The Business of Chase Plates

The newly renovated Chase Dining Hall now has a series of changes that were made to instill a tone modern cleanliness. With these changes came wavy walls, white tiling, and square plates. There is a varying array of sizes of these plates stacked at the different stations that the new Chase has to offer. The plate sizes indicated the “recommended” amount of food that should be taken from each section. This seemingly is apart of the “Healthy” new overtone that is wedged into the napkin dispensers with the “swap the salt campaign” as well as the ambiguous back wall advertisement of the company’s goal to serve a healthier lifestyle.

            It is through these plates that people organize themselves. The size offered at a particular station will often be observed, but only because of the convenience of its’ location. However, people will divert from the size plate to grab another, or even a bowl if they see fit.

             In comparison to the old round plates, the square, hard edges do not allow for the easiest clean up often leaving traces of the previous meal stained upon it. People will sometimes search the stacks of plates until they find a plate clean enough for their standard, which surprisingly is not necessarily any cleaner, but after searching over three or four, the search seems too relentless.

Lastly, the easiest example of chase plates being a sense of independent choice, and organization is the interesting phenomenon that people will usually align their plate so that the parallels match the edges of the table. In other words, most people will keep their plate, or the plate they are focusing on if they have more than one, as a square instead of as a diamond shape or to a degree. This is a subconscious act, most likely associated with the vast number of squares and even lines that we come into contact with on a daily basis. Often people will rotate their plates along as they eat different foods situated on other sides.

Try it out, next time you are at a meal with someone who has not finished their food, while they are away turn their plate to a slightly different angle. See how it goes.