Cross-Cultural Role-Play:

Grocery Store

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$0.00 – $6.00

David Eun and Bruce Patton

Two-party negotiation between a minister and a school principal over how to address racial tensions arising from alleged shoplifting at a local grocery store

Quantity

Please note: you must order a copy (a.k.a. license/usage fee) for every person participating in the simulation in your course. This simulation has multiple roles, so you will be unable to complete your purchase without meeting the minimum quantity requirement of copies per role.

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PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center

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Soft copy vs. hard copy

You may order this role simulation in either soft copy (electronic) or hard copy (paper) format. If you select the soft copy option, you will receive an e-mail with a URL (website address) from which you may download an electronic file in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. You will have one week to download your materials from when you receive the email. You are then only authorized to use, print, or share the materials as many times as the number of copies you purchase. The TNRC charges for use of this simulation on a per-participant basis. Therefore, you must purchase a separate copy of this simulation for each person who will be participating, regardless of the number of roles in the simulation. You will only receive a link to one electronic file, which includes all general instructions, confidential instructions, and any teaching notes for the simulation. You should separate out the instructions before distributing to participants.

If you select the hard copy option, you will receive paper copies of this role simulation via the shipping method you select.

For additional information about the soft copy option, please visit our FAQ section, or contact the PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center at tnrc@law.harvard.edu or 800-258-4406 (within the U.S.) or 301-528-2676 (outside the U.S.).

Please note: At the present time, Teaching Negotiation Resource Center soft copies are compatible with the following versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader: English, German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean. If you have a different version of the Acrobat Reader, you may wish to download one of these at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html, or contact the PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center at tnrc@law.harvard.edu, 800-258-4406 (within the U.S.), or 301-528-2676 (outside the U.S.) for further assistance. This restriction does not apply to the freely available Teacher’s Package Review Copies.

Ordering a single copy for review

If you wish to review the materials for a particular role simulation to decide whether you’d like to use it, a PDF, or soft copy, version of the Teacher’s Package for the simulation is available as a free download from the description page of most role simulations and case studies. All Teacher’s Packages include copies of all participant materials. In addition, some Teacher’s Packages (but not all) include additional teaching materials such as teaching notes or overhead masters.

Ordering copies for multiple participants

To order multiple copies of a role simulation for use in a course or workshop, simply enter the total number of participants in the box next to “Quantity.” There is no need to calculate how many of each role is required.

If you are ordering hard copies, the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center will calculate the appropriate numbers of each role to provide, based on the total number of participants. For example, if you wish to order a 2-party role simulation for use with a class of 30 students, you would enter “30” in the box next to “Quantity.” You then would receive 15 copies of one role and 15 copies of the other role, for use with your 30 participants. As another example, if you ordered 30 participant copies of a 6-party role simulation, you would receive 5 copies of each role.

In the event that the number of participant copies you order is not evenly divisible by the number of roles in the simulation, you will receive extra copies of one or more roles. Participants receiving the extra roles may partner with other participants playing the same role, thus negotiating as a team. So, for instance, if you ordered 31 copies of a 2-party role simulation, you would receive 15 copies of the first role and 16 copies of the second role. One of the participants playing the second role would partner with another participant playing that same role, and the two would negotiate as a team.

Bulk Pricing Discount

For bulk orders, we offer the following pricing discounts. Please note that these only apply to bulk orders of the same simulation.

  • Between 100-250 copies – 10% discount
  • Between 251-500 copies – 25% discount
  • More than 500 copies – 50% discount
Log In or Register to download the free Teacher's Package Sample.

SCENARIO:

Tensions between the Korean and African-American communities of economically-depressed Urbana have been growing for some time now. Korean-Americans own most of the grocery stores in the area. The African-Americans that make up most of their customer base have complained for a long time that they are ill-treated by the store owners. The owners in turn complain that their customers frequently steal items from the stores.

Recently, an elderly African-American woman's visit to her local grocery store erupted into a city-wide incident. The store owners allege that she was attempting to shoplift. The woman denies this, and claims that she was beaten by one of the owners. Activists on both sides have made grandiose claims on television. The customer and owners have taken legal action. Tensions continue to mount.

Now, a deacon from the local African-American church is meeting with the principal from the Korean-American school to see if they can find a way to lessen the tension surrounding the incident, and the history of such incidents.

 

MAJOR LESSONS:

  • This exercise can provide a forum for discussing many issues, including the effect of culture and ethnicity on partisan formation, the influence of race on conflict, the use of negotiation in the shadow of legal action, choosing representatives for a community, and dealing with one conflict when it is part of a pattern of conflicts.

 

TEACHING MATERIALS:

For all parties:

  • General information

 

Confidential instructions for:

  • Deacon of the African-American Church
  • High School Principal

 

Teacher's package includes:

  • All of the above
  • No teaching note available at this time

 

NOTE: The fact pattern of this simulation is similar to that of Seoul Food in Urbana; the latter is a mediation involving legal representatives of the African-American and Korean-American communities, rather than the community members themselves.

Grocery Store Attributes

Time required: 1-2 hours
Number of participants: 2
Teams involved: No
Agent present: Non-lawyer
Neutral third party present: None
Scoreable: No
Teaching notes available: No
Filed in:
Community Dispute Resolution, Cross-Cultural, Eun, David, Patton, Bruce, Role Simulations
Tags:
conflict, conflicts, HNI, Mediation, negotiation, Seoul Food in Urbana