Is your boss dragging you back into the office? At least there’s a local meal deal now. But how good is it? 

Eating at the office is one of life’s least nourishing occasions. I don’t care how many cookbooks have been dedicated to the art of elevating lunches, the reality for most of us is a box of languishing leftovers or a guilty dash to the nearest store. 

Enter the $10 New World “lunch combo”, now available on Wellington’s Willis Street.

If you don’t have time for a supermarket sweep when you’re staring down the barrel of another restructure, this store has refined your options into one convenient fridge. For those of us with choice paralysis, those options are mercifully simple: choose one of a small range of sandwiches, add a packet of chips plus a chocolate bar, and wash it all down with a Pepsi brand soft drink.

Coined in the UK in the 1980s, the concept of a “meal deal” solidified the place of the sandwich in British working culture. As a cornerstone of the commuter’s diet, meal deals took a beating in the peak pandemic era, but like office life, the “foodie phenomenon” has made a remarkable comeback.

I set out to investigate both the calibre of the New World version, and its value as a budget offering.

Taste: school lunch, revisited  

According to a statement provided by Foodstuffs, the store has received “positive feedback” on its combo so far. I canvassed my colleagues for their thoughts on the matter, and all agreed that the deal’s appeal hinges solely on the quality of the sandwiches. That’s why I called Nick Iles of the Two Bear Sandwich Club to conduct a robust and informed taste test. 

Foodstuffs says the goal is to keep the sandwich options “fairly simple”. I presented Nick with the current selection: egg mayonnaise (“a child’s sandwich”), egg and ham (“not very nice”) and the “gourmet” cheese and chicken (“quite dry”, but the winning choice.) 

It’s hard to condense the key components of a quality sandwich into a digestible soundbite, but Nick observes that one thing missing from the New World range is texture. Basically, “it’s really bad bread”.

Let’s not forget that there are always people behind the packaging. Theirs are the invisible hands that slice and spread and seal so we can get on with our busy office lives. As food that is designed to be consumed in motion, Nick appreciates that these are perfectly “functional” sandwiches. But to his mind, form and function are not mutually exclusive.

“We should be able to have affordable, delicious food. To make this sandwich nicer is manageable – but maybe not at the price point,” he concedes.

Choice: no country for old vegans

Speaking to New Zealanders based in Britain, it’s clear that their range of options far outstrips the current choice in Wellington. Jonny and Emily recently moved to Edinburgh. The pair say they’re amazed by the prevalence of the meal deal throughout the supermarket sector, and beyond.

“Most major chains have a meal deal,” Jonny tells me. “Even Boots, which is more of a Chemist Warehouse equivalent.”

British meal deals are comprised of only three items: a main (mostly sandwiches), a drink and a snack. Jonny says that snacks serve up the greatest variety, from chips, boiled eggs and samosas to the more contentious yoghurt pots. Emily, who is coeliac, says even she is “astounded” by her scale of choice in Scotland. In our country’s capital of woke-food fandom, the lack of vegan and gluten-free options from New World seems a curious oversight.

Cost: the money or your life

Depending on the different price promotions on offer, one can save up to $2.26 by purchasing the four-part combo as opposed to buying all four items separately. That equates to an 18% cost reduction; nearly three times the savings required from government agencies this year. 

From Emily’s perspective, much of the value of the meal deal is time – rather than money – saved from scouring the supermarket. If you consider that lunchtime breaks are mostly unpaid in Aotearoa, then every minute out of office is a valuable commodity to spend. 

Most British offerings are still cheaper than the $10 deal in Wellington, but we do get more bang for our buck. Whether that’s a good thing is up for debate, however: what we gain in carbohydrates, we risk losing in health.

Health: a work in progress

To offer some insight on the nutritional value of the New World combo, I called dietitian Dr Rajshri Roy, an honorary academic at the University of Auckland and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. She says the current options are “energy dense, but not nutrient dense” – meaning high in calories but low in vitamins and minerals.

“It doesn’t support long-term health if people are consuming this regularly,” she tells me. 

Going forward, Roy is keen to see some fruit and veg on offer, plus more options with a “lean protein” (not deli meats). 

“People may not choose it every time,” she acknowledges, “but just having that option makes a healthier choice an easier choice.”

Last year, the Welsh government released plans to “shift the focus” of their meal deals after research found that most exceeded recommended lunchtime levels of salt and calories. Foodstuffs say they’re keen to “build on their offering” by introducing “healthy options” in the future. Don’t hold your breath for quinoa salads: what they mean is “water and fruit”.

Verdict: traditional partners need a reset

Personally, I want to see a bit more Kiwi ingenuity in this fledgling meal deal market. If we consider British trade a form of foreign policy, perhaps the meal deal import should undergo its own reset. I’d like to think that New World could live up to its expansive branding and broaden our horizons beyond sliced white bread.

For now though, it remains to be seen if the Willis Street pilot will spread to other parts of the country. While this lunch option is unlikely to have you “firing on all cylinders”, at least you might recoup the cost of your compulsory commute.