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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

To a first approximation, no one is spending $60/day on restaurant meals unless they're traveling.

When Dropbox served food I valued it at 50k, ie: in order fro a company to poach me, given they don't have food, that's 50k they'd have to make up for. While I don't spend anywhere near 4k a month on food, there were a few things to consider:

a) 3 meals prepared for me saves me time and money. I love to cook but I don't have tons of time anymore and I don't have a a good kitchen. If I want to save time via delivery I end up spending tons more, and I don't think I eat as healthy.

b) The food was ridiculous. I've eaten a lot of good food, I've eaten in numerous countries, and Dropbox's food was god tier.

c) Tons of snacks, little treats, etc. Wine as well. Given the incredible quality of the food I wouldn't be surprised to find that I was eating quite a lot in terms of money.

It was such a quality of life win, especially as someone who loves food, to just have insanely good meals every single day. Even if ultimately it probably saved me closer to 1000 a month than 5000.

I guess I just can't comprehend a mindset where 3 meals a day at a company is this huge win. On the occasions when I went into an office with a non-free cafeteria, I didn't even always eat lunch.

ADDED: This subthread to me is such a bizarre look into a certain bubble of SV. [See also apparent disagreements with the statement that spending $60/day in restaurants is somehow abnormal.]

Indeed, as a Midwesterner, I'm fascinated by the sheer logistics of having to bring a sandwich to every computer programmer in San Francisco, every day. It's one of those features of "how cities work" that you never even think about.

Many of the comments here would get you literally laughed at interviewing at 99+% of the companies (including tech ones) in the US. "Give me $50K more if you don't offer three high quality free meals a day."

Definitely not. Meals and snacks are becoming common perks in tech even outside of SF/the US, and people (especially young grads fresh out of college) are beginning to ask for them. I personally keep a look out for it, too, since I eat a lot healthier when compared to ordering food, and save a lot of time compared to cooking it.

I just can't imagine wanting to eat 3 meals a day at work, no matter how good they are.

You will be shocked that we even bring friends and family there occasionally! That's how good the food is :)

I remember the Japanese cafe at Google was very good at one point. This article has some pictures to give you an idea:

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-free-food-google-cafe...

You will be shocked, apparently, that there are people here saying they don't want that!

Exactly: I have to get out, and away.

Can't stand work canteens... something about the smell of food really puts you off eating.

It feels very forced.

Prefer an impersonal sandwich shop where I just have a wall to stare at than being in something attached to my workplace.

Sounds like when I was a conscript.

Its also not taxed which for a higher earner does multiply the benefit.

I am surprised that the IRS hasn't gone after this like HMRC has in the UK

They sort of have: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pa...

But the companies are presumably eating the cost.

That's never been my experience.

Then they also have to give you a free gym, to work those meals back off.

Most of the bigger companies have their own cafeterias and kitchens to produce everything in house. They usually contract it out to companies like Bon Appetit who completely manage the logistics and operations.

I feel like I justified my point well. Eating extremely well made food is a major win for me. There's the obvious financial and time savings, but there's also a lot to be said for having a fresh made meal three times a day - and Dropbox always had variety, they pretty much never repeated dishes (other than the standards - burgers, pizza, etc).

I ate some of the best meals I've ever had while working there. After a certain point that matters more to me than an extra N dollars a year.

It's just weird to be so ostentatiously luxurious with consumption, to allocate more to food than the median personal income.

Sorry, but it is what it is. I make a lot of money and there's a point where benefits like food matter more to me than 10s of thousands of dollars.

Imagine rarely eating with your kids or wife.

Funny, I actually saw lots of people bring their family to work for dinner when I was at Google, it's pretty common actually.

That's both cool and a bit sad.

Imagine not having kids or a wife every year of your career.

There are a lot of unmarried people too.

Sure, but imagine eating all your meals at work. Your existence would be work, eat 3 meals, commute, sleep at home.

For me getting home before dinner would be a massive plus to getting a free meal.

Cut out the commute and sleeping at home with our latest perk, the sleep pod!

(/s)

I did that for a while, but then I was also in midst of a crumbling relationship so it was a way to give each other space.

The dinner is also often relatively early, so you still have quite a lot of time after the commute (granted, if your commute is 1+ hour then it's far from a dream routine).

What I like is having the option, for example I had a late sports club that was close to work, so it was more interesting to grab a quick bite and stay there to go to the club and return home after.

I lived close enough to work that I could go home and then walk back.

Are all these people spending 10-11 hours a day at work or something? I usually eat breakfast (if I have it) around 8am and dinner some time between 6-7pm. I would never want to be at work that long no matter how good the food was.

Some people simply don't get much value or enjoyment from a good meal at all, in that case it's probably too hard to make them understand. But assuming that you do enjoy dining at a good restaurant once in a while, can you imagine that getting essentially unlimited meal vouchers at good quality restaurants (not cafetarias or fast food joints!) can be quite valuable for a good number of people?

depends on if you're giving them 4 hours of work extra a day for them (12 hour workdays)

I can see the appeal of this if you're living alone or with some housemates who also live that lifestyle, but I can't see it working if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend unless they also work for a company that caters all their meals too. Otherwise you'd never get a chance to have breakfast or dinner together. That would suck.

I wonder, on some deeply dystopian level, if tech companies do this on purpose to keep their a large proportion of their employees single.

I don’t think they are trying to keep the employees single, but they are definitely trying to get them to spend more time in the office.

8hr 9:30-6:30 (including lunch hr, between breakfast and dinner) day in the office isn't so unusual or dystopian.

Dropbox allowed guests. I brought a number of people over my time there.

Would you bring in a spouse and kids every single day though?

I don't have those, so no.

What you are saying is that it became 50k cheaper to poach you when they let the leases go and gave away all the plants?

Yes, though I'd already left to start my own company, but we don't have a cafeteria either.

Does Dropbox no longer serve food?

I haven't worked there since before the pandemic, but that's my understanding.

They went full remote.

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