We have a canteen at work, in the main building, that offers a good selection of food. It’s an outside catering company, and the food is subsidised by our company. It’s hard for me to admit this, but we are spoilt really.
In the building that I work in, which is a few minutes walk away, we have a coffee shop that offers a selection of sandwiches, jacket potatoes, soup, and a few other small things. And, yes, it’s a large company. Our site alone has 3 large buildings, each with two floors.
Along with the canteen and coffee shop there are also plenty of tuck machines around the site, and microwaves. In our building there is a microwave in each break area.
Anyone new to the company, or visitors, would probably think that we are well looked after. Jacket potatoes are cheap. They cost about a quid with butter, cheese and tuna. They taste nice too. Chips are cheap, stale and dry. Puddings are usually nice. Sandwiches are expensive, often soggy, and don’t taste nice at all. As an example, an egg mayo sandwich in the subsidised coffee shop is £2.25 while in M & S (free advert here) the same sandwich is £1.35.
The coffee in said coffee shop is expensive – £2.50 for half a cup of liquid and half a cup of froth. Luckily we have a coffee machine in each area – they’re free!
On the whole, if you steer clear of sandwiches the food isn’t too bad and is often cheaper then elsewhere. Sometimes I’ll go to work extra early to get a nice big breakfast.
Yes, I suppose we are spoilt.
