Free Food - -The economics, the psychology

Food at Google is free. And that doesn’t mean free lunch, it means free everything. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you choose; unlimited snacks, drinks, and coffee all day. There are some 30+ “cafes” across the campuses near me (Mountain View is 4 or 5 miles from my office; I am based in the newer Sunnyvale facility.)

When you join Google, there is reference to the “Google 15” (pounds) that people gain in their first year; akin to the “Freshman 15” when kids go off to college.

Google has recognized this, and made efforts to curb the trend. The visible snacks in the pervasive microkitchens are sorted according to their health value. The nuts, dried fruits, and cereal are in clear containers on the top shelves. There are M&Ms too; but they are in an opaque container so as not to draw your attention for an impulsive handful. The top set of drawers have granola bars, dried seaweed, dried edamame, etc. Plus some really irresistible and novel treats, like “coconut chips.” (How can you turn those down?)

The next drawers have popcorn and chips. You need to kneel to the bottom drawers to get the “bad stuff” like Kit Kat bars. The food in the cafeteria is healthy for the most part, and color-coded as green for vegetables; red for carbs, etc. I have eaten more varieties of kale over the last few weeks than I have ever eaten in my life. Plates are smaller than standard serving dishes, reducing the temptation to over indulge.

When we pay for food, we tend to “get our money’s worth.” I never ladle half a bowl of soup when I purchase soup….If I can’t finish it now, I’ll finish it later J But at Google, we aren’t paying for it. So I am trying to use this new reality as a catalyst to change that ladling behavior….Why NOT just take a bowl with a small quantity of soup? And just come back for more if you want some?

Not paying for food, though, also creates some bad snacking habits that sneak up on you. Like taking a handful of almonds every time you pass a microkitchen. (and there are microkitchens everywhere at Google - - ) Or drinking 3 cups of coffee over the course of a day. Paying for food creates a natural inhibitor. (Would I take that third cup of coffee, if I were paying $2.50, or would I recognize that I probably don’t really need it?)

So here is a suggestion for google. (Actually, just a suggestion to my blog friends, since googlers would shoot me for this suggestion…) Create an “economic barrier” to excessive eating. Make it such that you drop $1 into a bin, whenever you take a snack. That $1 will go to feed hungry people. They get to eat more, and we would likely binge less….