- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
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Me: “Oh I’m fine with scanning QR codes for menus, actually.”
[QR code goes to Facebook]
Me: “Guess I’ll starve after all.”I would leave a negative review, and tell the GM off for using fascist platforms
I’ve worked in Tech for 30 years, done software development in enough areas and at a sufficient senior level to be able to implement the whole QR code support, both coding and systems design, all the way from an App in a smartphone taking a picture and translating into a URL, to the webserver and if needed database on the other side including if needed an ordering system integrated with some internal order request system.
If I was faced with this I would ask for them to bring me or show me a menu. If they said “no” I would literally get up and leave.
I’m not going to be spending time mucking about with my phone to read in it’s comparativelly small screen something they could have available on an A4 piece of paper or an even larger format hanging from somewhere in the restaurant just to, at best, save them a few cents or, at worst, satisfying somebody’s totally misplaced idea that any Tech is cool just for being Tech. I’m even less going to enshittify my smartphone experience with some app that demands access to my Contacts and wants to pester me with notifications entirelly for the benefit of somebody else.
If there is one thing 3 decades in the Industry, often at the bleeding edge, have taught me is that Tech isn’t necessarilly the best solution for everything and that being newer doesn’t make something better and I’m not interested in being the beta tester for some half-arsed solution which serves most customers’ requirements worse than the older solution and I’m even less interest in installing a software agent doing the will of somebody else on my phone.
It’s exactly because I know Tech so well that I just judge Tech tools as I would any other tools and, damn, so much of it out there are just horrible ill-adjusted unstable tools worse than the old-Tech or non-Tech versions.
somebody’s totally misplaced idea that any Tech is cool just for being Tech
Nah, it’s worse than that. It’s somebody’s totally awful idea that they can meddle with their menu prices in real-time and do “surge pricing” and other schemes to rip you off. If they committed to a paper menu they would have to honor that printed price in most jurisdictions, which would preclude them from such shenanigans.
Digital menu
Pros: You can change it at any time, no problem. You can let them order digital and the register automatically checks in the order.
Cons: can’t read shit on a smartphone.
Solution: Big tablet for each table. Now everybody can read it.
But you have to spend a lot more on tablets than you would 5 years printing new menus.
Yupes.
My problem is that for me as a customer their chosen “solution” (me using my phone to see their easy to change menu) provides me no gain whatsoever whilst adding hassle. There are various possible options they could’ve gone with (blackboard, digital system with tablets for customers, printed piece of paper) with various balances of cost and ease-to-change and they chose the one that maximizes their advantages, minimizes their cost (and maybe it doesn’t even do that properly compared to, say, a blackboard) and increases hassle for customers.
In other words, in their requirements for the solution they’ve chosen to use, they focused entirelly on what was best for them and screw the customer, and if I have a choice I’m not going to bring my custom to a business which has activelly chosen to make my life more of a hassle purelly for their own gain.
Even though they’re using Tech for what they’re doing, the actual problem for customers is a Tech-agnostic “they did what was best for themselves and made the customer experience worse”, and maybe because of my immense familiarity with Tech I really don’t get dazzled by there being lots of Tech in their choice and just look at it from a “what does it do for me” point of view (a way of looking at business practices which itself derives from my professional experience: since I both worked on and implemented Business Requirements I got used to look at systems from a “what does this provide to the user” angle as part of the work of designing such systems).
I just “love” how scammers and the such have started plastering their own QR codes over legit ones. You scan a public QR code and go to a fake website.
Whenever QR code accessible site that asks your information should NOT be used as there is a legit chance that some scammer will be receiving your info instead of the actual site
Lol you people are so edgy, don’t worry you’re very cool with your stories of rejecting menus and being a dick to waiters who have no say in the matter.
No wonder COVID had no trouble spreading if everyone is so insistent on holding soggy stained menus in their hands. I love digital menus, don’t need to touch anything, there’s enough for everyone, why the need to always be a contrarian?
Now go ahead and downvote me, my
bodyaccount is readyNot everyone has smartphones. And speaking of Covid, not having a smartphone bit me in the arse because many businesses only accepted digital vaccination certs. I survived that, though, and I’ll survive not giving business to places that require you to have a smartphone.
There are only three ways to get me to leave a 1-star review.
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This shit
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A screen on the card machine begging for tips. Fuck right off
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Brioche does not a burger bun make, Oli or Tom or whatever your wanky hipster name is
Is the brioche in your third point sweet? that would be kinda weird.
Here in France brioche is kinda like cake bread: flour, salt, yeast, sugar, eggs, a fuckton of butter.
Last one I had was in Lyon, coincidentally! Genève before that
In America all bread is so full of sugar that it’s all cake bread. Brioche in America is a cake bun.
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I will not. I refuse to get a smartphone.
“I only have a work phone. I’m not supposed to do those.”
I have a couple restaurant apps on my phone. These are for takeout or delivery type places like Domino’s Pizza or Sheetz. In that context, it’s a genuine upgrade. Like, i can either drive to Sheetz, type my order into the kiosk there, and wait the whole time they’re preparing it, OR I can place the order from home on my phone, and they’ll prepare it as I’m driving there.
At a sit-down restuarant, what are you trying to do? Trying to use that instead of the waitstaff for ordering or paying…some customers are going to and some aren’t. There’s a procedure people understand about eating at a restaurant, and now you’re throwing a wrench in it for…what? The ability to update the menu without printing a whole bunch of them, somewhere to write down the specials so the waitstaff doesn’t have to remember them, or “because technology?”
And at something with counter service like a deli? Fuck off.
“Are you using the app today?”
“No.”
Borderline germaphobe here. Get that disgusting, sticky menu as far away from my food or my fingers as possible. I fucking love the QR code menus.
That said, if it directs me to the app store, I’m not only leaving, but you’re getting a 1-star review. I’d take the germs over that bullshit any day.
Username checks out
I walked into some local burger joint, they had a qr code.
no menu above the counter like 99.9% of all other places.
when I asked for a menu, they told me to scan the qr code. I said no. they asked why. told them that I don’t like to be tracked. they said it helps them out. I just left.
place is closed now, at least I don’t see the lights on at night anymore last time I drove by.
There’s a classic burger joint near me that’s been around generations. A few years ago the quality dipped, and eventually it got sold to a restauranteur who’s done well in the area. They really turned it around. Service, food, cleanliness was all night and day to the previous owner. Then they became a victim of their own success. They wanted to make more money so instead of being a sit wherever you like, order from the counter place, now it was table service only with a strict 90 minute time maximum. The outdoor games that the kids loved have been shelved for more tables. The menus are all on QR codes, and you can only pay through your phone. I walked up to the empty bar one day to order a beer. “Sorry sir, you have to order from your phone, I can’t even process payments here.” So instead of drinking 3 or 4 readily available beers, I got 1 that the server took forever to bring. They include a default gratuity even though they are doing the absolute bare minimum when it comes to service. The food is still phenomenal, but I absolutely hate going and will pick a place I know is not as good to not have to put up with this place.
Lol wut? You can’t pay with a credit card? I’ve literally never seen that in my life.
Credit cards have fees and not all business want to pay them. A place by me used to be cash only until 2015 and they finally started taking debit, still no credit.
Once, I was given a real menu and then told to use the QR code to place an order.
I said, “No.”
“But you have to.”
“Haha, no.”
I showed her what I wanted and put the menu back in her hands. She left dejected and returned wordlessly with my food.
Don’t be a technocrat when I’m hungry.
I could understand using qr codes in a self service restaurant, but when the server is right here? This reeks of the owner being wormtongued by a salesman.
type “LMAO”, show her the phone with a dead serious face and leave
So the business still got your money? I guess it’s a difficult decision when one’s hungry.
I can’t even read my phone without reading glasses and when I’m off of work I often purposely don’t bring them with me. I’d be asking about their accessibility accommodations.
I’ve only been to one restaurant that had that and I was able to order online. It was a good experience for me.
I took my elderly aunt to eat and she couldn’t navigate the menu at all on a phone screen. I don’t like it either.
