
Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at Facebook and other tech cos - htmlfan
https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-free-cafeteria-food-facebook-ban-2018-7
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ihuman
Non-amp link: [https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-free-
cafeteria...](https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-free-cafeteria-
food-facebook-ban-2018-7)

~~~
dang
Thanks. Changed from [https://amp-businessinsider-
com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.b...](https://amp-businessinsider-
com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-free-
cafeteria-food-facebook-ban-2018-7)

Edit: looks like it's a dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17619658](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17619658).

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davidw
From twitter:

SAN FRANCISCANS: my studio costs $2700 and I stepped on human feces & 1 used
syringe on my morning commute

CITY: we hear you, action must and will be taken. Scooters are now illegal

SF-ANS: what

CITY: no more delivery robots

SF-ANS: but

CITY: workplace cafeterias are forbidden

[https://twitter.com/Altimor/status/1021973421046022145](https://twitter.com/Altimor/status/1021973421046022145)

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htmlfan
This can definitely help support local business. But seems unfair to lower-
salary employees. As an employee who used to have free lunch and now doesn't,
I have felt the financial effects.

Dining out truly can make a big impact on the wallet- $10 dollars per meal
(unlikely in Mountain View unless fast food) x 5 meals a week x 48 weeks a
year (let's be generous and assume you get that much PTO) = $2,400 annually

Company-provided meals also tend to provide healthy options which can be
expensive to purchase outside of work- and tend to contain less sodium and
sugar than restaurant foods.

I can see this potentially benefitting the local business of 'Amazon
WholeFoods' and Costco as people buy more groceries to bring lunch to work
with them and eat at their desks. Eating out every day is expensive.

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jazoom
Everywhere I've ever worked, >90% of people bring their meals to work >90% of
the time.

This sounds like another of those special microcosm "problems".

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htmlfan
Where have you worked?

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jazoom
I've worked at over 10 companies in my life so far.

I've also done locum work in more than that.

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justinzollars
I'm sorry but this is so f*cking stupid.

As a Bay Area resident my priorities are the cost of housing, cleaning our
dirty streets and alleviating traffic congestion.

This is an example of progressivism gone awry. Solving the basics is
incredibly important. Our quality of life is in decline (in the bay area) and
this is the best our politicians can do?

I'm enraged.

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vkou
Your municipality does not have the legal or financial mechanisms to solve
homelessness, housing, and traffic congestion. They are all natural
consequences of economic and political decisions made higher up the food
chain.

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justinzollars
Sum that point of view across an entire population and we have the problems we
have today.

Your perspective bores me.

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vkou
What baffles me is the perspective that: "Because <city> can't fix these
problems, everything that <city> does is stupid and useless."

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juli1pb
Also get your data: if you don’t have free meal, you bring from home. This is
what the vast majority does. And at the end of the day, this is a matter of
freedom: if company X decides to offers free meal, what’s the problem? It
creates jobs and attract people! Is this the country of freedom or this place
incompetent administration wants to control what companies and people should
do?

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walshemj
No the vast majority of workers targeted by this do not - even in developing
countries like India "tiffin wallas" bring food to office workers.

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thehnguy
This might be a great idea in theory, but terrible execution. By having this
only apply prospectively, it makes every new business have to compete with
businesses that can offer free meals on campus.

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cornellwright
I think it's a terrible idea in theory. In practice it probably won't be as
bad as companies find loopholes and exceptions. (For example, is having food
delivered a cafeteria?)

Still, companies should be able to decide what they want to offer their
workers.

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nikki-9696
This seems silly. My company doesn't pay for food (chicago), we're right next
to tons of options, but food is expensive. Most of us bring lunch from home.
We live in the burbs and commute in. I don't see why workers would pay to eat
out every day instead of bringing lunch. Maybe it's a SF thing that folks
would be willing to waste that much money every day?

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saagarjha
What's stopping companies from charging a cent per meal?

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bumholio
This is a good question. What stops companies from asking $100 per meal, and
charge it on an employee account then reimburse the same amount every month to
clear any tab? The free meals are taxable income anyway.

The ban on "company cafeterias" cannot possibly work, they will be simply
replaced by separated business entities that happen to share the same building
and have a financial arrangement like the one described. Pretty soon you will
go full retard trying to stop this.

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walshemj
Tax mate its all about the $

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nickthemagicman
Does this seem a little like bit of gov't overreach? They're saying a business
can't provide food to their employees?

Am I missing something?

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vkou
You are missing something.

This restriction was made, in exchange for letting the office be built.

They could have asked the Zuckerberg to do the chicken dance, for 10 minutes,
in exchange for letting the office be built, if they wanted to.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Ah. So the headline is misrepresenting what's going on. These people signed
contracts stating they are ok with these restrictions to allow the offices to
be built.

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United857
I live about 10 minutes from this location, and often frequent the restaurants
there. It's smack dab in a high-traffic area (San Antonio+El Camino) and
judging from the crowds, I can assure you that they get plenty of business
already from the local community, even without Facebook.

That said, I would still have no problem if it was the landlord (WeWork)
making this restriction, instead of the MTV government. This is a private
business-to-business matter, and shouldn't be the domain of government.

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geekingreen
They could offer meal tickets similar to Vivint:
[https://savvorysoles.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/vivint-food-
ti...](https://savvorysoles.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/vivint-food-tickets/)

It's a free meal at the office, but if you want to go out they made deals with
most of the local restaurants where it gives the employee $5 off

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praneshp
The editorialized title submitted by the OP is incorrect (and probably in bad
faith). Free food is banned at one complex in MTV called the village ("That's
because the city prohibits companies from fully subsidizing meals in the
Village,"), not all over mountain view.

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mattnewton
What stops them from paying a “mtv location bonus” of $30~ish dollars a month
and charging a dollar a meal?

Edit: it sounds like this is actually a rider on some kind of zoning exception
being made for a new development called the Village? Article isn’t terribly
clear here

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throeuhway
As long as they have them I would hope they begin to pay a livable wage to the
people they employ at them

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17612190](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17612190)

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zerr
Besides, it is also healthy to really get out of the office for an hour or
two.

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humanrebar
It's also healthy to spend an extra hour a day with your friends and family
_after_ work.

