Google (Part 2)

While many people marvelled at the great potential for growth at Google, they seemed to ignore the astonishing amounts of money Google was spending on "ordinary" costs. For instance, consider Google's cafeteria system. In a recent article by the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Now Google's Cooking", the Chronicle reports on some of the wonderful food services at Google. Their cafeterias put out 200 recipes a day. Serving meals not once, but three times a day! As you might expect, a diner at Google can find free-range and organic chicken, but on some days, one can also have truffle butter served with their meal. Even more amazing is that Google diners can enjoy ketchup made from scratch. In addition to all this variety, Google employees enjoy another benefit: they eat for free.

What does this cost? On average Google spends about $8.00 dollars per person. Almost four times as much as other company programs.

In my next post, I will look at another one of Google's wasteful practices.