When lunch time arrives, it brings out the indecisions as well about what one wants to eat. Whether they would like to order from outside or are tired eating the same usually stuff. Often this discussion ends with some average coffee in a cup holder and a cold roll or sandwich in plastic. However, food chains inside workplaces have now changed things. Several branches have been opened by Cup O Joe in Tel Aviv’s Salameh Street where the new police headquarters of Israel are located apart from the branches of Cellcom and SAP in other places. The choice that employees get is good and is also subsidized.
The chains that have opened in the workplace offer special dishes from the chefs, sandwiches and lunch that are delivered to the desk so that one doesn’t have to move an inch for lunch. It is possible to order for coffee and sandwiches even to the interrogation rooms in the police headquarters. This is a welcome change from a time when the army’s Shekem canteens would offer nothing but cold wafers. Now police officers feel they have choices that no other police station would have.
Although there is not a fixed time that policemen would quote when asked about the duration they spend in the canteens, it is usually around an hour. The money they spend is also anywhere near NIS 30 – 70 in the gourmet coffee canteens which is twice as much as they spend in the boring canteen. The cafeteria owners though get huge profits out of the large audience which makes up for a revenue around 30000 – 70000 NIS a day with about 1000 clients.
According to Espresso Bar and Cup O’ Joe, it is a strategic move to open these branches in workplaces. According to top marketing officials, those who drink their coffee at work might also start looking for it outside to put in a travel drink holder and the branches with thousands of workers turn out to be profitable in the end anyways.
Another catering firm that has been feeding most of the high tech workers in the country is the Schultz. According to Oren Schultz, the director and owner of the catering firm, as many as 50,000 portions are prepared daily by the 850 strong firm that are then sent to over 60 different companies including Netvision, Amdocs and Comverse. A good example is Amdocs where as many as 4000 people from all three campuses put together eat lunch every day after checking the situation from the computer screen.