But you've sort of hit the nail on the head right there. Apple Store employees are likely employees because Apple Stores are a major part of Apple's business.

Apple hires hoards of contractors for all sorts of roles internally (experimental projects, kitchen staff blah blah).

Google popup locations are not comparable to Apple Stores.

> The other way Google can control all of these aspects even for contractors is to refuse to work with contractors who do not uphold the standards they set. As these contracting companies exist solely to provide contract work to big tech cos, they will fall in line immediately.

Hmm. But if they try to match (or come close) to Google's standards then Google will likely have to pay more for a contractor than they do for an employee. At that point might as well just hire them.

Even when I was a contractor, I never quite understood this. The contractor costs Google whatever it costs the contractor to employ them plus some amount of profit for the contract company. It would be cheaper to just employ people at a contractor's wage and internalize those processes, at least where the contractors are doing similar work to their own employees. It might still not make sense to start doing things like maintenance or cooking.

As best I can tell, it is a different pot of money. In my company, contractors are a budgetary decision, while employees require HR and other hurdles. Similarly, when you want to cut costs, you can fire contractors (shrink the contract and let the contract company do whatever they need to) without making the news with a headline like "Google lays off 10% of its workforce".

> The contractor costs Google whatever it costs the contractor to employ them plus some amount of profit for the contract company.

Plus contracting overhead on both sides (the contractor-side overhead is neither an employment cost for the contracting firm nor profit.)

From what I can tell, there are two main reasons companies use TVCs:

1. They don't want to be in the business of hiring/vetting/training/supplying benefits for people who aren't part of the business's core competency (security guards, cooks/baristas, receptionists, etc.).

2. Bureaucratically, TVCs are a lot easier to hire. You don't need months of interviews or headcount approvals in your budget: you just need to be able to spend money.

Of course, these problems are both theoretically solvable if a business cared to solve them. (It really bothers me that the people who take care of us aren't always well taken-care-of.) However, it's important to understand that there are multiple factors at play. TVCs are often chosen less for cost savings; more because at the hiring manager level, they're a lot easier to get approved.