Breakfast. The first meal of the day, and the one which many consider to be the most important. Your selection of eggs and bacon, toast and jam, and/or whatever kind of coffee your heart desires is fairly consistent on your day to day, be it in your home or some I-Hop down the road.  

However, a difference deeper than dishes is present between those two places. It lies in the environment of either location, the physical aspects, the people within them, and the motivation for their creation.

Your breakfast meal defines your morning, and your morning defines your day, your day, your week, your week, your month, your months, your years, your years, your life; your breakfast defines your life.

And the place you eat breakfast defines your breakfast. But how? What makes a breakfast at home and a breakfast at a diner so different?

The Environment-

The humble, or for this discussion, the less than humble breakfast diner. Think of I-Hop, Waffle House, First Watch, etc- large scale companies. What is something these places have in common?

The environment of large breakfast diners is meant to feel homey, comfortable, small and familial, even when they’re not small or familial.

Windows, golden light shining through from the early sun. Some soft music, often jazzy or orchestral, playing in the background. The smell of coffee in the air, light chatter in the background, and cozy seating. The waiting staff are polite and friendly to you, asking you about your day and attending to your needs at the table. Everything inside of these places regarding their environment is structured to make you comfortable, make you feel at home, make everything go slower and calmly.

On the other hand, you have your breakfast at home. Think of your everyday morning, before school or work. You’re surrounded by your family, or just by yourself. Around you is your own kitchen, in it your own coffee machine, oven, toaster, etc- everything is in your control, and formed by your own desires and necessities. Nothing is intentionally made to shift your perception of your breakfast eating environment; instead, your breakfast becomes only a step or phase in your mourning routine. The people around you, or just yourself, are there on their own morning routines, paying no mind to you or yours or helping you move forward in yours, not trying to slow you down for a hearty meal.

Between these two environments, a clear difference is notable; the environment of a company owned breakfast diner is meant to calm you down and convince you to stay and relax, while a breakfast at home is formed around your morning routine and subsequent plans.

“Wow. Cool. What’s that mean?”

The physical environment of each location tells a lot about their effects on a person, but what is also important to discuss regarding these environments and their effects is their motivation.

Motivation-

The environment of a breakfast diner is relaxing, comfortable; it makes you want to sit down and rest over a stack of pancakes. The environment of a breakfast at home is of your own creation, made for your own routine. 

Either of these locations’ environments are made with a specific motivation in mind, depending on your position in, relationship with, and the people in either location. Inside of a company owned breakfast diner, you are present there as a customer. You are a spender at an establishment that sells you products- that is your position here. Your relationship with the location is as a customer to a company, owner, and staff who all want you to spend your money on their products (these are also the people at this location).

The goal of a breakfast diner is to take your money. That is their motivation, and the environment of a breakfast diner is built around it. The soothing music and seating, the kind staff being so attentive of you, are all in place with the intention of keeping you relaxed in hopes of convincing you to stay and buy more food, or tip more.

“Wow, author. You sure sound like a conspiracy theorist really deeply entrenched in the evils of breakfast corporations right now.” Yes I know, it’s a matter of finding evil in all large companies; the theme of specifically breakfast corporations is meant to carry that idea. 

The contrasting aspects and intentions of breakfast diners and breakfast at home shows how the either of these is meant to control your morning and day in their own way, and especially how large company owned breakfast diners do so very intentionally and with somewhat malevolent intentions in mind, using your morning routine, your life, for their own good. As all large companies do.

(Gosh, I do sound like a conspiracy theorist.)

To further this claim, though, notice how the motivation of your breakfast at home differs from that of a breakfast diner’s. Your position here is as a hungry person going through their morning with food in mind- breakfast, as, as earlier stated, a step in your morning routine. Your relationship with the location is as the cooker or receiver of the breakfast, the owner or resident of the home, and the sole decider of how your morning goes. The people around you are strictly other people going along their own morning routine, and other possible cookers or receivers of the breakfast. There is nobody here projecting their own desires and intentions onto you through their actions, and the environment is not intentionally made to project these goals or motivations either.

“All this to say what?”

The motivation of the institution, physical environment, and social environment of a company owned breakfast restaurant is formed around you as a customer, a spender, a person to sell products to, a bag of money for their spending. The same for a home breakfast is formed around you as a hungry person moving through their morning and mornings. One uses you and one is used by you.

Companies like breakfast companies, in our modern day and society, are usually, if not always, structured for this purpose. Using your life as a tool. It sounds sort of bleak in hindsight, but it’s important to know that that is what you are surrounded by. Whether you start your day off on your own or under the palm of a greedy company defines your routine; from the very first bite.