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App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

washingtonpost.com

101–110 of 124 posts

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#101
Not all that different from the 18th century "claque," when theater owners or playwrights would pay groups to attend their performances and applaud loudly. A variant was paying a group to boo and hiss a rival production.

A line doesn't make me want to go to a place. I prefer someplace that's not super crowded, though obviously not totally empty.

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#105
In the end, if a restaurant sucks it won't matter much who they paid to stand in line. Word will get out. But doing that for $5.00? Wow! I can get a job on the street corner twirling one of those signs advertising mattress sales that pays several times that. Pretty low self esteem to grab that kind of gig.

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#106
It's pathetic if you base your dining decision on a line outside. I would never stand in line so I dine only at restaurants that accept reservations or call ahead to see if there is a wait. This app is for goofy hipsters who have zero gravitas and don't know it.

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#108

Not all that different from the 18th century "claque," when theater owners or playwrights would pay groups to attend their performances and applaud loudly. A variant was paying a group to boo and hiss a rival production. A line doesn't make me want to go to a place. I prefer someplace that's not super crowded, though obviously not totally empty.

That sounds a lot like how many sitcoms use a laugh track. I remember when I was young and naive, I thought "that can't possibly be funny. He only answered the bloody door", thinking it was real people.

I now know that laughter stimulates laughter so it kinda makes sense. You can make a show funnier by pretending an audience is laughing.

In this sense, a queue out of the door shows high demand. Generally, people want things in high demand.

Would people want to wear diamonds if they were as cheap as glass and the price reflected that?

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#109

It's pathetic if you base your dining decision on a line outside. I would never stand in line so I dine only at restaurants that accept reservations or call ahead to see if there is a wait. This app is for goofy hipsters who have zero gravitas and don't know it.

No. Those hipsters also have a fb following and tweet and instagram pictures. This may be a solid investment for a place, akin to asking in a well know food critic to come to their place and eat... presumably for his following. Ok, so maybe it doesn't work on you, it will work on others.

Re: App pays users to line up outside new restaurants

#110

It's pathetic if you base your dining decision on a line outside. I would never stand in line so I dine only at restaurants that accept reservations or call ahead to see if there is a wait. This app is for goofy hipsters who have zero gravitas and don't know it.

I would classify this as subliminal seeding.
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