[johnrob]

Google profited over 8.5 billion in Q1. There's no way food could be a relevant operating cost for them.

[benmccann]

It absolutely does have an affect on the bottom line. How much do you think it costs to feed an employee for a year? On top of the gourmet cafes, don't forget that an employee is never 50 from food throughout the day. Now multiply by the 25,000 employees. You'll get a number that is very big even for a company of Google's size.

[jcampbell1]

Google's profit was 2.8 billion on 8.5 billion in revenue.

[haberman]

You don't profit 8.5 billion dollars by spending money every time a self-important internet critic thinks you ought to.

[jrockway]

Interestingly, if you say this in a "oh noes, my spam ads got pulled from Google and they won't talk to me on the phone!" thread, you get downmodded to oblivion.

[noway444]

fact: feeding 26,316 employees every day has zero effect on the bottom line.

[yanw]

You're missing the point. Google has this manual monotonous task of scanning millions of books, so they choose the company that offers the most cost effective workforce, paychecks and launch breaks are taken care of by the contractor Google hires as they don't pay those workers directly.