The Legacy Cafeteria Problem

As the costs of providing people with high-quality, on-site food options have risen over the last few decades. Companies have tried everything to keep those costs down, which has led to countless office cafeteria problems.

They’ve subcontracted out the cafeteria operations and staffing, only to see minimal cost savings. They’ve revamped menus, only to see reduced sales thanks to “menu fatigue” from workers. They’ve even tried technology-based approaches, such as self checkout, with disappointing results.

These ideas all avoid facing a frightening truth: The traditional cafeteria model just doesn’t make sense in today’s world. It’s a relic of another era. Today’s workers are foodies, and they care a great deal about the quality, value, and variety of their meals.

The old cafeteria model was built around a completely different set of assumptions. Institutional cafeterias were designed to efficiently feed an army of workers during a dedicated meal break. The rise of fast food options in the mid-20th century gave cafeterias some competition, but the service model has remained fairly static thanks to a captive audience and increasing subsidies from host companies.

This has created a situation where cafeteria participation has completely stagnated. Cafeteria vendors have made some efforts to boost engagement, updating menus or providing dedicated ethnic food stations, but with limited success. It’s fundamentally the same cafeteria experience as in the 1980s, only with increased prices.

Solution: Replace The Traditional Cafeteria

A few years ago, Fooda decided to create a solution for the office cafeteria problems we saw. We partner with the best local and national restaurants to bring consumers a highly diverse mix of cuisines that run the gamut of Latin American street food, Southern barbecue, delicious vegetarian, authentic Thai, and countless other culinary possibilities.

Fooda’s solution is to flip the legacy model upside down. We don’t use a traditional operating statement. Our only focus is on top line sales growth. That means bringing the right restaurant to your associates and tenants, providing the meals that they want to eat, and driving up participation. The only way Fooda makes a profit is by having the highest level of participation at your location each and every day.

Our system isn’t built around locking you into a contract and squeezing you for every last dime in subsidy. We aren’t even a food service company in any traditional sense. We’re a matchmaker, connecting your facility with the restaurants and caterers who want access to your employees (or your tenant’s employees). Our profits come from charging a fee to the those restaurants who want to operate in that space.

It’s the ultimate capitalist system, we provide a platform for the best local restaurants to win over your employees in order to create the highest levels of participation in your cafeteria space. Just like Uber and Lyft are vying to become your preferred taxi cab replacement.

Fooda is never focused on the bottom line. We’re only focused on growth, and in delivering on your goals. We’re aligned better than traditional legacy models, where the only goal is to shave down their own expenses while growing their subsidy. They answer to their shareholders. We answer to you.

What happens when the legacy cafeteria model is completely replaced with a diverse mix of highly rated guest restaurants? Instead of being served the same old schedule of forgettable, bland menu items week to week, these local eateries and caterers deliver a mix of fresh, exciting meals to employees every day. These restaurants also use their own facilities to prepare the food, and their own staff to serve it. This completely eliminates an entire range of on-site cafeteria expenses, creating a substantial cost reduction in the process. And your office cafeteria problems become a thing of the past.