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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#541

Post by bhelkey »

karaterobot wrote: post #458
Tor3 wrote: post #453

QR codes work fine where I live. I believe problems are due to the implementation, not with the concept. I find it very convenient. Connect to the local wifi, there's no confirmation code, just open wifi (most of the time - some of them have an unnecessary "accept" step. Never any "confirmation code"). Scan. Browse. Choose. Pay, or pay later (convenient, I can adjust the tip before I pay). All in all it's much faster…

To each their own, but that sounds less enjoyable than a traditional restaurant experience to me. As you say in your example, so much depends on the "implementation" in this case too — i.e. is the service at the restaurant good or not — but a talented waiter brings a lot to the table in more ways than one.

For me it depends on the type of restaurant.

Some restaurants live and die by their ambiance. But others the main draw is the food and/or the price and/or the speed. In that case, I would enjoy having a QR code order option.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#542

Post by stjohnswarts »

bluGill wrote: post #337
YarickR2 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ne…

a great combination is a short summary with a QR code for more info if you want it. It doesn't have to be rocket surgery.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#543

Post by stjohnswarts »

ar_lan wrote: post #527
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…

> Now some wait staff have no jobs, and the remainder work the same exhausting shifts. This is a lot to unpack. I'm always surprised by people in the tech industry, where we seek to automate so much to make things better... be against innovation? If a QR menu can tangibly provide a similar or better experience, for less cost, then it is objectively a better value for everyone involved. We shouldn't keep manual jobs a…

For me it's an automatic yes as long as the restaurant has wifi that is easy to access. Mostly because I get to avoid germs from all the previous hands who held the menu. Most people's hands are far more germy than a toilet seat if they haven't been recently washed.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#544

Post by colinmhayes »

greedo wrote: post #518
colinmhayes wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, they did it because it makes it super easy to change the menu. Physical menus rarely change, online menus can change instantly for free.

It's definitely not free when you consider the infrastructure behind providing online menus.

Most restaurants already have a website.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#545

Post by jackson1442 »

driverdan wrote: post #440
soylentgraham wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its usually payment whilst ordering via the site/menu. (Uk) Server just brings food/drinks and doesnt deal with money. I wish they would just take orders from the site, but pay with a card machine which 107% of people are used to.

I would leave if they won't take payment in person. No way am I signing up for some shitty online service to pay for an in-person meal.

I personally much prefer scanning a code on my receipt then pressing the apple pay button to handing my debit card with all my payment details on it to a stranger.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#546

Post by bruce343434 »

blindmute wrote: post #418
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't the opinion that makes them sound entitled. The base opinion is: I haven't gone to such places since Covid began because the experience is less enjoyable and more stressful. But it is said with contempt for the businesses and regulations, which the businesses cannot do much about. Even where it is open, they have to think about their employees and the risk they put them in. Not only that, but folks have been…

If people liked that sort of thing it would have been the business model before it was forced to be. The restaurants have declined in quality. Sometimes this is their fault, and sometimes it isn't. Either way, no restaurant is entitled to customers. A lot of places near me have decided that masks are still required, despite the state saying they aren't. In response, I have decided not to eat there. There's no entitle…

How can you eat with a mask on? Or are you referring tot non-restaurant places?

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#547

Post by chihuahua »

conductr wrote: post #501
msrenee wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not really voicing your dissent at that point. The server gets no tip and doesn't get any indication why. Why not just bring cash to tip? Or call the restaurant and talk to the manager? Not tipping doesn't accomplish anything and the server who has no control over the system and is already underpaid gets screwed over.

> Why not just bring cash to tip? Or call the restaurant and talk to the manager? We're talking patron UX here and point is I don't what to shoulder the burden. I didn't even want to calculate 15% tip in my head and you want me to start carrying cash everywhere, something I haven't done since Y2K was a concern. Spend 15 minutes waiting for the manager to come over? No thanks. > Not tipping doesn't accomplish anything…

Not only does the "recommended" tipping amount keep going up, but in a lot of discussions there's the additional bullshit of waiters saying "Well 25% is the bare minimum, (if you're a total jerk), but if you tip 35% we'll really take care of you!"

To me, a waiter provides no value at all. I'd rather order at a counter and pick up the food myself. Then I don't have someone asking me "how is everything" when my mouth is full. I don't need to pay someone a 30% cut for this.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#549

Post by throw7 »

There's a "restaurant" near me that has app-only ordering (ios/android). There is no on-site kiosk either. It's one of those "dark kitchen" things (I guess) with no wait-staff. I don't get it, but I guess I'm too old to understand.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#550

Post by p_j_w »

alisonatwork wrote: post #464
infecto wrote: post #417

It's really interesting to see how a crowd of tech workers who generally are trying to pave the way are so quick to attack and be negative. Like all things in life, when its implemented well it works and when it does not it is terrible. I still think there is room for this to be the future though. I say this as a westerner but perhaps the west is not ready for it yet but I really enjoyed the experience of using QR co…

This process was one of my most hated "innovations" in food ordering in China. It turns every restaurant into a production line fast food operation, exactly like American chain restaurants. At that point, why even bother going to a restaurant at all? Might as well just order a Sysco-equivalent microwave meal at the supermarket or 7/11, because the flavor and the service will be exactly the same. For me the best resta…

>This process was one of my most hated "innovations" in food ordering in China. It turns every restaurant into a production line fast food operation, exactly like American chain restaurants. At that point, why even bother going to a restaurant at all? Might as well just order a Sysco-equivalent microwave meal at the supermarket or 7/11, because the flavor and the service will be exactly the same.

I usually can't stand comments that are just "correlation does not imply causation," but are you sure you aren't mixing up the two here? It's not hard to imagine why a McDonalds wouldn't be one of the first to pick this kind of technology up, but I have a hard time that a previously good restaurant that adopts this will suddenly have their quality fall down the shitter. Nothing really changes for the wait staff except now the order shows up on a screen instead of a handwritten form.

>For me the best restaurants in China were the mom and pop joints where the person who takes your order is also the person who cooks your meal, or at least where you can see into the kitchen from the dining room

There's a similar sort of thing in Japan, but with older technology. You place your order with an automated kiosk out in front of the restaurant and pay the machine. It spits out a ticket that you hand to whoever and eventually your food comes to you. It exists at large chains as well as some mom and pop places, including some where you're sat eating your food a few feet from the cook/chef. The places I went to that had these didn't seem to suffer from lower quality than their counterparts without such a system that didn't have it, nor did they feel more "mass-produced."

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