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This is common in Israel where all but the largest companies (FAANG) give you lunch money instead of free food, so it's a matter of choosing between eating out or ordering in - the cost is the same.

Facebook also lets engineers (and only engineers, oddly) eat out on Wednesdays.

"Lets" ??

Since when is a company allowed to dictate where employees can eat?

Taking a wild guess here - which you could have done - they probably mean they Facebook lets you expense it, rather than just lets you do it.

Depends on where you are. At least here in Berlin there's always a special lunch pricing and it's certainly cheaper than cooking yourself most of the time. In our office we always go out for lunch every day. Mostly the whole team in one group.

Depends where you live. You have lot of places in the world where eating out is as cheap or even cheaper than cooking for yourself.

In France meals are subsidized and it costs me between 2.40 and 5-6 € per meal.

If you bring your own lunch from home you can sit in a park or similar.

I mean you could go get a $8 sandwich at your local deli.

Coffee is also an option (often free in some offices)