Why doesn't Microsoft provide free food as Google and Facebook do? (2015)

I've worked at places with free food before. While it's nice to have, it really is exactly what this Quora answerer suggests: it's a way to get people to stay at the office. It's not at all altruistic, and it shouldn't be considered a perk. Free food can be nice, but be aware that you're giving something up as well.

One effect that's even more valuable to the business than simply keeping employees at the office more is that it strongly encourages everyone to eat lunch at the same time. Even people who bring their own lunch or go out to lunch will do so at the same time that everyone else is partaking in the free food. This makes it a lot easier to schedule meetings adjacent to lunch, and means that all the noise and disruption of lunch is narrowly timeboxed.