'QR Code Menus Are the Restaurant Industry's Worst Idea' (theatlantic.com) 178
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from an article written by The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf: Thinking of my earliest trips to restaurants, in the 1980s, I faintly remember waiters taking my grandfather's credit card and using a manual flatbed imprinter to make an impression of its raised numbers. My nephew, born early in the coronavirus pandemic, may come of age with similar memories of physical menus as a childhood relic. Recalling them dimly when a dining scene in an old movie jogs his memory, he might ask, "Why did they stop using those?" If that happens, I'll recount the pestilence that raged as he entered the world; the shutdown of bars and restaurants; the push to reopen in the summer of 2020; the persistent if mistaken belief that high-touch surfaces, like restaurant menus, would be a meaningful vector of infection; the counsel of the CDC that July. "Avoid using or sharing items that are reusable, such as menus," the federal agency advised (PDF). "Use disposable or digital menus."
The QR-code menu -- which you access by scanning a black-and-white square with your smartphone -- has taken off ever since. It may dominate going forward. But I hope not, because I detest those digital menus. Never mind dying peacefully in my sleep; I want to go out while sitting in a restaurant on my 100th birthday, an aperitif in my left hand and a paper menu in my right. And as eager as I'll be for heaven if I'm lucky enough to stand on its threshold, I want one last downward glance at a paramedic prying the menu from my fist. In that better future, where old-school menus endure, I'll go to my urn happy that coming generations will still begin meals meeting one another's eyes across a table instead of staring at a screen. QR-code menus are not really an advance. Even when everything goes just right -- when everyone's phone battery is charged, when the Wi-Fi is strong enough to connect, when the link works -- they force a distraction that lingers through dessert and digestifs. "You may just be checking to see what you want your next drink to be," Jaya Saxena observed in Eater late last year, "but from there it's easy to start checking texts and emails." And wasn't it already too easy? Friedersdorf cites the 2018 study "Smartphone Use Undermines Enjoyment of Face-to-Face Social Interactions," where social-psychology researcher Ryan Dwyer and his colleagues randomly assigned some people to keep their phone out when dining with friends and others to put it away. What they found was that groups assigned to use their phones "enjoyed the experience less than groups that did not use their phones, primarily due to the fact that participants with phones were more distracted."
He also notes the privacy concerns related to QR-code menus. Many of the codes "are actually generated by a different company that collects, uses, and then often shares your personal information, " the ACLU has warned. "In fact, companies that provide QR codes to restaurants like to brag about all the personal information you are sharing along with that food order: your location, your demographics such as gender and age group, and other information about you and your behavior."
In closing, Friedersdorf writes: "[...] I hope that, rather than remembering the pandemic as a tipping point in the digitization of restaurants and bars, we instead look back on its aftermath as the moment when an ever more atomized society better understood the high costs of social isolation, felt new urgency to counteract it, and settled on analog mealtime norms as an especially vital place to focus."
"What if three times every day society was oriented toward replenishing what is growing more absent from the rest of our waking hours: undistracted human interactions unmediated by technology?"
The QR-code menu -- which you access by scanning a black-and-white square with your smartphone -- has taken off ever since. It may dominate going forward. But I hope not, because I detest those digital menus. Never mind dying peacefully in my sleep; I want to go out while sitting in a restaurant on my 100th birthday, an aperitif in my left hand and a paper menu in my right. And as eager as I'll be for heaven if I'm lucky enough to stand on its threshold, I want one last downward glance at a paramedic prying the menu from my fist. In that better future, where old-school menus endure, I'll go to my urn happy that coming generations will still begin meals meeting one another's eyes across a table instead of staring at a screen. QR-code menus are not really an advance. Even when everything goes just right -- when everyone's phone battery is charged, when the Wi-Fi is strong enough to connect, when the link works -- they force a distraction that lingers through dessert and digestifs. "You may just be checking to see what you want your next drink to be," Jaya Saxena observed in Eater late last year, "but from there it's easy to start checking texts and emails." And wasn't it already too easy? Friedersdorf cites the 2018 study "Smartphone Use Undermines Enjoyment of Face-to-Face Social Interactions," where social-psychology researcher Ryan Dwyer and his colleagues randomly assigned some people to keep their phone out when dining with friends and others to put it away. What they found was that groups assigned to use their phones "enjoyed the experience less than groups that did not use their phones, primarily due to the fact that participants with phones were more distracted."
He also notes the privacy concerns related to QR-code menus. Many of the codes "are actually generated by a different company that collects, uses, and then often shares your personal information, " the ACLU has warned. "In fact, companies that provide QR codes to restaurants like to brag about all the personal information you are sharing along with that food order: your location, your demographics such as gender and age group, and other information about you and your behavior."
In closing, Friedersdorf writes: "[...] I hope that, rather than remembering the pandemic as a tipping point in the digitization of restaurants and bars, we instead look back on its aftermath as the moment when an ever more atomized society better understood the high costs of social isolation, felt new urgency to counteract it, and settled on analog mealtime norms as an especially vital place to focus."
"What if three times every day society was oriented toward replenishing what is growing more absent from the rest of our waking hours: undistracted human interactions unmediated by technology?"
no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Interesting)
yeah ill just sit here until you bring me a menu thanks.
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Informative)
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Informative)
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Seeing it everywhere. All across the United States, Europe, and more. I was recently in South Africa and most places had gone this route.
I've noticed it going the other way. Now that the pandemic is largely behind us, a lot of places are bringing back the menu.
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I hate them too and cooking at home so much more as a result.
I'm genuinely curious. What made you go to the restaurant in the first place? Do you judge them by the font choice on the menu? Do you give tips based on how good the pictures are? Do you only go to restaurants where the menus are bound? Do you walk out of they are laminated?
I mean it's clear you weren't there for the food.
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Insightful)
Not me. I just get up and leave. I don't have time for the no actual menu nonsense.
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I have also left restaurants that can't provide a printed menu when asked. It's especially annoying when travelling overseas when you don't necessarily have a data connection for your phone - or where it is very expensive if you use data roaming.
I don't mind if the restaurant provides a tablet with a well laid out menu, but if I have to use my own phone or the menu is just a scanned image of an old menu that is hard to read without zooming and panning, I'd just rather go to the next restaurant.
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Insightful)
I kind of agree on this. If the restaurant wants to provide digital menus, then they should really invest and have tablets for all the customers, or maybe make the entire table a giant tablet so patrons can more easily browse the menu and see things on a reasonably sized display. But I hate doing crap on my phone, because even with a 6.5 inch display, I still find it too small to do anything that requires more than 2 minutes of my attention.
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:4, Funny)
I have a friend who loves this sort of stuff. Restaurant will have touch screen menus, and he's very excited to go to it and pay for very expensive food where he plays with a gadget. Two weeks later he asks "I wonder why they went out of business?"
Re: no thanks get fucked (Score:2)
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If you can't be bothered to print a menu, then I can't be bothered to buy from you ...
If you want me to use my phone battery to see your menu, then I expect a charger on the table
If you can't produce a printed menu then you have just excluded customers - you need to improve your customer service
Re:no thanks get fucked (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not far from hating to serve customers.
If willing to get menu immediately - look where they are stacked and inform, you are picking some, while greeting staff upon entering.
I'm still that odd non-user of phones, smarter than Nokia Symbian. Never learned to like them and see fit my compact, dynamic, occasionally-dropping, careless-enough lifestyle. This summer we met for the festive eating (make my own foods on daily basis), where this was the way to know about food choices. Luckily, we were sharing the scre
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Yeah.. what a great idea, pissing off your food handler .. what's the worst that could happen?
The most likely thing is that he sits there until he gets sick of it.
I hate the QR code/online menus but really I just accept it. At worst I'll say "excuse me, do you have a physical menu I could browse" but sadly a lot of restaurants did away with physical menus (1. it's cheaper, 2. they can be updated with specials of the week/month) so it's something I just accept.
What annoys me is the way one of my Telcos handle certain kinds of redirections (I.E. they don't, just let the connection time out). At
Re: no thanks get fucked (Score:2)
Until it randomly ask you to insert your card and enter your PIN, in which case you handle that jerk-off covered matchine. Meanwhile, the cash that sat in a storage, an ATM, your wallet or the till and was handled only momentarily in a long time is probably more hygienic.
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Well, that's not true. You almost sound like you're conflating chips with contactless, BTW. Just because your card has a chip doesn't mean don't touch machines. We've had widespread chip and pin since early 2006, and pretty much the only way of paying shortly after that. Even a decade later, countries like the US still had a large number of merchants who didn't use this. Transport for London rolled out contactless payment in 2014, and it was well established then as a way of paying. Despite widespread
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"I hope you travel with a lot of surface spray and disinfectant wipes if that's really a concern for you."
I do, like every sane person.
Just have fun with them (Score:5, Interesting)
Create a bunch of stickers with QR codes to goatse and affix them on top of their menu codes.
That fad fizzles out pretty fucking quickly after that.
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Re:Just have fun with them (Score:5, Insightful)
Please noooo!
Just create a bunch of Qr code stickers that advertise a competing restaurant nearby.
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Sorry, there's only one way to be sure this madness ends. People who accept these atrocities are part of the problem and have to suffer for it, too.
Re: Just have fun with them (Score:2)
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Create a bunch of stickers with QR codes to goatse and affix them on top of their menu codes.
I'll have two of those to go, please! BTW, nice watch.
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No, I'd be far more crafty. I'd grab their website and make alterations to it and host it on a similar URL. Then I' paste the modified QR code over the official one. I'd also make the QR code sticker look similar to the official one.
If nothing else, it'll cause massive confusion at restaurants, and heck, maybe it'll let you get stuff for free if you can point ou
There's More To It (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:There's More To It (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: There's More To It (Score:2, Informative)
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I love it, and I give them my business because of the convenience. Sit down, and order. Don't have to worry about the waiter coming around and asking you what you want.
They just opened up a second location. I wonder if you don't know what people love.
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We didn't need technology to figure out when a restaurants has higher traffic or to identify what type of food people order. The waitress already gave them that information when we placed our order. Now they can put a name to the credit card number that we've all been using for the last 15 years. John Doe loves ordering the BLT on Wednesday at 12:15. Cool, you where probably planning on making 20 BLTs during the lunch rush anyway. 20 or 25 you're still cooking up a pound of ba
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Yeah. I set duckduckgo as my default browser on my phone, but Every. Single. Time. when scanning a QR code at a restaurant, it says browser not supported. It simply doesn't share enough info. No food for me :(
i am glad part of this is forbidden in EU (Score:2)
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they could definitively not "how frequently you come in"t.
The fuck they can't.
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Iâ(TM)m not saying someone isnâ(TM)t doing this. But most non-chain restaurants just host a pdf in Google drive or some other service and just generate a qr that links to it. No data collection.
Plenty of data collection. All kind. It is Google business model. Maybe not the restaurant, but someone is getting that data.
works great in China (Score:5, Informative)
on news ycombinator com, namelsow commented:
It varies through regions. It is completely the opposite in China because:
- No extra app. People scan the QR in WeChat (everybody has it) on the table, it will call a mini-app dynamically (somewhat similar to React Native but interpreted in WeChat).
- You are putting orders directly.
- You are paying within WeChat as well so it's seamless.
- The app is smooth because almost every restaurant is using the takeout giant Meituan's mini-app.
- Almost every single restaurants in China is tech savvy enough to use those systems because it's already a take-out centered society. Restaurants not leveraging these systems have virtually zero chance to survive the competition.
- You don't have to wait for anything or talk to anybody in the whole process.
The problems people mentioned in this thread:
- Minorities, people without smart phone or those are less tech savvy, are left behind.
- The walled garden and monopolies and such.
These problems are real, but it's probably not the QR menu to blame, because it's a far greater problem - in China, you are not allow to go anywhere without WeChat and scanning QR code due to those draconian regulations.
Re:works great in China (Score:5, Insightful)
And of course the whole lot of data mining done in it. But then again, if you're in China, using a cellphone and WeChat on top of that, you probably stopped believing that you have any semblance of privacy anyway.
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Do you like your feeding automated, or manual.
Yes, it is possible to drag eating culture (and more general, too) to highly industrial manner.
However, European in me is rather likely to appreciate exactly the opposite.
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And then they said... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Just scan it with your phone!"
"What phone?"
"You have a phone, don't you?"
"Yes, I have two. But both are MY phones, not yours. Are you going to lend me a phone to use? No? OK, I'll try somewhere FRIENDLY."
Re:And then they said... (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm sure the staff are idiots if they don't see the problem with QR code menus, who gives two fucks what they think?
Re:And then they said... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure the staff are idiots if they don't see the problem with QR code menus, who gives two fucks what they think?
Erm, the wait staff aren't the one's who decide on and design the menus. Especially in a chain restaurant, that stuff is pushed down from way above their pay grade.
If you storm out shouting about how you'll never come back the staff will be holding back chortles and praying that you're a person of your word and never come back. Point in short, you look like the idiot.
The correct way to leave is to politely excuse yourself, thank them for their help and politely leave the business without shouting or making a scene. Don't even tell them why, honestly they've dozens of other customers to serve and don't give a shit, they'll be happy that you're not making a fuss and you don't burn your bridge if you ever do come back.
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OK, I'll try somewhere FRIENDLY.
Friendly place: Oh you just left the previous restaurant because you're an entitled thundercunt who thinks friendlyness is defined by being handed a piece of paper? We don't server arseholes here, bye.
Jokes aside if that was what you said on the way out not only would people be happy to not have you as a customer, but the wait staff would also probably have had a chuckle about you and maybe even posted the expense about shitty customers on reddit.
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*experience. Damn autocorrect. And yes I clearly have a phone which I also use, and not just talk about like an arsehole.
E-ink (Score:2)
E-ink is probably the best solution. Might be a bit expensive per menu, but would make updates easy.
Yes, they are (Score:5, Informative)
I use a "somewhat save" browser (duckduckgo app) on my phone. In the one restaurant with QR codes I have been to, the browser will not even open the menu because they do obviously bad things.
My wife was complaining about a snippy waiter (Score:3)
because she and her friend did not scan the coaster things with the QR codes and asked for paper menus at breakfast the other day. Waiter huffed to get paper menus, obviously not caring because they had gratuity built in to the bill.
This is not common in my flyover midwestern state and the first I had even heard of QR code menus. I hope to fuck it never catches on here.
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Which is, in my view, a far worse idea than QR code menus.
QR code menus are annoying, but you can work around them because restaurants that utilize them also have disposable menus that you can ask for. Adding a gratuity built into the bill is s sure fire way for me to not eat there a second time.
No thanks, don't own a cell phone (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm 47 and have never owned a cellphone and never had a want for one even though I've worked in datacenters since 95. My home phone is a landline. Its funny hearing the reactions of some companies that have claimed they need to text message me stuff. I've been told "you need to get a cell" many times, but I keep telling them I'm not interested in their service, that if they are too lazy to call my home phone and tell me what "they need to text" then cancel my service. Other than my ham radio the last time I
I loathe them (Score:2)
I refuse to use QR code menus. I'm not obnoxious about it, I just ask for a paper menu please, and if they balk, I don't have a phone. If they still can't help, then I don't eat there, simple as that. (I've only had to leave a place a couple times, and both times I politely asked to see the manager so that I could register my disappointment.)
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Yeah... the world doesn't need yet another excuse to be staring at your smartphone while dining out with your friends and family.
Fine dining is supposed to be a distraction-free zone. If you're fiddling with your phone while eating, you're doing it wrong.
Worst idea? No... I think that's a bit extreme. (Score:2)
Bad idea, certainly... but definitely not their worst idea.
Menus without prices is more annoying by far. Automatically adding a gratuity to the bill also irks me.
PDF menus are the worst (Score:2)
Follow this qr code, download a pdf, then open it.
Oh, we updated the prices so download it again every time you go out!
My downloads directory is littered with versions of menus, and since I never know which one is newest, I just download another copy!
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What an awesome malware vector! You expect a PDF to open when you scan a QR code at this restaurant? Great, how about using mine instead?
It's not like the average person could see in a QR code what it actually does. Or do you think anyone actually checks the popup that shows you for a moment where that QR code actually leads you? Just in case anyone but me still doesn't have "accept anything I scan, open the appropriate app and don't bug me" activated by now.
This will die when their are a flood of QR hacks (Score:2)
It's an idea that requires ideal conditions. That won't last long.
QR codes and dedicated restaurant apps are DOA.
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A few posts up, I suggested replacing the QR codes with codes that take you to some shock site on the internet. But that's the more harmless result such a "prank" can have.
If people are already in a situation where they accept scanning a QR code and either expect some app or some webpage to open, what's easier than to replace that QR code of the restaurant with one that distributes malware? Hell, if you do it right and open the menu as well, you might be able to run this for a couple weeks or months before
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But I have a feeling this is a lot like self check-out.
A bunch of annoying twits will scream about how it destroys the grocery store experience, claiming that everyone hates it while polls actually show a sizeable majority preferring it.
The only restaurants I go to these days that aren't QR-driven are $700 dinner affairs downtown. And frankly- I wish they'd do it too. Tho
Not everywher (Score:2)
The QR-code menu -- which you access by scanning a black-and-white square with your smartphone -- has taken off ever since.
Well, maybe in some places.
In Texas, where I live, QR code menus are pretty much gone.
Even in California, where I recently traveled, I was only asked to scan a QR code in one restaurant, over the course of a week.
I'm not sure these things are as pervasive as the author thinks.
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I was in DFW for a week a month back and they were literally everywhere.
They're definitely everywhere here in Seattle.
I'm wondering if perhaps the kind of restaurants you go to aren't the kinds of restaurants that are likely to adopt this methodology.
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I live in Houston, and on my trip last week I was in Seattle for two days. You might be right about the kinds of restaurants. For one thing, only big chain restaurants with money to spend on technology, would have QR-based menus. Smaller mom-and-pop shops typically do not. I never eat at "fine dining" restaurants, so I don't know about those. But I also don't go for bargain basement. Still, even in downtown Seattle, I ate at a bar near the Space Needle, a coffee shop, a pizza joint, a Wingstop. None of them
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BBW, Red Robin, Olive Garden, Boiling Point...
Local restaurants in Seattle that have it are places like Elliot Bay Pub, Le Coin, Cask & Trotter... Really, they're everywhere.
Coffee shops and smaller pubs- ya, not going to find it there.
We have a Wingstop in Seattle?! I didn't even know that- I've been to one in DFW, never here though. Usually BWW when I want wings here.
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Of the places you named, I never go to Red Robin...way over-priced for a burger. Interestingly, Olive Garden must not be consistent, in Houston at least, they have paper menus again. So you're probably right, I just don't go to the kinds of places that have the QR menus. And that's good, because if they did, I'd stop going.
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Experiences vary I think, while I wouldnt at all say they're everywhere where I live (Northern California) I do still run into them a decent bit and not at all just at major chains. Just the other day I went out for food and drinks with some co-workers and ended up at a one location restaurant that had the QR code menus. None of the half dozen other people I as with seemed put off by them despite every single one of us having problems using the crappy PDF so I kept my mouth shut but I don't plan on going ba
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I think you're right. There are people who actually want everything to be contactless, and there will be restaurants that cater to those people. There are those who are annoyed, and will go elsewhere.
I'd just walk out and go somewhere else. (Score:2)
It's the only way to stop this madness.
OK except for that One Big Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, a very tiny problem. QR menus would be fine if they all adjusted in paging and font size to each displaying device. All too often, what comes up on my phone is a PDF of the entire printed menu, rendered in Paramecium Fine. Here I am, desperately pinching and scrolling to see dishes at a readable size. Certainly, it kind of breaks the mood.
Actually... (Score:2)
On the other hand, here in Yurp, I like the way waiting staff typically serve people. If th
more pretending (Score:3)
In addition to all the complaints cited in this article, I consider these things to be a sign of an inhospitable lack of attention to the patron. Handing the (physical) menu used to be the first signal that one has been noticed by the staff, and an opportunity to greet the valued customer to the establishment with a smile. Heck, if automating waitstaff out of existence is the goal, then why not just eat at McDonalds?
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pretense that this is making life easier for him, when actually it's just a cost-saving measure for the business.
Why not both?
Handing the (physical) menu used to be the first signal that one has been noticed by the staff,
The first signal that one has been noticed in pretty much all of Europe is when a staff member takes you to your table. The menu is a pointless additional exercise.
Heck, if automating waitstaff out of existence is the goal, then why not just eat at McDonalds?
You just implied that people go to restaurants because they want to talk to wait staff and that there's no food quality difference between McDonalds and other restaurants. I genuinely feel sorry for you if that is the kind of quality meal you expect at a restaurant.
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Taking a device out at the dinner table is a breach of etiquette, and for good reason. You would do well to read the linked Atlantic article, which neatly summarizes all the very good reasons that this QR menu idiocy is just shit.
I have no problem interacting with machines. In fact, being a developer, that's what I do all day. I just don't appreciate being treated like one when I'm trying to relax a
Customer self-sorting based on COVID perspective (Score:3)
We have all seen two groups of people emerging from COVID: Those who have gone on with life (as if nothing happened) and those who will never move on (wondering why the lockdowns aren't still in full force).
Group 1 won't put up with QR menus, they'd rather eat somewhere else that's full of people and uncovered faces.
Group 2 won't go to a place that is so careless as to spread germs around on paper menus.
There are going to be restaurants that cater to each group, most likely based on which group the owner falls into, but secondarily which group gives them the most business.
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We have all seen two groups of people emerging from COVID: Those who have gone on with life (as if nothing happened) and those who will never move on (wondering why the lockdowns aren't still in full force).
Group 1 won't put up with QR menus, they'd rather eat somewhere else that's full of people and uncovered faces.
Group 2 won't go to a place that is so careless as to spread germs around on paper menus.
There are going to be restaurants that cater to each group, most likely based on which group the owner falls into, but secondarily which group gives them the most business.
Group 3 are people who can handle either physical or online menus, even when they express a preference because they are adults and think storming out of a restaurant makes them look like a total wanker. Most people are in group 3.
Only if they're badly implemented. (Score:2)
A good QR code menu concept can be a notable upgrade in quality of service if done well.
Naturally, "Doing it well" is the hard part for the vast majority of people lacking in digital culture.
QR codes *on web sites* are the worst (Score:5, Insightful)
Printed QR codes are one thing. But why do I now see web sites and emails with QR codes? If you see one of these, please smack the author and explain that QR codes serve no purpose on digital media! QR codes are a physically printed form of a link. What am I supposed to do with it in an email? Point my phone camera at my phone's screen? Take a screen shot? Get a second phone???
Author lives in an English speaking world (Score:2, Informative)
QR code menus in Europe on the other hand have been an excellent improvement as restaurants don't frequently maintain paper copies of menus in several languages.
I also love the comments here complaining about no actual menu nonsense and "not having time for it". What's faster, pushing a button on your phone, or sitting and waiting for wait staff to get you read, go get your menus, and come back to the table?
Again, Author is probably in America where waiting staff so desperate for your tips in order to survi
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I don't know about the person you responded to but where I frequent they bring the menus along with the silverware when they seat you. Ideally you have them from the moment you sit down. It's not really about time. I never minded doing the QR thing but I prefer to read a printed menu. Scanning through one looking for something that appeals to my appetite is pleasant. Looking at my phone when I mostly just want to put it down and ignore it isn't a good thing.
Maybe it's because I'm in Houston Texas (Score:2)
But I'm not seeing it. I have yet to walk into a restaurant that has pointed me at a QR code to get get the menu. Could just be where I'm at or the places I frequent but I did this during the pandemic. I haven't had to do it since people stopped acting like fools and just got on with life.
Lazy QR codes are stupid (Score:2)
Lazy QR codes are stupid. Why does the QR code not encode the table you're ordering from? Why doesn't it allow you to place an unpaid for order just as if you were to tell a human and them write down and deliver your unpaid order? Maybe there is one place in the world that does it like this. But I was kind of hoping for it to be the standard. Easier just to have a QR code that delivers the customer to your store's home page, then force them to navigate to the PDF menu. (Yes, this seems to be the common thin
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1. You like getting lukewarm/cold food?
2. You still have to queue to pay. With your lukewarm/cold food.
3. Where do you live that this happens? In decades of existence I have never had this happen.
4. They're cutting salaries because there's less work?
5. If you're unhappy having to wait 3 minutes, don't go out.
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The idea is that you place the order such that its ready and still hot right when you get there. The KFC app I have on my phone you order (and pay with card) then when you get close to the store you hit a button and they start preparing your food so its ready when you get there.
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That might be the idea. It's not how it actually works in any restaurant I know of. Fast-food might be different, I don't consider KFC "eating at a restaurant".
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The KFC app I have on my phone you order (and pay with card) then when you get close to the store you hit a button and they start preparing your food so its ready when you get there.
Sorry, I must have missed a news bulletin - when did KFC start serving food?
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Disney does this too, and it works great there. However, their quick service menus are much smaller than the average restaurant and the physical queue bottleneck it helps avoid is significant.
The situation that would cause me to want to use such a system rarely comes up in contexts outside of large crowded touristy places.
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"The KFC app I have on my phone you order (and pay with card) then when you get close to the store you hit a button and they start preparing your food so its ready when you get there."
Funny, the Mcdonald's app won't let you even touch the "I'm here!" button until it detects you're actually in the parking lot. So you're still fucking stuck waiting for your food.
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Cons:
1. You have less chance to flirt with or harass the waitress while she's standing next to your waiting for you to decide what to order. This is actually a pro for the waitress.
2. You add an otherwise unnecessary app that further decreases the shitty security most people 'enjoy' on their phones.
3. You create yet another opportunity for yourself to be tracked.
4. Your service provider is having an outage - sorry, no menu for YOU!
As one other poster opined, "MY phone is not for YOUR use - lend me one or I'll take my business elsewhere". Any restaurant that won't provide a hard copy of a menu will be told loudly to fuck right off, and I'll never again give them any business, whether i
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Sure, if you like reading the menu on your tiny phone screen and having to scroll around instead of being able to see the entire page at once, and quickly figure out what it is that you want.
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Did he/she never have a good clue for worthy foods of the day from the conversation with the waiter?
Always knows what he should stuff into himself, and learned the required buttons?
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First of all, that's a BIG con. Easily counts for 10 "Pros". As to your "Pros":
1. Nobody said get rid of online menus. But for people who are dining there? Come on!
2. See above. Again, we're talking about people who are sitting. Menus that you can't hold for walk-up registers have been around for a long time, after all.
3. That's actually a good point. So I'll get you a point.
4. Does this mean I can leave less tip now?
5. This actually is not a problem that much (neither is #3, which I gave you a point
Re: Get into the new century (Score:2)
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If it's fast food, then this is the way to slow it down ...
If it's a restaurant, then I expect service, not an app, people don't go to a restaurant only for the food (unless it's fast food), it's an experience, and in my book that does not include fiddling with an app - I can order food online, a restaurant is supposed to be different
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Sure, if the restaurant wants to tip me then, for doing their staff's work.
Re:Your missing the advantage (Score:5, Insightful)
With a QR code menu, YOU scan your table code, and then scan all the items you want, then scan confirm code, and the order gets sent immediately to the kitchen to start preparation... without you having to wait for the wait staff to come to your table, write everything down, and hand it to the kitchen staff. You get your food sooner, restaurant does more table turns, wait staff doesn't have to stand their while you decide... sounds pretty win/win to me.
A number of points to address here...
1.) The QR code experience varies wildly from venue to venue. Some do exactly this, while others are just a URL to a scanned PDF, and everything in between. If QR codes were reliably put-in-your-own-order, maybe I'd be on board...but pinching around a PDF? Miss me with that. Similarly, some are URLs to download the restaurant's mobile app...no. I'm not installing an app to order my food.
2.) The wait staff handles a number of additional things I find valuable. Occasionally, there's some enjoyable smalltalk, but more often I ask my waitress about any recommendations. "I'm debating between X and Y, do you have a preference or recommendation?" tends to be worthwhile - that person is better acquainted with what's popular, what might have a flavor i don't like, if it's a problem to have something slightly-customized ("no onions", etc.), occasionally I'll get pairing recommendations for sides or a cocktail I might enjoy in the interim. Treat the wait staff like a robot, get a robot-like experience. Treat them like a person, you get a personal experience.
2a.) ...on the flip side, being a bad customer gets you a bad experience. If the waiter comes around for an order, and you don't know, most are fine with "give me five minutes?"...but then, mean it. Pause your conversation, pick what you want, and resume it so the waiter isn't dropping by 5-6 times to get an order. That's not solved by QR codes and user-input orders; if you're going to take 20 minutes to place an order, all of the downsides still apply.
3.) The *actual* advantage to QR code menus is that pricing information can be updated more regularly, so restaurants aren't printing menus to match ingredient availability and pricing fluctuations. I can appreciate this to an extent, but again, the experience varies. A responsive webpage with everything on a single, scrollable page? Great. A PDF I'm pinching and moving back-and-forth? Not so much.
But really, at least a part of my extreme aversion to QR menus is that I've made it a point to keep my phone in my car when I'm at a restaurant with someone. They're taking the time to spend with me, and in turn, I want to avoid even the possibility of pulling out my phone. They get my undivided attention while I'm at the restaurant...but if I have to scan a QR code? Now I need to go grab my car or share my friends' phone. No. Paper menu please.
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Re: Never used them (Score:2)
Re: Stupid PDFs (Score:2)
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Yeah! Get off my lawn!