When
did breakfast get so expensive?
(Might
need to back up a bit. Not much. Just a bit.)
About
a week ago, life took me away from the house and on an adventure
of sorts. Several stops. Out and about during the morning and
then again in the late afternoon. Kind of ordinary, if I’m being
honest.
What
was a bit unusual was how my travels result in my stopping for
both breakfast and dinner on the road. And I was a bit stunned…
no, a bit ticked… wait, that’s not right either… flummoxed might
capture it, is definitely a bit better, but perhaps still not…
ok…
I
want to know why swapping out a coffee for an orange juice kicks
in an upsize charge. And I also would like an explanation that
covers the ground of how that request effectively resulted in
making the cost of my breakfast the same as the cost of my dinner.
Really.
Got
a breakfast meal, asked for an orange juice instead of a coffee
and added an extra hash brown. Later, headed out to pick up a
dinner order, including a side of potato salad and a couple of
cookies. In both cases, my payment involved pulling a twenty and
a five out of my wallet.
We’ve
arrived at a day and age where breakfast and dinner, served on
the go, are basically interchangeable from a cost perspective.
I
want to say… actually, I want to shout… that doesn’t seem right.
I
guess the playing field might not be level to begin with. After
all, in the distant and slowly fogging memories of my youth, I
recall days when you could head into a diner, order two eggs with
sausage and home fries and toast, and when the check came you
ended up paying $2.99 plus tax and tip. Coffee? That was included
as well (and poured before you ordered). When you feel the need
to tip more than the cost of your meal, well, that kind of experience
and pricing will stick with you and distort how you judge things
for decades.
Back
in 2007, Terry and I were out on a group trip with some friends.
We stopped in a famous national chain of breakfast delights, and
as we ordered the following exchange took place:
Friend: “What’s the difference between the French toast and
the senior French toast?”
Waitress: “Two dollars.”
Friend: “I’ll have the senior French toast.”
And…
yeah… I was there. Exact quotes.
Have
you ever made hash browns at home? Have you shredded onions and
potatoes by hand? I’m actually not questioning the costs. Unite
the effort with watching the bacon so it doesn’t burn, grilling
an English muffin, assembling the ingredients for an omelet, and
you really could find yourself putting more of an effort into
plating those hash browns than any of the needs for creating several
lunch or dinner options.
(By
the way, how do you spell omelet? Is it omelet? Omelette? Omelete?
Feels like breakfast is pretty much two steps away from becoming
impossible to deal with.)
Perhaps
the craziest part for me though is that this is no longer a breakfast
phenomenon. That cost thing at fast food windows is a round-the-clock,
use the app, smartphone necessary affair. Despite all the laws
of mathematics, physics and any other field of study or experimentation
or measurement we may apply, the reality seems to have become
that if you order an apple pie and two cookies, two menu items
that run about a dollar each, somehow your final total will rise
by five. And that’s just the way it is. (Unless you have the app.
Then the fries are free.)
It’s
no wonder the meal offerings at convenience stores continue to
rise in popularity.
These
days I no longer know what my way is when it comes to ordering
at the drive thru window. I do know that it isn’t too difficult
to see why the prepared meals in grocery stores look better and
better.