New Tech Offices In The Bay Area May Not Come With Free Lunches
The age of free lunches for tech employees may be coming to a close in parts of the Bay Area. San Francisco Supervisors Ahsha Safaí and Aaron Peskin have proposed a ban on cafeterias in new office buildings, San Francisco Chronicle reports. Local retailers and restaurant owners have complained that the influx of new tech companies, which often offer employees free lunches, is hurting their businesses.
Companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook have long offered free lunches through in-house cafeterias, which typically serve gourmet food such as fresh omelets and sushi. Free food has been a recruitment and retention tool in the highly competitive labor market.
Other companies have been encouraging their employees to dine out. Square closes its cafeteria every other Friday and provides vouchers for employees to eat at local restaurants. Salesforce offers a demonstration kitchen and barista bar in its offices, but has long encouraged its employees to venture out into the local urban community.
San Francisco has about 51 employee cafeterias, which the city defines as space inside an office where tax-free food is sold and that is operated by company employees or contractors.
The ban wouldn't apply to existing cafeterias, only new construction, meaning it could dramatically impact the 7M SF of office proposed under San Francisco's Central SoMa Plan.
The ban also wouldn’t apply to catering, allowing for companies to have food delivered for their staff.
In Mountain View, a cafeteria ban was approved in 2014, but new office buildings under the ban are just now starting to deliver. Facebook is set to move into a 225K SF office it leased through WeWork at The Village at San Antonio, one of the newest buildings to fall under the ban. Both companies have been known for their food and beverage perks.
The ban could also apply to Google’s planned North Bayshore expansion, a mixed-use project with 3.6M SF of office and about 10,000 units of housing. Google offers gourmet free food at its Mountain View headquarters.
Other cities haven’t really felt the pinch from tech companies with cafeterias on-site. Apple charges employees for meals at its new campus in Cupertino and many employees often dine in local restaurants.
