Archive for January, 2009

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My favorite meal at my work cafeteria is the mid-week taco salad special. Utilizing a well thought out strategy, this tasty treat can be one of the best deals in town.

The cafeteria at work operates on a unique system known as “lunch lady arithmetic.” Unlike regular arithmetic (or math if you will), lunch lady arithmetic varies from day to day. The price of any given item in the cafeteria is determined by an unknown baseline value (very few prices are actually posted) plus or minus some variation from the mean. The variation is largely driven by the type of item and the lady that is ringing you up. Prepared food like eggs and oatmeal have a much wider distribution than packaged items like chips or milk. So one day you go in and pay $2.44 for some scrambled eggs and an English muffin while the next day it may ring up at $3.21 or potentially something with a one handle if you’re lucky. This kind of risk/reward makes the simple act of eating at the cafeteria an exciting adventure.