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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#321

Post by monkeynotes »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #8

I gotta say, I disagree with this piece. I, for one, love QR code menus. I can pinch zoom rather than squint at a menu with small/unreadable fonts in dim lighting. I don't need to badger the already exhausted wait staff on a busy night when they forget to drop us a menu or two. When orders are taken online, rather than awkwardly force a friend to not go to the bathroom (or take their kid to the bathroom) until a serv…

Wait, restaurants are making you order from an app too?? So now you don't really need your 'exhausted wait staff' so much. Hire less wait staff as a portion are now are underutilized. Now some wait staff have no jobs, and the remainder work the same exhausting shifts. The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard, with less service comes less tips. Now you have a whole industry of overworked AND underpaid staff.

Any efficiencies you are seeing will be refactored and stretched out as any business cannot afford to carry fat if they want maximum profit and competitive edge (price).

This whole inconvenience of a friend going to the bathroom is an incredibly weak argument for foregoing the tradition and ceremony of interacting with a person who will provide you with a meal. If you want to live in a McWorld where every step of your dining experience is as sterile, efficient, and touch free as possible then I am sad for you. That's not what a meal with friends and family means to me, it's not just about eating for sustenance.

Why do you draw the line at taking payment?

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#323

Post by npteljes »

Freak_NL wrote: post #301
elric wrote: post #138

It's really simple: if I can't read your menu, I'm not eating. Goodbye. IIRC there's a law here that mandates a menu visible from outside the premises, it isn't always followed to the letter, but but most places comply, and it's a great way to avoid unpleasant pricing surprises. Same with paying. You don't accept cash or credit cards? Goodbye. You only accept apple pay or some other nonsense payment system? Goodbye.…

The basic principle that you should be able to go out and participate in society without an Apple or Google smartphone should be heralded as common sense. (Feel free to put up a URL and a QR code for the menu online in addition to paper menus though.)

Push notifications should be a public utility, or standardized at least. I can't believe how much we depend on them, despite them being served only by their one corresponding company.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#324

Post by wlesieutre »

Talanes wrote: post #59
nsxwolf wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have something that can read a QR code you also have something that can magnify text.

I dated a girl with poor eyesight, and absent a digital version her method was the phone flashlight and holding the menu very close to her face. So the physical version was workable, but a pinch to zoom is still more dignified.

Yes, that or taking photos of each page and then browsing them on the phone. Either way it's worse than a good phone menu.

Personally I'd rather have a paper menu, but digital ones can definitely be more accessible for low vision.

I say can because half of the digital ones are godawful UX disasters.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#326

Post by bluGill »

tomrod wrote: post #303
atatatat wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not how long you stared at the deserts, or what side of the "give me lobster" button you pressed.

Meaningless and trivial metrics, ultimately. Third order at best.

Probably, but it is still data that is cheap to store. IF someone can find something useful in just 1% of those things 10 years from now all the cost to collect and store all that data will be worth the investment - or so they hope. They probably will too - the cost vs reward is very skewed.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#327

Post by marapuru »

I've had a waiter looking at me puzzled why my phone wasn't able to scan a QR code. I told him already that my camera wasn't able to. But I had to open the camera in front of him.

- "Have you tried rotating the camera?"

- "Try zooming in and out"

- "Why don't you download a QR code app!?"

These questions / remarks were placed by him while showing him it really didn't work.

When I told him I didn't want to download a QR scanner application due to privacy reasons he left with an even more puzzled face as before, to walk inside and finally bring me a paper menu.

These f*cking QR-codes _made_ me an annoying customer.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#328

Post by xyzelement »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #39
xyzelement wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing you then ask for a paper menu and they give you one. You can probably just do that even if you don't have any issues. I've done that a few times when the online menu was annoying.

Not true at all! Many bars (that now call themselves "tap houses") have beer menus that are either only online, or printed in a 20pt font on a 54" LCD TV behind the bar. It is super annoying to have to get up for each beer because the server doesn't know what #32 out of 70 is let alone which number is a lager, and then not be able to read the menu (because my eyes suck) until I'm leaning over the bar. Super, super an…

That does suck

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#329

Post by 542354234235 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #40
er4hn wrote: post #6

As a counterpoint, QR code menus work very well in China. I've been to places where you scan the code to open a menu that lets you place all your orders. You can also pay for your table via per table QR codes. As a side note, you don't customarily tip in restaurants in China, so a non high-end place with good food will typically have rushed and curt wait staff. Ordering through the phone will give you a better experi…

Unless you are a visiting foreigner without cell phone service and the WiFi requires you to login with a working cell phone number, then you are in 没办法 territory.

Somehow I think that a visiting foreigner that can read Chinese to order off a paper menu is probably also going to have a working phone number in China. Someone that can't read Chinese and needs to use their phone for google translate is probably not going to be able to order off a paper menu either.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#330

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

abraxas wrote: post #319
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #185

I really despise when the QR code just sends you to the App Store to download some (crappy, probably web-to-native) app, where you have to create an account, verify your email, then add credit card details manually. Extra points off if there's no wifi and the venue is somewhere with poor signal, so it takes 10 minutes and rinses my battery. A web-based menu that just opens the browser and lets me pay with Apple Pay i…

So don't patronize such places! If people don't refuse it this bullshit will spread.

I agree with the sentiment, but unfortunately you only find out how the menu/ordering system works once you've already sat down, and given everything here in the UK needs to be booked ahead of time, it's not as simple as just going somewhere else down the road.
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