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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#331

Post by vxNsr »

wokwokwok wrote: post #42
vxNsr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 experience! Not sure why that’s something we want to encourage.

Talk about low value comments. Why not? Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not actually better for some people and some situations. This is obviously a decent use case for QR code’s; your comments seem just like you don’t like it, and you’re not interested in even considering any other option.

Because encouraging people to be rude to each other is distasteful, I thought it was obvious.

Similarly, calling someone a “low value comment” and then taking the least charitable view of their comment is directly against hn community guidelines.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#332

Post by astura »

monkeynotes wrote: post #321
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 u…

>The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard

The reason they get tips is because they are waitstaff, it has zero to do with how hard they work, it's simply custom to tip waitstaff, even lazy waitstaff.

Most employees work just as hard without getting tips (like the people who are actually cooking the food).

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#333

Post by frockington1 »

npteljes wrote: post #323
Freak_NL wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do you depend so much on push notifications? If you are receiving so many you may want to adjust your settings. It is not good for your mental health nor your productivity to be constantly distracted by notifications on a phone

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#334

Post by m-p-3 »

marapuru wrote: post #327

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…

I seriously hope Google pushes their OEM to include QR code support in the builtin camera app.

This should be a default feature.

That said, if you want a privacy-friendly QR Code reader app on Android, Binary Eye is my recommendation.

GitHub: https://github.com/markusfisch/BinaryEye

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.markusfisch...

F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.markusfisch.android.binaryey...

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#335

Post by monkeynotes »

astura wrote: post #332
monkeynotes wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 u…

>The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard The reason they get tips is because they are waitstaff, it has zero to do with how hard they work, it's simply custom to tip waitstaff, even lazy waitstaff. Most employees work just as hard without getting tips (like the people who are actually cooking the food).

Maybe for you, I tip extra for working hard to keep my meal hot on delivery, water topped up, checking in at appropriate times. I honestly don't understand how you can say tips are not proportional to level of service and how level of service is entirely detached from working hard.

> Most people work just as hard without getting tips (like the people who are actually cooking thr food)

Most people get paid a real wage which isn't backfilled with charity from their customers.

At many good restaurants tips are distributed to the kitchen staff too. Obviously I have no control over that, and the world isn't fair either. None of this changes my argument.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#336

Post by otachack »

scrollaway wrote: post #242
Larrikin wrote: post #28

Digital menus can work when they are made for the digital format. Most Qr codes are just the menus that were made to look beautiful on paper and suck to look at on your phone, I don't want to have to open up my phone and jump between pages on two separate documents on my phone. It's also terrible that I have to waste my battery life to order food every time. The ideal situation is isn't the China situation people are…

> Most Qr codes are just the menus that were made to look beautiful on paper and suck to look at on your phone This is only the case because restaurants had to hurriedly find a solution to a bazillion problems at once, on a strained budget. Corners get cut.

This is a point I see missing in many of the top level posts, here. Restaurants literally went to the easiest solution for a more sanitary and viral transmission-free method to communicate a menu to customers. Of course it isn't going to be perfect. But everyone is a critic.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#337

Post by bluGill »

YarickR2 wrote: post #228
jbluepolarbear wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hostile to the experience. It takes me out of why I went to a restaurant I the first place. I want to sit down and focus on my present company and forget about my digital life. This isn’t a new experience, Red Robin and Ruby Tuesday have/had a tablet checkout system that was a chore to use. I started removing restaurants that used similar systems from my rotation because they ruin the experience.

It's hostile to your experience; others (me included) find QR codes quite handy and saving time and efforts

QR codes are a tool. It isn't the fault of the hammer that sometimes they are used to kill people. Likewise it isn't the fault of QR codes that many times they are used for something that isn't useful (at least they can't kill). When I'm at a museum I love the ability to scan a QR code and get a lot of detailed information that wouldn't fit on a sign - but often I just want the small sign and then I move on to the next exhibit.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#339

Post by cf499 »

34679 wrote: post #5

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't want 15 different companies telling each other what I just ate for lunch.

Thanks for letting me know that I'm not alone! :D

I handle QR codes by taking a picture and decoding on the command line using zbarimg. If the decoded output is a URL and looks safe I might visit the site. No way I'm letting an insecure device (basically all smartphones) follow random links blindly like that. And no way I'm giving up my data points for free if I can avoid it (remember how market researchers used to pay people to participate in focus group interviews?)

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#340

Post by tjpnz »

We've just come out of a period in Tokyo where alcohol wasn't allowed to be served. I visited a few restaurants during that time with QR code menus and none of them were updated to reflect that fact. I'm not sure why that was but if they're not easy to update there's no real benefit to them over traditional menus.
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