Current Sociology
2017, Vol. 65(7) 971­–990
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0011392116656724
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Using Go-Alongs for exploring
immigrant entrepreneurs’
native customers
Michael Parzer
University of Vienna, Austria
Irene Rieder
University of Vienna, Austria
Eva Wimmer
Independent social scientist, Austria
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the methodological practice of Go-Alongs
for exploring immigrant entrepreneurs’ native customers, a barely developed subfield
within immigrant business research. Through accompanying individuals on outings in
their familiar environments, Go-Alongs as a qualitative data collection method are
used to gain access to practices, experiences and interpretations of individuals in their
everyday routines. Drawing on current qualitative research on native customers in
immigrant grocery shops in Vienna, the article demonstrates how Go-Alongs can be
used for exploring consumption practices and patterns of interethnic interaction in this
specific setting. What becomes apparent is that Go-Alongs provide an opportunity to
gain access to reflexive aspects of lived experience in situ, in the present case expressed
by spontaneous and emotional comments when the shop, ethnic products or interethnic
interactions are commented on and evaluated. Moreover, Go-Alongs allow insights into
modes of self-expression. However, Go-Alongs have limitations as they cannot capture
consumption practices beyond the limited time and space of shopping. Furthermore,
they do not fully provide access to narratives and discourses; therefore, Go-Alongs are
most useful in combination with in-depth interviews.
Corresponding author:
Michael Parzer, University of Vienna, Rooseveltplatz 2, Vienna, 1090, Austria.
Email: michael.parzer@univie.ac.at
656724CSI0010.1177/0011392116656724Current SociologyParzer et al.
research-article2016
Article
972	 Current Sociology 65(7)
Keywords
Consumption practices, Go-Alongs, immigrant business research, immigrant
entrepreneurs, interethnic interaction, native customers, qualitative research
Introduction
In the last decades, immigrant businesses have increased significantly in many
Western European cities. In Vienna, nearly 30% of the entrepreneurs presently active
have a migrant background (Schmatz and Wetzel, 2014). Similar findings have been
reported for Berlin and Hamburg (Hillmann and Sommer, 2011), Zurich (Rebsamen,
2008), London (Sepulveda et al., 2011) and Amsterdam and Strasbourg (Rath and
Eurofound, 2011).
The significance of immigrant economies is reflected in a substantial body of literature,
ranging from approaches that describe and explain immigrant economic activities
(Kaplan and Lee, 2006; Kloosterman and Rath, 2003; Light and Gold, 2000; Waldinger
et al., 1990) to analysing their relevance for local economic development (Kloosterman
and Van der Leun, 1999; Leicht and Langhauser, 2014) and urban renewal and revitalisation
(Aytar and Rath, 2012; Hillmann, 2011; Nuissl and Schmiz, 2015, Parzer and Huber,
2015). However, research suffers from two intertwined blind spots: first, there is a predominant
focus on the perspective of the entrepreneur, while customers have been rather
neglected. Where customers are examined at all, it is mainly from the perspective of the
entrepreneurs (Dyer and Ross, 2000) and in the context of marketing strategies (Jones
et al., 2000; Parzer and Czingon, 2013; Rusinovic, 2008). Despite their economic and
symbolic relevance, customers as active players in immigrant businesses have not been
addressed systematically. Second, immigrant entrepreneurs are, by tendency, discussed
in the context of their co-ethnic embeddedness. Scholars emphasise the role of immigrant
economies as enclave economies (Portes and Bach, 1985; Portes and Shafer, 2007),
immigrant businesses’ co-ethnic networks (Zhou, 2007), their co-ethnic employment
(Den Butter et al., 2007) and immigrant businesses’ role in supplying co-ethnics with
products and services (Waldinger et al., 1990). However, the multiple interdependencies
with what is called the ‘majority’ population have gained only scarce attention.
Both shortcomings disguise the role of non-migrants in immigrant economies.
Cultural practices such as buying bread at the Turkish corner shop, strolling along the
multicultural shopping avenues or dining in Indian restaurants have become popular
among natives. While this phenomenon is discussed within food studies (Johnston and
Baumann, 2015; Long, 2004), the sociology of cosmopolitanism (Hannerz, 1990;
Kendall et al., 2008; Vertovec and Cohen, 2002) and gentrification research (Aytar and
Rath, 2012; Zukin, 2008), we know little about the consumption of ‘the other’ in the
context of immigrant economies. How do customers use immigrant businesses? How do
they choose and purchase products? Which (inter)ethnic interactions take place? How
are these practices shaped by power relations and social status? How are they intertwined
with issues of integration and social cohesion?
In this article we primarily address these questions regarding methodological issues
by shedding light on Go-Alongs, a method which we have chosen for exploring
Parzer et al.	 973
immigrant entrepreneurs’ native customers. By accompanying individuals on outings in
their familiar environments, as well as asking questions and observing, Go-Alongs serve
as a technique to gain access to practices, experiences and interpretations of individuals
in their everyday routines, paying special attention to the meaning of the physical environment.
Methodologically, Go-Alongs are based on interpretative sociology, in particular
phenomenology and the sociology of knowledge, focusing on the processes by which
individuals and groups understand and apply meaning to their physical and social world.
Go-Alongs are used in different fields of research, such as urban studies (Anderson,
2004), health studies (Carpiano, 2009; Garcia et al., 2012) and youth culture research
(Pfadenhauer, 2005). However, as far as we can see, Go-Alongs have not yet been applied
in the context of immigrant business research.
Drawing on our research on immigrant grocery shops and their native customers in
Vienna, we aim at evaluating the methodological practice of Go-Alongs in this particular
field. First, we review the literature on native customers in immigrant economies.
Second, we describe Go-Alongs as a qualitative method of data collection and its methodological
foundation in phenomenology. Third, we discuss how we have adopted and
adapted this method for purposes of our own research by applying a heuristic inspired by
practice theory. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of Go-Alongs, concluding
that this research technique is most effective when applied in combination with indepth
interviews.
Researching immigrant entrepreneurs’ native customers
One of the most striking issues in immigrant business research is the often ambivalent
role of immigrant entrepreneurs acting as intermediaries between the majority population
and minorities (Bonacich, 1973; Dhingra, 2012; Min, 1996). In this context, nonmigrant
customers have gained some attention when scholars have examined the
implication of interethnic contacts within immigrant economies for social cohesion
and integration processes. Everts (2008) in his ethnographic study of immigrant grocery
stores in the city of Stuttgart shows how consumption practices of natives foster
everyday interactions between minority and majority culture, resulting in a positive
classification of immigrants and a dissolving of ethnic boundaries. Looking at urban
markets and diversity, Hiebert et al. point out that markets ‘bring together people into
a public arena who might otherwise remain apart’ (Hiebert et al., 2015: 15). Similarly,
Kasinitz et al. recently studied local shopping streets in different cities. Drawing on the
role of immigrant businesses, they point out that ‘at their best, the super-diversity of
many local shopping streets eases the way towards civility and tolerance as normal
conditions of urban public life’ (Kasinitz et al., 2016: 196). Also concerned with questions
of social cohesion and integration, Peters and De Haan (2011) show how interethnic
interactions in public spaces and immigrant shops in the Netherlands contribute to
a higher degree of acceptance of multiculturalism and ethno-cultural diversity.
Although there is evidence that ethnic neighbourhoods facilitate interethnic contacts
(Petermann, 2014), a number of studies show that these are mostly limited to ephemeral
contacts which hardly ever result in the development of strong interethnic network
ties (Blokland and Van Eijk, 2010; Butler, 2003; May, 1996).
974	 Current Sociology 65(7)
While these studies are primarily concerned with interactional encounters between
immigrants and natives, other research emphasises the ways consumers buy, use and
appropriate ethnic products. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, Jamal
(1996) sheds new light on the cultural transformation of native tastes as a result of
encounters with immigrants and ethnic food. Taking the case of Pakistani shops, he
shows how native British customers use and attribute meaning to ethnic food by negotiating
categories of ‘traditional’ and ‘exotic’ food. Applying the concept of acculturation,
he suggests that immigrant shops play a significant role as cultural intermediaries.
Another branch of research, in a more critical vein, highlights mechanisms and effects
of exotic appropriation. Partly inspired by theories of postcolonial studies, a number of
scholars examine how the consumption of ‘foreign’ culture may contribute to the production
and reproduction of imaginations of ‘otherness’, taking into account matters of power
and social inequality (Johnston and Baumann, 2015; Long, 2004; Molz, 2007; Pang,
2002). In this context, the social construction of ‘authenticity’ is considered to play a crucial
role in the positive evaluation of the ‘other’(Johnston and Baumann, 2015). Following
Zukin’s study of authenticity and urban gentrification (Zukin, 2008), Stock (2013) provides
a rich qualitative analysis of Arab snack bars in Berlin. She argues that the construction
of authenticity cannot be separated from the strategies of the entrepreneurs themselves.
Similarly, in their participant observation in Chinese restaurants, Lu and Fine (1995) show
how the desire for authenticity is anticipated by the entrepreneurs: by providing ‘authentic
Asian cuisine’ – as negotiated by entrepreneurs against the background of a society’s
expectations – restaurants seek to develop a profitable economic niche.
By applying a range of different methods of social research, these studies have contributed
to our understanding of non-migrant customers in immigrant economies.
However, little is known about consumption as a social practice, including the bodily
enactment which comes into play when entering and moving in a shop, appraising and
purchasing products as well as interacting with the staff or other customers. To capture
these dimensions, a methodological approach is needed which is able to study these consumption
practices in situ. We therefore propose Go-Alongs as a qualitative data collection
method that enables access to the practices, experiences and interpretations of
individuals in their everyday routines.
Go-Alongs as a tool of qualitative social research
Go-Alongs are a research method by which individuals are accompanied on outings
in their familiar environments and simultaneously observed and asked questions.
Kusenbach (2003, 2008) was one of the first to use this term, locating Go-Alongs in a
phenomenologically oriented ethnography and describing them as a technique to reveal
the meanings of place in everyday experience and practices. During walking, the
researcher asks questions about the surroundings, invites the participants to speak about
what crosses their mind and listens to the comments while observing them moving
through the environment.
For Kusenbach, Go-Alongs may bring to the foreground some of the transcendent and
reflexive aspects of lived experience which cannot be captured by using solely participant
observation or interviewing: ‘Because people usually do not comment on “what is
Parzer et al.	 975
going on” while acting in “natural” environments, it is difficult to access their concurrent
experiences and interpretations through a purely observational approach. On the other
hand, conducting sit-down interviews usually keeps informants from engaging in “natural
activities”, typically taking them out of the environments where those activities take
place’ (Kusenbach, 2003: 459). Kusenbach considers Go-Alongs as hybrids between
interviewing and participant observation allowing ethnographers ‘to observe their
informants’ spatial practices in situ while accessing their experiences and interpretations
at the same time’ (Kusenbach, 2003: 463).
By referring to the phenomenological foundation of Go-Alongs, Kusenbach (2003)
points out that Go-Alongs provide privileged access to perceptions, spatial practices and
social realms. Go-Alongs focus on how individuals experience and perceive their physical
and social world, how people engage in and with their environment and they reveal
patterns of social interaction.
With their focus on lived experiences and the awareness for spatiality, Go-Alongs
seem to be well-suited for the empirical study of consumption practices.1 In the following,
we explore the method’s applicability within consumption research and describe our
adaption of the method for our own research purposes.
Adopting and adapting Go-Alongs for researching native
customers in immigrant grocery stores
Our research aimed at revealing the experiences of native customers when purchasing
goods from immigrant grocery stores. It is centred on the following questions: What does
it mean for native customers to shop in an immigrant grocery store and to buy, use
and appropriate ethnic products? Which classifications, categorisations and evaluations
made by native customers have an impact on symbolic boundaries (Wimmer, 2013)? Do
these evaluative practices contribute to the erosion or strengthening of ethnic boundaries?
What significance do class boundaries have within consumption practices?
In order to address this research interest, we conducted 15 Go-Alongs and 31 in-depth
interviews with native customers of immigrant grocery stores in Vienna, namely
Austrians without a migrant background.
Our endeavour to fill the research gap concerning non-migrant consumers in immigrant
economies goes along with a specific categorisation that requires thorough
reflexion. First, the category ‘non-migrant customers’ suggests that non-migrants are a
homogeneous group. Actually, individuals subsumed under the category ‘non-migrants’
do not only vary according to class, occupation and gender, but also according to their
lifestyle (an argument which is also true for the category of ‘migrants’). Nevertheless,
these groups are not equally represented among the customers of immigrant businesses.
There is some empirical evidence that migrant shops and restaurants are appreciated
more by the higher educated inhabitants of Vienna (Verwiebe et al., 2015: 80). This is
also reflected in our sample: although we aimed for heterogeneity, the sample finally
comprised an extraordinary share of highly educated persons. This overrepresentation of
well-educated customers could be an indicator of the above-average level of education
of the immigrant grocery stores’ clientele, but may also have been influenced by the different
willingness of customers to participate in the Go-Alongs.
976	 Current Sociology 65(7)
Second, the term ‘non-migrants’ somehow implies the maintenance of a boundary
between ‘migrants’ on the one hand and ‘natives’ on the other. Highlighting the criterion
of migration and/or migrant background, however, disguises other important factors of
differentiation in a society and may contribute to essentialist categorisation. Nevertheless,
for actors (migrants as well as non-migrants) this legal, political, cultural and/or symbolic
boundary still plays a crucial role in everyday life. This can at least partly be
explained by the specific context of Austria’s migration history (Marik-Lebeck, 2009). A
large share of the current population in Austria originates from areas of the former
Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Bohemia and Moravia. A vast labour migration
started in the 1960s when workers were recruited in Turkey and the Former Republic of
Yugoslavia. Until the oil crisis of 1973, the share of immigrants increased mainly due to
influx from these two countries and remained constant until the 1990s when immigration
accelerated again partly because of the civil war in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia
and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Migration from China and India started in the early
1980s. Although these migrant groups constitute a comparably low share of the Austrian
population, they are overrepresented according to immigrant businesses in retailing and
gastronomy. The European Union enlargement between 2004 and 2007 increased immigration
from countries of the former Eastern bloc thereby replacing immigration from
Turkey and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Currently, migration flows are increasingly
shaped by refugees arriving from the Middle East who will influence the structural
composition of immigrant economies in Austria. However, although many migrants and
most of their children and grandchildren are Austrian citizens, they are categorised and
partly categorise themselves as ‘persons with a migrant background’.
When we recruited participants for the Go-Alongs, we did not classify potential customers
according to their assumed status, but rather asked them to reveal if they see
themselves as ‘Austrians without a migrant background’. However, we acknowledge
that the difficulties regarding this kind of categorisation remain.
In the following, we describe how we adopted Go-Alongs theoretically by referring
to a practice-theoretical perspective on consumption. Then we show how we used
Go-Alongs practically in our field research.
Capturing consumption practices by using Go-Alongs
Consumption is not just an economic action, it is also a social and cultural phenomenon
(e.g. Bourdieu, 1984; Douglas and Isherwood, 1979; McCracken, 1986). As Campbell
(1995) has suggested, ‘consumption’ is not limited to the act of purchasing a certain
product, but involves ‘the selection, purchase, use, maintenance, repair and disposal of
any product or service’ (Campbell, 1995: 102). Following Warde’s (2005) broad definition,
we understand consumption ‘as a process whereby agents engage in appropriation
and appreciation, whether for utilitarian, expressive or contemplative purposes, of goods,
services, performances, information or ambience, whether purchased or not, over which
the agent has some degree of discretion’ (Warde, 2005: 137). Therefore, Warde advocates
a practice-theoretical understanding of consumption: referring to Reckwitz (2002),
he conceptualises ‘practice’ as bodily routines of behaviour, collective patterns of meaning,
subjective ascriptions of meaning, symbols, identity and practical knowledge. Thus,
Parzer et al.	 977
consumption in the light of practice theory is not reduced to individual behaviour; rather
it is seen as social practices that are embedded in processes of meaning-making (Benzecry
and Krause, 2010; Warde, 2005).
This practice-theoretical conceptualisation of consumption fit our research aims and
was used as both theoretical background and a heuristic concept for analysis (Kelle,
2010). In doing so, we were able to capture the consumption practices of natives in
immigrant grocery stores in terms of their actual bodily behaviour in the stores, their
handling and use of products, their practical knowledge, as well as their subjective
ascriptions of meanings. This practice-theoretical orientation of our research is highly
compatible with the phenomenological foundation of Go-Alongs.As a flexible technique
(Carpiano, 2009), Go-Alongs allow for capturing the bodily routines and give insights
into the processes of meaning-making of natives shopping in immigrant grocery stores.
Go-Alongs in the field
In concrete terms, we accompanied customers during their everyday practice of shopping
in immigrant grocery stores. The Go-Alongs took place in a well-defined spatial
context, namely the space of and around the stores.2 Subsequent to the Go-Along (or on
a separate occasion if the participant did not have time), an in-depth interview (Witzel,
2000) was conducted with the participant.
In the course of recruitment, which mainly took place in front of diverse shops, we
informed the participants about the method in broad outline and asked for permission to
accompany them during shopping. Prior to shopping, we asked the participants to shop
in the way they usually do and to report on their shopping experience while telling us
about everything that crosses their mind (Kusenbach, 2003).
During shopping, we tried to keep our intervention to a minimum. The main aim was
to motivate customers to talk about everything that is important for them. However,
some open questions helped to facilitate the participants’ reflexion on and verbalisation
of self-evident and routinised everyday lines of actions and ways of thinking.
The focus of attention was on three aspects: the observations aimed for (1) the act
and behaviour of consumption (process of shopping, handling of the products, (inter)
actions, etc.) within (2) the spatial arrangements (way through the store, disposal of
products, etc.): What is the participant doing when moving through this environment?
What is perceived and experienced, and in what way? The conversations with the
participants were of significance, enabling access to (3) explicit and implicit forms of
knowledge: What do customers know about the products and the shop and their (supposed)
ethnicity? How is expertise shown? Which implicit knowledge structures customers’
classifications, categorisations and evaluations made at the moment they
walk through the shop?
We accompanied the participants two by two. One of the research team was responsible
for interviewing and keeping the participant talking, whereas the other made detailed
notes in the background. As a method of analysis, we applied a coding process suggested
by Charmaz (2014) in the tradition of Grounded Theory.
In the following, we outline how Go-Alongs have contributed to our understanding of
immigrant entrepreneurs’ native customers.
978	 Current Sociology 65(7)
Benefits of Go-Alongs
The main benefit of Go-Alongs is that the accompanied subjects comment on and explain
what they are doing – and often what they are thinking, feeling, expecting or hoping – at
the moment. As such, they provide access to reflexive aspects of lived experience in situ,
in our case expressed by spontaneous comments, reflections and evaluations concerning
the shop, ethnic products or interethnic interactions. Due to the immediate context and
the variety of stimuli in the immigrant grocery store, we increased our knowledge of the
Go-Along method as well as of the research area of immigrant economies. The latter
concerns four main issues: (1) routines of behaviour, (2) emotions, (3) modes of selfexpression
and (4) processes of evaluation.
Routines of behaviour
Go-Alongs produced data which provided insight into routines of behaviour, the spatial
setting and the bodies moving in this space: How do they enter a shop and how do they
move through it? How do customers select and purchase products? How do they interact
with others?
Go-Alongs helped us to identify two different modes of shopping which contributed
to a typology of consumption. We drew a line of distinction between what we call ‘consuming
for convenience’ and ‘consuming for exceptionality’. ‘Consuming for convenience’
is driven by aspects of practicability: customers highlight that the shop is just
around the corner, that it is open late at night and on weekends, and that the products are
cheap (at least compared to ‘regular’supermarkets). Usually they purchase ‘native’products
which are also available in ‘regular’ shops such as milk, bread or vegetables. As the
Go-Alongs revealed, customers move through the shop very quickly and goal-oriented
and usually buy only a few products. Many specified that they used immigrant shops
additionally to their shopping in ‘regular’ supermarkets. The shop’s ethnic (self-)classification
or the shopkeepers’ ethnic origin were not mentioned or discussed during the
Go-Along in any way; rather, practical reasons were emphasised. ‘Consuming for exceptionality’,
on the contrary, is related to the attraction of ‘the foreign’: customers mainly
purchase ‘ethnic’ products such as spices associated with Asia (e.g. curcuma), foreign
fruits or vegetables (e.g. kaki) or sweets from Turkey (e.g. baklava). Here, alterity and
cultural difference – as social constructs – are constitutive of the whole shopping experience.
This becomes most visible in the way customers look at and select products:
The participant takes a shopping basket and moves slowly and consciously through the store.
He puts several products in his hands in order to view them more precisely. He places most of
these products back on the shelves. During shopping he does not talk much. However, he tells
us that he is looking for humus. He searches for this product in the shop, but he cannot find it.
Instead, he finds a can of meat. He examines this product in detail and then puts it in his
shopping basket. He tells us that he does not know this product, but he wants to try it in order
to discover how it tastes. (Mr Fuchs,3 Go-Along 4)
Customers are curious about products they have not tasted before and therefore
take a lot of time to explore the product range, always keeping their eyes open for
Parzer et al.	 979
unknown products. Furthermore, they examine products in detail, take certain groceries
in their hands, touch them and comment on their experience with these products.
‘Trying new things’ is one of the main motives mentioned for selecting and
purchasing a certain product.
Customers who ‘consume for exceptionality’ take a lot of time over their shopping
even if they have a clear plan which products to buy. They do not hurry, and rather seem
to enjoy the atmosphere. Also, these customers actively try to get into contact with the
owner or their employees and do not seem to feel any barriers in asking for certain products
or how to use them in cooking.
By evoking comments on and explanations of their ‘doings’ and helping to link these
doings to their previous experiences, Go-Alongs serve as a tool to capture and understand
routines of behaviour in a special spatial setting. However, they are not limited to
comments on behaviour, but also reveal emotions.
Emotions
During our fieldwork, Go-Alongs have soon proven to be well-suited to capture emotions
in situ. This was an unexpected benefit for our research as we did not consider
emotions explicitly at the outset. However, it was astonishing how often feelings and
emotions were mentioned during the Go-Alongs: most often, customers expressed positive
feelings when they walked through the shop commenting on the products, the staff
or the shopping experience. Some highlighted the fascination of interethnic encounters
and the confrontation with cultural differences; others were quite euphoric about the
great variety of products. As already mentioned, discovering new and unknown products
seems to be one of the greatest pleasures of going shopping in immigrant shops. This
often leads to expressions of great enjoyment:
The participant takes a lot of time for his shopping and examines many products in detail. He
says that he always enjoys shopping here because he likes trying new products. When he finds
an interesting product, he bursts out: ‘Oh, this sounds great, I’ve to taste this’, and puts the
product in his shopping basket. (Mr Steiner, Go-Along 2)
Often, the whole atmosphere is commented on by referring to emotions, for example
when the shopping experience is compared to holidays in foreign countries or the
cultural differences experienced in the shop are described as something exciting or electrifying.
However, not all comments on feelings are thoroughly positive, but reveal
ambivalences. Customers mentioned uncertainty, uneasiness or fear when they enter a
shop, purchase unknown products or (have to) start a conversation with one of the salespersons.
While these ‘barriers’ find expression in a certain way of moving through the
store (e.g. slow and insecure), the way the customers commented on barriers at the
moment of shopping shed light on the ambivalence of consuming ‘foreign’ culture as
being simultaneously fascinating and scary.
This ambivalence is most visible with regard to being attracted by certain products
and, at the same time, feeling unsure of what a specific product is and whether
to buy it or not:
980	 Current Sociology 65(7)
The participant eyes up mixed pickles, which are packed in transparent plastics, and wonders
which vegetables these could be. Finally, he decides against the product and puts it back in the
shelf by saying: ‘I do not have the guts to buy it.’ (Mr Frank, Go-Along 5)
Furthermore, the fear of misunderstanding can have an impact on the way of acting in an
interethnic interaction:
Being at the cash desk, the participant passes a five Euro banknote to the salesperson. Then she
asks the salesperson if he could hold on because she wants to find the rest of the money in loose
change in order to give him the precise sum. The salesperson does not understand what she is
saying. As she recognises this, she quits looking for the loose [coins]. The salesperson passes
the change to her. (Ms Fritz, Go-Along 6)
Concerning our research interests, these accounts helped to reveal the ambivalent character
of natives’consumption practices in immigrant grocery stores. Even customers who buy in
immigrant shops regularly and tend to see themselves as open-minded and tolerant appear
to show an element of fear or anxiety when they enter the shop, when they purchase products
which they have not tasted before or when it comes to interethnic conversation. This
challenges the widespread tendency to idealise native customers as confident and unshrinking
actors (see also Parzer et al., 2016). Regarding methodology, Go-Alongs again enable
a perspective far beyond solely participant observation where fear is hardly commented on,
or interviews where fear and anxiety are no longer ‘physically’ observable.
Self-expression
Our Go-Alongs were characterised by the presence of researchers who explicitly focused
on the act of shopping. This may produce a highly artificial setting; it is, however, a setting
where actors – in our case the customers in immigrant grocery stores – are stimulated
to explain what they do, and how and why they do it. They therefore legitimise their
way of shopping in immigrant grocery stores by referring to their experience, knowledge
and expertise. This can reveal how the act of shopping in an immigrant grocery shop is
intertwined with certain forms of self-expression.
Regarding our data, it is apparent that a certain way of handling the products or certain
ways of interethnic interaction are often used for impression management in the
sense of Goffman (1959). Many customers display a high level of expert knowledge of
foreign products, cuisine or more generally of foreign cultures, which is most often
revealed by commenting on certain products:
When catching sight of several products, the participant asks us if we know about these. We
negate, whereupon he tells us what he knows about these products and his experiences with
them. With a pack of abalone-flavoured instant noodles in his hands, he tells us that abalone is
a big slug, which you can cook like a steak. (Mr Steiner, Go-Along 2)
Displaying knowledge is often combined with demonstrating a ‘cosmopolitan lifestyle’,
showing openness and tolerance towards the ‘other’but also by pointing out experiences
during trips to ‘other’ cultures:
Parzer et al.	 981
When we move through the shop, the participant tells us that he stayed in China and just came
back a week ago and that this is the reason why he now wants to know if he can buy the
products that he ate and drank in China in this store too. He stops in front of a shelf and places
two bottles of Japanese beer in his shopping basket. In so doing, he tells us that he knows this
kind of beer from China and that he likes it. (Mr Reiter, Go-Along 14)
Regarding the literature on interethnic interaction in immigrant economies, our findings
from this form of self-presentation contribute to recent debates on cosmopolitan openness
and social distinction. There is much evidence that the demonstration of openness
towards the ‘other’ is used as a kind of cultural capital to maintain or pursue social superiority
(Blokland and Van Eijk, 2010; Butler, 2003; Cappeliez and Johnston, 2013). This
‘cosmopolitan cultural capital’ is reflected in our data – in particular in those accounts
where customers do not only talk about their openness and tolerance but show their ‘cosmopolitan
disposition’in actu. As this ‘cosmopolitan cultural capital’is typical for members
of the middle and upper middle classes, we should be more aware of the impact of
native consumption practices not only on ethnic boundaries, but also on symbolic boundaries
along class. Our findings show that cosmopolitan cultural capital is used for social
distinction and, as such, it contributes to what Bourdieu (1984) called the symbolic
reproduction of social inequality. Taking into account recent debates in research on cultural
consumption and the trend ‘from snob to omnivore’ (Peterson and Kern, 1996), it
would be worth bringing together these strands of research (see also Kendall et al., 2008).
Evaluation
Go-Alongs have also proven appropriate when examining aspects of evaluation. When
customers explain and justify their use of immigrant shops, they often refer to various
kinds of judgements – on the shops, the offered products, the shop-owner, their employees,
the other customers, or even the ‘whole package’, including the shop’s atmosphere.
While in interviews customers usually express their evaluations by referring to the act of
shopping retrospectively, in Go-Alongs they evaluate immediately when they enter and
move through the shop or when they take, touch and select certain products. Thus,
Go-Alongs enable the researcher to grasp judgements made by the customers in the
moment of shopping.
Ms Riegler, for example, goes shopping in Asian supermarkets on a regular basis.
Within our Go-Along, she euphorically emphasises the broad range of products and
explains the way some of them can be (or have to be) used in cooking:
When we reach the section with the spices she shows her expert knowledge mainly by judging
the quality, the taste or the specific characteristics of the various products. She recommends
buying only pepper which hails from Vietnam as this would taste most aromatic. Then she takes
a package of Thai-basil and tells us that this would taste completely different than ‘our’ basil.
(Ms Riegler, Go-Along 8)
Similarly, other customers highlight the specificity of ‘humus’offered in Turkish groceries
or ‘curry paste’ you get in Indian supermarkets. Alterity seems to be one of the most
relevant criteria of (positive) evaluation; it constitutes the exceptionality of the whole
982	 Current Sociology 65(7)
shopping experience and is the basis of making a difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’.
However, in most cases it is not just alterity which becomes relevant, but its nexus to the
ascription of authenticity (Molz, 2004). While many foreign products are also available
in regular supermarkets, only those which are offered in immigrant shops (by migrants)
are considered to be ‘authentic’, ‘real’ and ‘original’. Authenticity is not only attached to
products, but also to the shopkeepers themselves when, for example, phenotypical characteristics
or their language are seen as an indicator of ‘real’ foreignness.
It is worth noting that not all evaluations of immigrant grocery shops are positive.
However, Go-Alongs are not well-suited to capture negative judgements, as we show in
the following section.
Limitations of Go-Alongs
Although the Go-Along method for researching natives’ consumption practices in immigrant
grocery stores has clear benefits, there are limitations involved with this research
technique. These concern methodical issues as well as the extent of knowledge that could
be gained on the research topic by using this method. In the following, we focus on (1)
the artificiality of Go-Alongs, (2) the limitation of Go-Alongs due to their spatial-temporal
setting and (3) the shortcoming of Go-Alongs as they enable only restricted access to
narratives and discourses. Additional in-depth interviews may offer a solution to some of
these problems. Furthermore, the systematic combination of Go-Alongs and interviews
provided crucial insights into the consumption practices of non-migrant customers in
immigrant grocery stores.
Artificiality of Go-Alongs
A major issue of most qualitative research, and therefore of Go-Alongs, concerns the fact
that participants are confronted with a highly unfamiliar setting. Similar to participant
observation, Go-Alongs are an interference in the everyday ‘natural’ situation of the
studied people (Kusenbach, 2003). We tried to counteract this intervention by explaining
to participants the procedure of the method and by thematising the unnatural situation.
Furthermore, we encouraged the participants to shop as they usually would and comment
on whatever crosses their minds. During the Go-Along, however, it was one of the most
challenging tasks to find a balance between mitigating the artificial setting (by providing
a familiar atmosphere and seemingly ‘natural’ conversation) and keeping the influence
on the subject under investigation to a minimum (by not predetermining the situation or
steering it in a specific direction). A good mix of active animation and restraint was provided
by keeping the questions neutral, open and vague enough to give participants the
chance to talk about what is important for them.
Spatial-temporal limitations
Go-Alongs with non-migrant customers provided important insights into consumption
practices in the specific setting of purchasing products in an immigrant grocery store.
However, consumption is not limited to the act of shopping, but encompasses the use of
Parzer et al.	 983
products as well: How do they store the products at home? How do they use them (for
cooking)? How do they talk about the products with others? Such questions can only
partly be answered by the interpretation of the protocols of Go-Alongs. One solution to
this problem could be conducting extended Go-Alongs or participant observation immediately
after shopping. Another possibility – and this is the one we had chosen – is to
conduct subsequent in-depth interviews. Although interviews do not provide access to
the social practice itself, the given accounts can shed light on these practices. In our case,
interviews about the use of the products provided important additional data on the appropriation
of ‘foreign’ or ‘exotic’ groceries. Many customers emphasise that they use these
groceries in a manner that is typical for the respective country or culture, for example
when they cook ‘true’ to the original (as they believe the natives would cook). These
assumptions of how to use products in the ‘right’ way again refer to a construction of
authenticity. For many customers, it is not only important to purchase authentic products
(products which are produced in the region where they are supposed to originate from
and which are offered by entrepreneurs who have an equivalent migrant background),
but to use these products in an authentic manner as well. In this case, interviews provide
a valuable supplement to Go-Alongs.
Limited access to narrative and discourse
By combining observation and informal conversation, we revealed important characteristics
of the daily routines of native consumption in immigrant grocery shops. However,
due to the spatial-temporal setting, verbal accounts remain rather limited. Our interviewees
talked quite a lot, but they hardly ever developed detailed accounts or stories.
Furthermore, as the focus of Go-Alongs is on spontaneous reactions and actions during
walking through the shop, stimulated by immediate impressions and experiences, this
method hardly ever evokes narratives. As we consider narratives to be the key to reconstruct
processes of meaning-making and discursive structures, we conducted additional
in-depth interviews.
The interpretation of the transcripts sheds light on how native consumption practices
are embedded in the wider field of discourses on migration and integration. For example,
cosmopolitan consumption is based on the everyday assumption that interethnic encounters
foster social cohesion and integration:
I’m convinced that [shopping in an immigrant shop] can help to reduce prejudices and to get
more open. If you taste something new you have a positive association regarding a certain
country. You would not get that without trying something new. Or if you establish a relationship
with a salesperson. Of course this could contribute to integration. (Ms Waller, Interview 19)
It is remarkable that this kind of argumentation is linked to yet another everyday theory,
namely that if people who are not (yet) tolerant went shopping in immigrant grocery
shops, they would become more open towards cultural differences. However, this
assumption, which we only found among the well-educated, disguises how they themselves
had become so open-minded: because they had the chance to be equipped with
and still accumulate high amounts of (cosmopolitan) cultural capital. This is highly
984	 Current Sociology 65(7)
important in the context of cosmopolitan consumption as it reveals strong symbolic
boundaries along class (Parzer et al., 2016).
Furthermore, our interviews have turned out to be crucial for another (but closely
related) reason: they showed some notable discrepancies between what customers did
during shopping and what they said about this afterwards. By systematically comparing
interactions that took place in the immediately experienced situation during the Go-Along
with the descriptions and explanations of interactions mentioned in the subsequent interview,
we could gain additional (and somewhat unexpected) insights into the studied phenomenon.
One of the most relevant findings in this context was the discrepancy between
appreciating or even adoring a certain immigrant grocery store, on the one hand (especially
during the Go-Along), and the articulation of resentment towards immigrants, on
the other hand (during the subsequent interview) – a discrepancy partly reflected in previous
research (e.g. Everts, 2008; Neckel and Sutterlüty, 2008). This becomes most visible
in the case of Ms Weber, who regularly goes shopping in a Turkish corner shop
which she uses primarily for practical reasons and to buy ‘native’ products. During the
Go-Along, she emphasises the quality of the products and mentions that ‘the people are
so friendly here’ (Go-Along 9). However, in the subsequent interview, she does not only
mention a range of negative classifications of immigrant shops (e.g. untidiness, low
standards of hygiene) but complains about the rising number of migrants in the urban
neighbourhood where she lives:
I feel like [I’m] living in Arabia. Or anywhere else. You don’t hear any German word anymore.
They get on [the tram] and then it’s over with the German language. (Ms Weber, Interview 15)
This discrepancy can be partly explained by the spatial limitation of Go-Alongs, which
were often conducted in very small shops where people do not dare to be totally frank.
However, it should also be taken into account that stocks of knowledge and action may
diverge even without the awareness of the actors. Hammersley and Atkinson (2006: 232)
have coined the term ‘reflexive triangulation’ to analyse these discrepancies by combining
different methods.
Besides methodological issues, combining Go-Alongs and interviews had a practical
advantage. In many cases, the Go-Alongs served as an ice-breaker for the subsequent interviews
or at least helped to develop a trusting atmosphere. Therefore, within our research,
Go-Alongs were most effective when used in combination with in-depth interviews.
Conclusion
The aim of this article was to evaluate the methodological practice of Go-Alongs for
exploring immigrant entrepreneurs’ native customers. Drawing on empirical research on
Austrians without a migrant background and on the question of how they use immigrant
grocery stores located in Vienna, we revealed and reflected on the benefits as well as the
limitations of Go-Alongs in this particular field of study. On the one hand, Go-Alongs
provide an opportunity to gain access to reflexive aspects of the lived experience in situ.
This has proven to be fruitful, in particular when customers evaluated, classified, selected
or even refused certain ethnic products or spontaneously commented on their emotions
Parzer et al.	 985
when walking through the shop. Moreover, these accounts reveal modes of self-expression
which cannot be captured with interviews. On the other hand, Go-Alongs also have limitations.
We discussed problems regarding the artificiality of the situation and methodological
problems. It is apparent that Go-Alongs cannot capture processes beyond the limited time
and space of shopping. As Go-Alongs focus on the spontaneous situation of lived experience
in situ, they also cannot provide sufficient access to narratives and discourses.
We tried to compensate these shortcomings with interviews after the Go-Along,
which enabled access to more discursive levels of knowledge and meanings. Furthermore,
the combination of Go-Alongs and interviews enabled systematic comparison between
what customers do and what they say about their doings retrospectively, which provided
pivotal insights into discrepancies between knowledge and action in this specific field.
Therefore, we come to the conclusion that Go-Alongs are best applied in combination
with subsequent in-depth interviews.
However, the Go-Along method does not need to be limited to the act of shopping and
could begin at the customer’s home. This would shed light on the perceptions and interpretations
of the urban environment since very often immigrant grocery stores can be found in
ethnic neighbourhoods. It would help to address the question of how these ethnic surroundings
are interpreted and evaluated by potential customers of immigrant businesses. There
is some evidence that immigrant shops are frequented regularly by some customers even
though they see the rise of immigrant economies and ethnic neighbourhoods critically or
even negatively. Extended Go-Alongs offer a way to explain ambivalences of this kind.
Go-Alongs could also be continued after the act of shopping, e.g. accompanying the
customer back home and enquiring about how the purchased products are subsequently
handled and used.
Regarding issues of native consumption in immigrant economies, Go-Alongs fill an
important methodological gap; as an innovative method of data collection, they bridge
traditional procedures of interviewing and participant observation.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank both of the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which
have significantly contributed to improving the quality of this publication. We are grateful to Franz
Astleithner for his indispensable assistance in the project work. We also want to thank Renata
Nemrava and Toby MacManus for proofreading.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding
The empirical work for this research was supported by funds of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank
(Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Anniversary Fund, project number: 14706).
Notes
1.	 So far, Go-Alongs have not found their way into consumption research, however market and
retailing research has applied models that follow the process of shopping, e.g. ‘shopping with
986	 Current Sociology 65(7)
consumers’ (Lowrey et al., 2005), or ‘shop-alongs’ (Doyle Research, 2015). Still, most of
these techniques lack a solid methodological basis.
2.	 This ‘spatial extension’beyond the building in which the store is located brings an interesting
aspect to light: the way in which the shops are entered provides evidence about possible barriers,
felt and experienced, and about boundary-making processes.
3.	 The participants have been given pseudonyms in order to preserve their anonymity. We conducted
all Go-Alongs and interviews in German. For this article, extracts from the field notes
as well as quotes from the interviews were translated into English.
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Author biographies
Michael Parzer received his doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Vienna in 2008.
His research focuses on immigrant economies, social inequality and cultural sociology. Additional
research interests include qualitative methods of social research and the sociology of music.
Currently, he is a research associate at the University of Vienna, Department of Sociology.
Irene Rieder studied sociology at the University of Vienna. Her master’s thesis focused on transnational
families. Currently, she is employed at the University of Vienna, Department of Sociology
as a research assistant in two research projects. She is concerned with the transition to parenthood,
the gendered division of labour, parental leave and gender relations. In her work, the emphasis is
on qualitative social research.
Eva Wimmer studied sociology at the University of Vienna. During her studies she focused on
organisational sociology and qualitative methods. After her master’s degree she worked as research
assistant at the Department of Sociology. Currently, she is a self-employed social scientist who
engages in several research projects with a focus on qualitative methods.
990	 Current Sociology 65(7)
Résumé
Cet article a pour objet d’évaluer la pratique méthodologique des entretiens
« Go-Alongs » dans le cadre d’une étude sur les clients de souche de commerçants
immigrés, un champ de recherche encore peu exploré. Ces « Go-Alongs » sont réalisés
en compagnie des individus au cours de leurs déplacements dans un environnement
familier. Ces entretiens visent à recueillir des données qualitatives qui serviront à
analyser les pratiques, les expériences et les interprétations au quotidien. À partir d’une
étude sur les clients de souche des commerçants immigrés à Vienne, nous démontrons
l’utilité des entretiens « Go-Alongs » pour étudier les pratiques de consommation et
les modes de relation interethnique dans un contexte donné. Il apparaît clairement que
les « Go-Alongs » facilitent l’étude des aspects réflexifs d’une expérience vécue sur
place, notamment par le biais des commentaires spontanés et émotionnels exprimés
par les individus sur place lors de leur évaluation des produits ethniques et des relations
interethniques. Ces « Go-Alongs » permettent aussi d’observer en profondeur les
modes d’expression personnelle. En revanche, ils ne peuvent capturer les pratiques
de consommation au-delà du cadre limité de l’espace et du moment de l’achat. Ces
entretiens ne fournissent pas non plus un accès complet aux récits et aux discours. Il
semble donc pertinent de les utiliser en association avec des entretiens approfondis.
Mots-clés
Go-Alongs, recherche qualitative, recherche sur l’entrepreneuriat immigré, entrepreneurs
immigrés, clients de souche, pratiques de consommation, relation interethnique
Resumen
El propósito de este trabajo es evaluar la práctica metodológica de “Go-Alongs” para
explorar los clientes nativos de empresarios inmigrantes, un subcampo poco desarrollado
dentro de la investigación empresarial inmigrante. Mediante el acompañamiento en las
personas en las salidas en sus entornos familiares, el método de Go-Alongs para la
recolección de datos cualitativos se utiliza para tener acceso a prácticas, experiencias e
interpretaciones de los individuos en sus rutinas cotidianas. A partir de la investigación
cualitativa reciente de los clientes nativos en las tiendas de comestibles de inmigrantes
en Viena, demostramos cómo los Go-Alongs pueden ser utilizados para explorar
las prácticas de consumo y patrones de interacción interétnica en este contexto
específico. Lo que se hace evidente es que la herramienta de Go-Alongs proporciona
una oportunidad de acceder a los aspectos reflexivos de la experiencia vivida in situ, en
nuestro caso expresada por los comentarios espontáneos y emocionales cuando están
en la tienda, cuando se comentan y se evalúan productos étnicos y las interacciones
interétnicas. Por otra parte, el Go-Along posibilita interpretaciones de los modos de
auto-expresión. Sin embargo, esta herramienta tiene limitaciones ya que no puede
capturar las prácticas de consumo más allá del tiempo y el espacio limitado de las
compras. Por otra parte, tampoco proporcionan por completo el acceso a las narrativas
y discursos. Por lo tanto, es más útiles so combinado con las entrevistas en profundidad.
Palabras clave
Go-Alongs, investigación cualitativa, investigación de empresas de inmigrantes,
empresarios inmigrantes, clientes nativos, prácticas de consumo, interacción interétnica