Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, most aren't.
I would dispute that -- except for iPhones -- almost all the smart phones I've seen sold in Asia are dual SIM.
> sold in Asia
irrelevant.
Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
391–400 of 735 posts
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#392Yes. Experienced this for the first time just a couple days ago. Couldn't get the damn thing to work. Bunch of BS. I just want a dang menu.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the general topic of "technology in restaurants", I've noticed an increasing number of restaurants where the waitstaff uses phones/tablets with some kind of specialized app. This happens often: we start telling them our order, and they have to say "wait a sec.... (taps phone for several seconds) okay what was that?". The "UX" as a patron is pretty bad compared to the waitstaff just whipping out a notepad and scrib…
Several of the large chains already have pay at table kiosk's I have always wondered why they just do not have order at table as well... I am waiting for the first restaurant that only has Cooks and Food Runners with no traditional waitstaff... This will likely coincide with the removal of tipping as a custom in the US. We will move to kiosk ordering, press a button to get drink refills, pay at the table, and leave.
I absolutely stopped going to restaurants that have those table tablets. It's just too distracting.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or NFC in your phone. I can't imagine it being more convenient than that.
NFC on my watch is in fact more convenient than NFC on my phone. The difference is slight, but real.
You have to use watch then, and having something on my hand is not convenient (or, maybe, pleasant) for me.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> I tip extra for working hard to keep my meal hot on delivery, water topped up, checking in at appropriate times. Those are things happen with good management, they have little to do with how hard an individual employee is working at a given time. Besides the claim wasn't waitstaff gets "extra" tips for working hard, the claim was that waitstaff is tipped because they work hard. Don't move the goalposts. >I honestly…
> waitstaff gets "extra" tips for working hard
All tips are 'extra' that's the whole concept. It's money on top of what I am obliged to pay.
> you get good service with good management
Good management would pay a good wage and negate the need for tipping.
> I also simply just don't enjoy LARPing as a lord of my personal fiefdom.
Low blow. You are implying that I am less than you because I have some kind of financial control over waitstaff that I enjoy. A rather bad faith position to be in given how pious and understanding you are striving to come across as.
> most places pool tips
So now you agree kitchen staff get tipped too
> I tip the same if my service is shitty
Good for you. I don't think many people operate like this, so I'd say you are an edge case.
> it has zero to do with how hard they work, it's simply custom to tip waitstaff, even lazy waitstaff
Again, this is how you operate. Wikipedia lays out the common perception of tipping
"The customary amount of a tip can be a specific range of monetary amounts or a certain percentage of the bill based on the perceived quality of the service given."
I've experienced living in the UK without tipping, and in N.America with tipping. All I can say is it's night and day. Very few make a career out of working as waitstaff in the UK, plenty of people have a career in the service industry in N.America. Working hard for large tips can give you a living wage. In the UK because everyone is treated the same, waitstaff do the minimum for the minimum wage (there are exceptions, of course) and then find a better job. Since I left the UK this has begun to change, it's now reasonably common to tip in nicer restaurants, and guess what? The service is better and the waitstaff I assume are happier with more money in their pockets for their effort.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plenty of guides on registering burners for this app, no?
how am I suppose to have a burner bank account to use with it? don't forget mobile number are associated with your identity in China
> associated with your identity in China
Isn’t this true everywhere, just not effectively enforced?
You are generally supposed to provide ID and a street address to the phone company when your number is activated. Some places treat that as just a formality and will take any number and address in the right format, but at least in the EU it’s the law and they have to “require” it.
Are straight-up burner phones a la “The Wire” still a thing in the US?
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#397I 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…
Outside of high end restaurants, I'm not sure that I've ever once been provided with useful information by a server. "See if you can get our server's attention when they come by, we are ready to order/pay" is a fairly common occurrence, even at solid places.
Does this reduce the need for waitstaff at most places? Yes. Is that bad for waitstaff. Yes. Is that a reason to want a person to physically write down my order and type it into a machine in the back? Eh.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
With covid, many restaurants removed paper menus to avoid transmission. I hate QR codes so that was a move I was not in favour of.....
> With covid, many restaurants removed paper menus to avoid transmission Any time a business claims to do something in the name of health or environmentalism, they are actually just using those as an excuse to cut corners.
Cut corners and charge more...
I've been to a restaurant where they raised the prices of drinks to accomodate for using biodegradable plastic cups (sit-in restaurant!)... this is not enviromentalism, this is charging 20c for a 5c cup, instead of using glasses like a normal restaurant.
Also, the reusable cotton bags are just an excuse to charge more, because you'd have to reuse a cotton bag 7100 times, to make it as friendly as using plastic bags ( https://theconversation.com/heres-how-many-times-you-actuall... ). ...of course, paper is rarely an option.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dining at a restaurant is a luxury I think this is the crux of the difference of opinions. Dining at a restaurant is different things to different people at different times. I love the 'luxury' dining experience with all that it entails, will happily pay a lot of money to experience it, and I cannot wait to do that again. And in those cases, yes I expect that all aspects of the dining experience live up to that. But…
It smacks of entitlement when dining at a restaurant is considered basic necessity and preparing your own meals is considered a luxury. Think about history. Think about the vast, vast majority of people on earth. Consider just how entitled one must be to have the help prepare your basic necessities of life.
In developing countries, the urban poor frequently don't live in places with cooking facilities and have to eat prepared food.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#400Really didn’t take us long to get back to our first world problems did it? As with most tech things the QR menus work well when they’re implemented well and poorly when they’re implanted poorly. Multi-language support (without having to print menus in lots of languages that might not get used) is something I’ve seen in a few places. There is also the opportunity to make them a more accessible option if done right. It…
You have a small device, where you have to scroll. So much nicer when you can actually look at the menu.
I suspect there are things that would improve the experience for everyone. For example, instead of the customer asking "Is X gluten free, is Y gluten free" the online menu could have filters for various allergies etc. Online menus could also offer more pictures, videos of meals, better upsells etc.