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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#681

Post by msrenee »

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…

I'm pretty sure most patrons would not be comfortable with the server losing money for something they have no control over. I'm certainly not going to refuse to tip them to make some kind of statement that only punishes them.

I guess I don't know how you go from the idea that you are accomplishing nothing while making someone else's day worse to being able to say "not my problem" and go on with your life.

I would much rather they were paid a fair wage. But I'm not going to voice my opinion on that matter by refusing to give them the money that I personally factor in as part of a meal anyway. I get where you're coming from, but I don't see how this method of addressing it is intended to accomplish anything.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#682

Post by ArcturianDeath »

The author says it sufficiently already:

"Maybe restaurant owners will welcome the demise of physical menus as a way to eliminate one small but constant expense. Maybe their employees will relish their newfound freedom from the hassle of reprinting menus every time there’s a new seasonal entree on offer. Maybe it will free servers from patrons who always seem to want to order the one dish that’s out of stock. (It can be easily deleted from a digital menu as soon as it runs out.) Maybe diners who already love scrolling on their phones at restaurants will be more than happy to check out the menu there, too. Other customers may be content to touch one less surface that might be stained with food or invisibly smeared with another person’s snot."

The rest of it is whiny woman whining

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#683

Post by shitgoose »

alisonatwork wrote: post #608
_Nat_ wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ordering-apps I've tried allow customers to customize items and make special-requests. It's often easier to do these things on an app, and these modifications are automatically reflected on the receipt. I guess an app could give people access to a webcam to engage in discussion with a cook as they prepare the food, for people who really want to watch the process and talk to the cook.. is that a feature you'd be…

I think my comment is a bit centered around the Chinese experience. A lot of smaller Chinese restaurants are just one guy at a wok standing near the entrance and a bunch of stools inside (sometimes also outside). They're commonly a husband and wife team, where the husband cooks and the wife acts as a runner or takes orders when it's too busy to bark what you want at the cook, but sometimes it's just the one person. I…

I really enjoy reading your comments :) Thanks! And I fully agree with you about how the restaurant restaurant should be.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#684

Post by extraduder_ire »

syshum wrote: post #405
loonster wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely stopped going to restaurants that have those table tablets. It's just too distracting.

hmm, I prefer them. I never liked handing my card to wait staff where they take off somewhere.. I 100% prefer pay at table, and would 100% prefer order at table as well, less chance they get my order wrong

> I never liked handing my card to wait staff where they take off somewhere..

Just realized this is another problem averted by Chip+PIN for payments. Since you have to physically touch the keypad, there's reason to take you to the PoS terminal, or the terminal to you, and no reason to take the card from you.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#685

Post by [deleted] »

mcguire wrote: post #648
_Nat_ wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ordering-apps I've tried allow customers to customize items and make special-requests. It's often easier to do these things on an app, and these modifications are automatically reflected on the receipt. I guess an app could give people access to a webcam to engage in discussion with a cook as they prepare the food, for people who really want to watch the process and talk to the cook.. is that a feature you'd be…

" I guess an app could give people access to a webcam to engage in discussion with a cook as they prepare the food... " headdesk

[deleted]

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#686

Post by kbelder »

brewdad wrote: post #678
syshum wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well lets do some math. Around here an average meal at a restaurant would be about $14 lunch and $18 dinner per person. So to make the often promoted $15/hr wage, the server would need to clear $96 in tips over the base wage of $3/hr. At an average of 18% tips that would mean the ticket revenue would need to be $534 for the shift. @16 avg per person that is about 4 people per hour, or 1 or 2 tables per hour If the re…

> Most of the people calling for a $15/hr base wage have a delusional belief they will make $15/hr PLUS tips... that is never going to happen It almost does in Portland. Starting July 1st, it's $14 plus tips. There is no "tipped employee" minimum wage. It's the same for all. I think it will be $13 per hour in the rest of Oregon outside the metro area but there may be a third level for the most rural counties.

I'm in Oregon and I didn't realize that.

Don't mean to be too much of a jerk, but I may adjust my tipping downwards. I typically do closer to 20%.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#687

Post by schwartzworld »

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…

> Now you have a whole industry of overworked AND underpaid staff.

There is a ton of abuse in the food service industry in America, not the least of which is paying servers less than 3 bucks per hour, and thats one of the cushier jobs. I was a server a long time, and sometimes you make the money in tips, sometimes you don't. I knew a lot of servers who put up with workplace abuse because of the illusion of easy cash the job creates. BOH staff work harder and usually take home even less.

Ordering from an app is great. No mistakes, no forgotten orders, and nobody abusing the machine.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#688

Post by bleachedsleet »

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…

Trust me, the wait staff doesn’t appreciate your “ceremony.”

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#689

Post by Grustaf »

jdmichal wrote: post #668
Grustaf wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit like saying "why bother serving wine from bottles with impractical corks, each table should just have a wine hose with a tap". Going to a restaurant is an experience. A waiter, a physical menu and lots of other inefficiencies are part of that experience.

> why bother serving wine from bottles with impractical corks, each table should just have a wine hose with a tap To be fair, you just 100% described a keg. It's just not common -- or is even non-existent? -- for wine to come in kegs.

Wine is stored in barrels, which is pretty much the same thing, and there is of course the barbaric bag in box, but it’s not served that way in many reputable restaurants…

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#690

Post by Talanes »

wlesieutre wrote: post #553
nsxwolf wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh certainly. Put the QR code on the paper menu.

Sure, and go back to having to reprint all the menus every time you want to change something or update prices, needing extras for when menus get destroyed, paying people to wipe menus down if you have them laminated, etc. As much as I prefer paper menus, I don't think the restaurants that have switched are going to go back to it. Would have better luck pressuring them to have less shit electronic menus.

Paper menus on request seems like the obvious middle ground. Not defaulting to putting menus out reduces the scale of all those problems, while also not alienating customers who for whatever reason don't want to or cannot use the digital menu.
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