crowded foodcourts. They presume that other people would go out of school to eat. They presume they have the rights to eat at the foodcourts built in the school and it is their rights to eat in school. They presume there is enough seats in foodcourts as there are 6 foodcourts in SP. They presume that they do not have enough time to go out of school to eat and go back in time for lesson. They presume that the food outside is not as nice as the food in school. They presume that it is too much effort to go out somewhere to eat and find that it is more convenient to eat somewhere near, which is SP. They presume that they are too tired to go out of school to eat.

Refusal to check answers
There are instances where some mathematics anxious students leave their final solutions as they are without checking if they are correct. In most cases, they present their solutions in an appropriate number of mathematical steps. When the teacher asks them to check their solutions from the correct answers provided at the back of their textbooks, they do not do it. They are also not interested in comparing their answers with their classmates. Instead, they will go straight to the next question. If the teacher comes by and ask them if their answers are correct, they will usually give responses like, “check later”, “think so”, “should be correct” etc. A quick check by the researcher on their answers usually yields incorrect ones.

Peer Deluding Behaviours
Group behaviour influencing individuals and other groups
While in the food-courts, we often see many people clustered in groups hogging the seats. As time passes, these actions became justified as they are being done in groups. Therefore other students, whether in groups or as individuals will come to having the mindset that hogging the seats after their meals is a normal thing to do. Therefore with the cycle of the students influencing others again and again, it becomes a peer deluding behaviour.

Deliberately dragging eating time.
They will drag the time they take to eat in order to occupy their seats for the full break time so that they would not have to find another spot to sit down to wait for their break time to end. They would also occupy the seats and take their time to eat when they have other friends that are on their way to occupy their seats. They are being considerate to their friends by helping their friends reserve the seats, however, they are being inconsiderate to the other people who are waiting for their seats. When they reserve the seats for their friends, the people who are waiting for their seats have to wait for a longer time as the seats would then be occupied by their friends.

Pretend others will give up their seats for people waiting
Often in food courts, people tend to occupy their seats after their meals with the mindset thinking that other people will give up their seats rather than they themselves give up their seats. They will pretend not to have eye contact with those who are waiting for seats, engross in doing their own things, or even asking their friends to buy some drinks or desserts to give them a reason to occupy the seats.

Bags occupies seats
Students leave their bags on the seats to reserve the seats for themselves while they purchase their food. There are also students who put their bags on seats because they refuse to put their bags on their lap or on the floor. This is due to the fact that they find it uncomfortable to put their bags on their lap while eating. They find that they want to enjoy their meal in comfort and use the seats to place their bags. They also have the mentality that they have the rights to occupy as many seats as they have to. When there are lesser seats around certain tables, even if that table is not occupied, people cannot settle down and eat simply because there is no seats available.

Small group, big table
There are students who occupy big tables but they are only a small group of students. They take up more seats than they need to, and they are unwilling to share the seats with other people. They cause the foodcourt to require more seats than it really required. They occupy these seats by telling other people that they have friends coming or by putting their bags on the seats. They show unfriendliness to others in order to keep them away from asking for seats.

iii) Outsiders occupying seats
Students from other schools come to our foodcourts to occupy and compete for seats with students in the foodcourt. They cause the foodcourts in SP to have even more students in the foodcourts than it is originally built to handle. They come to our foodcourts to eat because it is a lot cheaper. They are, however, inconsiderate to the students in SP.


DISCUSSION (Note: not compulsory, teams that work on this section are graded more favourably and there is no need to relate your findings to other studies since there is no literature review)

From a social psychological viewpoint, crowded foodcourts can cause a drastic change on students and lecturers. By skipping lunch cause of the crowded foodcourts, students tend to only have their lunch during the evening time that is close to their dinner time. Cause of this students go hungry during lesson times and tend to be distracted away from class activities. Hungry man brings up and angry man thus causes students to be frustrated and tend to get angry easily over simple matters. Crowded foodcourts also causes students to take away their food and eat at corridors and at study areas which is so troublesome. Due to this there is a lack of study area too. It would be so great if there is a strict rule imposed by higher authority stating clearly that “Eating must be done in eating areas, studying must be done in study areas, gaming must be done outside school…” this will really help as well as if measures are taken to increase the foodcourt areas and setting up more chairs and tables. After all, every student pays for the school fees. They should all get to enjoy their lunch on the comfort of the chairs and tables in the foodcourts and not on the floors and study areas!


CONCLUSION
In order to provide the most effective solution to a problem, there is a need to understand the problem thoroughly. This applies for the case of the crowded foodcourts in Singapore Polytechnic. From this study, three categories of coping behaviours of students at crowded foodcourts are used. They are the categories of procrastinating behaviours, delusive behaviours, which achieve the aims of easing the crowded foodcourts so that all can have their time of lunch. Knowing the use of such behaviours, teachers and students can better understand the behaviours of their current problem faced at foodcourts. Nevertheless, if the teachers and students do not see the use of having to know and solve the problem of the crowded foodcourts, this study will remain a research article that serves the sole purpose of pleasure reading.