Reading FAANG employees talk about food prices makes me realize the old "It's one banana. What could it cost, $10?" is something that was written based on reality.

At Apple Park lunch at Cafe Macs could easily run $10-15 (without a drink) depending on what station you ordered from. The food there was good but not exactly cheap.

The campus was really too big to leave for lunch unless you arrived at some stupid early hour to park underground below your office. It's a 10-15 minute walk to the south parking garage and then at least a 10 minute drive to the closest places to eat and none of those are cheaper than the cafe.

So unless you're bringing food from home you can pretty easily hit $20 for lunch per day. I doubt Cafe Macs is running a huge profit but the cost for employees is non-trivial.

And I thought spending up to eight euros for a warm meal (I'd have a sandwich in the evening) was stretching the budget.

Actually that is cheap.

I am used to pay at least 10 euros, for food + drink, unless I go to one of those special lunch time deals or street food places.

And since I am Portuguese, evenings is also a proper meal, so make it twice for the days I happen to dine outside as well.

oh man I miss those 2 o'clock lunch deals (Menu del Dias) which would fill you up for like... 12 euros haha. I remember in Barcelona or Valencia you could go to a really fancy, highly rated restaurant and "splurge" for 20 euros. Miss that place!

Where do people not have a "proper meal" in the evening?

For us a sandwich isn't a proper evening meal, just something to eat on the go when no time for anything better.

In fact to this day I never gotten into the whole Abendbrot stuff, even though I have lived half of my life in German speaking countries.

Just explaining where I am coming from, not attacking anyone.

But aren't there any lunch trucks, roach coaches, etc around for normal people to get food?

Nope. Parking requires badge access and there's no street parking near the campus. Even if some lunch truck set up shop in a nearby parking lot it would still be a 15-20 minute hike to reach it.

Heck, I remember a salad at Harvard being $12.

When I worked at Google I so rarely paid for food that I began to completely ignore the cost of food when I did pay for it. It just didn’t seem to matter much.

I'm glad others are shocked by that $60/day on food. I would say food takes up the largest percentage of my expenses and $60 is easily 5 days worth of food for two.

The $60 is laughably high, but the value of the perk of $400 a month might also be too low considering part of the appeal is presumably that it all gets looked after for you and you don’t have to prep food or even think about your meals (the value of having all your meals cooked for you isn’t the same as the value of the ingredients).

I read a bunch of comments in this branch, and I think yours nails it. Initially, I saw 60 USD per day and laughed. Thought to myself: "Ok, they will all be overweight in 1 yr -- like junior bankers!" Then, I realised the labour costs are pretty high, so 60 USD per day might be too low. It might be closer to 100 USD in "value" per day for Google to provide all your meals.

Lol I spend about 5-10$ a day on food. Where do these people eat at lol

Can $5-10 a day get you food with this kind of quality and variety?

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

If you are eating that every day then you are destroying the beauty of food for yourself. That level of food should be a treat, not your "daily driver"

Pretty common for me, but I've mostly lived in places with a huge variety of fresh ingredients. That "level of food" is actually not that high in places like Barcelona, Lisbon, Sao Paulo, Sydney, SF, LA, Guangzhou, Bangkok, etc. 60USD/day (~1300USD per month) is not that much compared to how much FAANG employees are making. At the end of the day it's a matter of priority. Tons of people spend more than that on alcohol/cigarette/drugs/cars.

Per person, yes. You'll have to cook it yourself though.

You'll be able to make it healthier though, and tune it exactly to what you like.

I think so. I buy bulk (15-50lb bags) organic grains, legumes, flour, seeds. Makes it more work to calculate per meal but it's pretty cheap. I get a lot of verity but you do have to be creative and it helps if you are fast at cooking.

Going to guess SF, where those are not overly expensive prices for eating out with a drink at each meal.

I like cooking and tend to prep on a Sunday, and then midweek on Wednesday if I'm bored. I live in Austin, TX. I don't usually eat out at all except the occasional outing with friends. Of course I'll splurge on the weekend depending on what's going on. That said I tend to eat the "zone diet" that stuck with me even after I lost a bunch of weight on it. It isn't particularly "hard" to find food to fit that scheme. Of course you have to not mind reheating food :) . I'm a fairly rugged individual and don't really need froufrou food every day https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/meal-prep-recipes-wee...

The biggest injustice in life is that when you are young, food is just fuel to get through the day. You can eat all of it and you don't care if it's good.

When you get older, you start to understand food, and you are willing to pay more for it, but now you have to count calories.

Can I survive on $10 a day? I did it on $3 a DAY when my parents were on food stamps, but I am not that crazy about going back to the "franks, rice, and ketchup" menu.

Same here. $60 is basically our two-people weekly shopping.

And those two people likely don't eat remotely as well as Facebook or Google employees.

Even if you value your labor/time to cook to be worth of zero dollars, when I was at Google my cafe had fresh seafood (a rotation of different types of fish, scallops, shrimps, mussel, crab, etc) and good quality regular meat dish (I particularly liked the skirt steak with guacamole), great vegan/vegetarian options, in-house made desserts including fresh made chocolate truffles every day prepared by the chef.

And that's just lunch, at one cafe, not including breakfast and dinner and options at the other 3 dozens cafes on campus.

If you can recreate all of that for two people with a $60/week budget, then kudos to you. I know I can't.

> those two people likely don't eat remotely as well

You then mention chocolate truffles. Personally if I had my employer providing ridiculous good food for free, I’ll likely live less healthy because I will eat those nice unhealthy things every day.

If I am prepping my own food I have complete control over what I buy and can choose _not_ to buy unhealthy things.

Also in my experience a reason why food prepared by a chef tastes so good: more fat used.

I assume that Google and Facebook canteens (well that’s what they are) are better than the ones offered by companies here in Germany, but I think I would still gain weight.

"And those two people likely don't eat remotely as well as Facebook or Google employees."

That probably depends on your cultural background.

Whenever I was in the US and worked for large tech companies I found the food too fat, too sweet, (interestingly same things like Kellogs are totally different in the US than in Europe), too much artifical flavor, too much cheese, too much toppings, large unhealthy portions.

The water and Cola tasted like Chlorine and were undrinkable - I guess you don't taste it when you grow up with that taste.

I had good food here an there, especially great - and expensive - steaks in NYC and once the best fish tacos in the world on a beach in San Diego, but overall the food wasn't to my liking. I was dissapointed by the food in SF, I had very high hopes from hearing all the good things but it was just average.

Food which I did like more than the food for "those two people" in general was the food in the South of France, in Sardinia, Corsica and Rome, desserts of the Middle East, in Japan and Vietnam - also Copenhagen is so underrated concerning food.

The food for "those two people" tastes natural, has no artifical flavorings and is healthy.

So it probably depends on your cultural background, as I've said.

Zurich has one of Google's largest offices in Europe. I doubt the food is as oily or over-sweetened as Silicon Valley. (And yes, broadly, I agree that US prepared food is mostly over the top on oil/salt/sugar.) It would be nice to hear from Googlers who have visited more than one office and its canteen.

My mistake, I assumed the thread was about the US in general, I hear what you say.

I used to work for Google for few years and I did gain some weight - just like many of my coworkers did. The food was delicious and looked great so I was eating too much overall and did not pay attention to the healthy meat vs vegetables balance.

For the last five years we're cooking most of our meals at home, maybe go out or order food once or twice a month. The food we cook isn't as exotic, nicely looking or sophisticated as the food served at Google, but it is tasty, fresh, healthy and the groceries are pretty cheap. And despite being older, my blood results are better now than when I was leaving Google.

You would be amazed at the quality of fresh food you can buy in the local stores. there's a good chance the potato you're eating for 5 dollar in the restaurant is the same one that's in your cellar which costed 5 cent

> Even if you value your labor/time to cook to be worth of zero dollars

I understand what you're saying, but still cringed at that statement. Eating well and, by extension, cooking is hardly something I would value at $0/hour and I find it mildly insulting that someone would devalue the time I dedicate to preparing meals.

If you don't like cooking and would rather dedicate some of your income to having someone else do it for you, please frame it in that way. It recognizes it is your own decision and comes off as less judgmental of others.

He did come off as a little harsh but he's not entirely wrong depending on how you value your time and priorities. for the record it is perfectly possible to eat healthy without having to spend(waste) time cooking. I steam vegetables, eat fruit, and eat a lot of lean chicken and sardines.

I can definitely relate to him because I hate spending time cooking, I don't like the prep, I don't like the drudge work, and I don't like to have to clean up afterwards. I have a finite lifespan and I don't wanna waste any of it on things that I fundamentally do not enjoy, particularly if it's entirely avoidable.

"As well" is subjective and your presuming those two people want to eat like that. I don't. I enjoy talapia, chicken breast, white rice, and Fiber One on a daily basis. I rotate in broccoli and peas, and enjoy the occasional Honey Bun, chocolate, and bowl of Cocoa Pebbles.

But the best part of the day is the very first fresh ground coffee with real sugar and real cream in the morning. You just can't beat it.

Curious where you live where you can get real cream legally? Are you milking your own goats or cows?

Most employees in Paris get lunch coupons at work.. I guess they may eat better than FAANG employees

Also fasting is better for you than eating all the time.

You don't factor the electricity/water for cooking & cleaning and the time spent doing it(calculate it by the hourly rate of a mid-range cook assuming you are there).

My total expenses for groceries and vegetables is less than $60 for a full month in India.

Why was this downvoted? It's useful anecdata. Thank you to share.

At wet markets in China/HK/TW/SE Asia, you might be able to eat for a month on 60 USD.

It sounds about right to me if you don't like cooking. Note that the cost is for prepared food.

Buying raw ingredients and cooking them yourself is cheaper in terms of explicit dollar costs, but if you don't enjoy cooking then you also need to assign some monetary value for having to do something that you don't like.

I think I would enjoy taking a break and cooking so free food is probably not worth $60 to me personally. It's not crazy to think that my employer gets a benefit of more than $60 through increased productivity by providing me with free food though.

My wife and I were spending maybe $1000/mo on takeout -and- we had free lunches at offices until the pandemic.

Once I committed to WFH life, it became a logical next step to double down on the freedom aspects and start my own consulting firm.

That meant I needed long term thinking. I learned to cook more often and turned my entire front yard into a garden.

Overall I would say WFH has been net healthier on my mind and wallet.

Wow. Thank you to share. How much garbage does this produce just from packaging? I cringe at packaging waste from takeaway. That is my number one reason to avoid it. (To be clear: I don't live in a place that uses remotely "eco-friendly" packaging like pressed recycled light cardboard and balsam[sp?] wood utensils!)

I am a huge proponent of Blue Apron (or a similar service). Have been a customer for 7 years now. It cuts down on grocery waste (do I NEED 1 liter of sherry vinegar to cook one thing?), and you pick up a ton of techniques that may not be chef-advanced but very useful in every-day cooking.

> do I NEED 1 liter of sherry vinegar to cook one thing?

It will last years though, do you NEED to cook only one thing with it?

That's just an example. Most of the ingredients that I buy without meal kits usually just go bad, there is no saving money justification there, especially in NYC where groceries are more expensive.

I think this is an 'occasionally cooking' problem.

If you cook frequently enough then it's just not an issue; there's always something with not much good life left, sure, but that's what you use next.

If course if you don't cook it's not a problem either, so it's probably unfortunately the cause of some reluctance. Maybe kits help that.

I work for Google and live in Switzerland where food is really expensive so my situation doesn't generalize well.

However, if 1) I cook all my food, and 2) try to have a healthy diet I spend easily the equivalent of 30USD/day. Going to a restaurant sets you back around the same amount per meal.

So, assuming I work 200 days/year going to the office and get free food would save me 6k USD/year (also assuming I cook 100% off my meals). That kind of money would pay for holidays or other stuff.

Finally, my back of the envelope math didn't include the time I spend cooking and all the "premium" stuff I get at the office like fancy drinks and snacks, which I usually don't buy when WFH.

And you live in a country with a really nicely developed public transport infrastructure, so you don't go through the nightmarish car commutes that most USians probably have in mind. When I lived in CH, I did not mind the days I had to commute – it was mostly a relaxed trainride where I could get work done 75% of the time.

I really think a lot of this debate is colored by Americans thinking of the American commute.

On the other side, Europeans tend to think that there is only the US and Europe in the world. American-style long commutes are the reality in most of Asia, Latin America and the larger African cities. If anything, Europe is the exception.

Most of Europe has relatively nice public transport. I used to read books while on my way to work. That was 1.5-2 hours per day for my library. My previous office was 30 minutes walking distance from my home. Great way to wake up as opposed to coffee. While I was in the US, they had scarcely any sidewalks. Only in big cities it seemed appropriate to walk to somewhere.

Indeed. My commute was/is between 15 and 20 minutes door to door so I really don't mind the buffers between home/office!

Likewise here, I'm floating around $300-350/month at the store, and that includes non-food consumables like tissues and cleaning supplies.

Thats pretty extreme. I am usually around $800 a month, but that includes about 2 meals a week at casual restaurants with friends.

(Context: replying to gray post)

Whenever a pissing contest about grocery prices happens (and don't kid yourself, if a number has been mentioned it's not a question of when but rather an indication that the pissing has begun) you must quote a lower number than the previous person. It doesn't need to be true, it doesn't need to include critical qualifying information like location and tradeoffs, it doesn't even need to be particularly likely -- but it must be lower. So it is written. Here, I'll demonstrate:

I only spend $250 per month on groceries and I cannot imagine the disgusting excess that could possibly lead anyone to waste a single cent more!

For how many people?

Just me. Granted I don't feel the need to save as much as I can in this department. I like quality meat that is not from a factory farm and vegetables. Probably $500 on groceries and $300 on going out to eat.

The key part there is "buying prepared food". 60 per day is much more reasonable if you eat out or get takeout/delivery every meal.

lol I'm doing a bootstrapped startup. I ate: a can of tuna, peanut butter, greek yogurt, protein powder-based shake, and watermelon yesterday... maybe at a total cost of $3-5??

You only missed ramen in that list! (Are you "ramen profitable" yet?)

What’s your hourly wage and how much time do you spend preparing food?

And do you get overtime pay if you don't cook your own food?

Consider a significant number of Googlers are upper middle class kids, possibly on the spectrum, who go straight from the ivy league to google’s cafeteria. These made up numbers seem reasonable and accurate to them because they never had to take care of themselves in the real word.

Don't ivy league students have to cook for themselves?

Many people at college generally do not have access to a kitchen.

If that's true at all it definitely needs an 'in the US' qualifier - it's surprising to me in the UK, and even more surprising we would be so different in that regard.

Is the cooked-for-you food free?

>Is the cooked-for-you food free? It's broadly true in the US as far as I know for on-campus university housing. (Off-campus housing and fraternities/sororities are often different.)

Anything but free. Meal plan requirements vary.

Where I lived undergrad, we had a kitchen for a suite of rooms although I ate out a fair bit. (Many dorms did not have cooking facilities though.) Both places I went for grad school (which were actually both Ivy League) had no cooking facilities of any type.

> Is the cooked-for-you food free?

It's not free, you are required to pay for a meal plan when you are on campus dormitory housing.

Wow. That's surprisingly different to the UK - I've never heard of anywhere having no kitchen available. (Other options are of course available, but certainly not required.)

In fact I'd guess it's probably a requirement here - I don't think student halls are treated any differently to any private rented accommodation, it's probably a requirement that there be access to a (possibly shared) kitchen.

It's also quite (and increasingly) common that you're only in halls (or at least only guaranteed a place) in first year, thereafter in private rented accommodation of course you'd expect a kitchen; whereas I gather in the US the vast majority are campus universities, and provide on-campus accomodation throughout all years.

At least in my experience, there is a kitchen area per floor with stove and oven, though nothing more than microwave and hot plate (and mini fridge) in the actual dorm rooms themselves.

They live all four years in halls most UK uni's have a lot of students in rented accommodation for al least some of the time.

Did the "The Young Ones" not get picked up in the US