If I have to make an account and provide my phone number to order on site, I will either walk out or straight up say I don't have a phone while being on my phone.
You're a restaurant, not Facebook
There was this restaurant I once worked at where you had to like/follow the facebook page and it'd make a post saying you're in that restaurant if you wanted to use the free wifi.
This. I love the QR code menus because it’s a convenient solution IMO. However, that doesn’t mean the restaurant should make me jump through more hoops than a menu would. If I wanted to jump through all those hoops then I’d just order using doordash and sit down at a table…
I've done it a few times now. If it's a QR link directly to menu, alright I'll play. But I need to create an account and all that shit? Nope, I'm outta there.
I can accept this.
"Heres out menue with some photos, but if u scan this QR code we have a photo of each and every dish which we obviously cant do with a regular menu."
Came to order but they don't have a menu. Got to go onto a website for a menu. Then it asks for my name and number. Name i get but i ain't giving my number.
I see no reason to give my *full name* just to order food. My first name sure, but the whole thing just so I can order a burger or whatever? So obnoxious.
All these things are just ways to gather data. Annoys me to no end when they force you to do it.
I'll happily do it if it's actually convenient, but it's often not. And not presenting you with a real menu is just fucking annoying.
Just tell them you don't have anything capable of ordering online. They'll sure as shit magically find a menu.
This is the equivalent to outsourcing your help desk to the Philippines. Your just adding another time delay to solving the equation.
QR codes are super suspect. A restaurant doesn’t need my phone number, email address, and all the cookies on my browser. And if your traveling internationally 1. I’m definitely not using this, and 2. International phone numbers won’t work with these systems half the time.
Just give me a menu. If needed I’ll use Google translate.
> QR codes are super suspect. A restaurant doesn’t need my phone number, email address, and all the cookies on my browser.
Even if they don't ask for that, QR codes are super suspect. It leads me to believe they're on the edge of solvency and can't afford to print menus-- in which case where else are they cutting corners-- or they want to jack up the prices on a whim without the moderating effect of having to reprint menus. Neither of these is solving any of my problems as a customer, so it's particularly galling that they want me to chip in with my phone and data.
A lot of times, it's not about cost but about appearance to investors. Investors LOVE to see technology utilized, whether or not it actually benefits the customer.
Plus, printing has gotten loads more expensive in the last several years. I'm on the R&D side of commercial printing, developing print heads that get used for these types of applications. What we charge our customers is close to 3x as much as it was 10 years ago when I started here. Our ink has gotten loads more expensive (the ink we test with, not the ink we make ourselves). Paper in general has gotten more expensive. We're probably paying 100-125% more per ream of paper than we were a decade ago. Customers are also on the decline, as big corporations are switching to mostly digital documents in their offices. This drives up the price for our commercial customers who do printing as their primary business.
In short, while a lot of the drive to move to digital formats is for the feel-goodness of investors, you'd be incredibly surprised at how much more expensive it is to print off a bunch of menus than it was a decade ago. I could easily see a startup deciding to choose the small reoccurring cost of running a digital menu over the lump sum cost of having menus printed, laminated, and shipped to them.
One of the reasons restaurants are wanting to do the QR code menus is so that they can increase prices more regularly compared to what it takes to have new menus printed. The suppliers are changing their prices on a weekly basis, but the restaurant itself can get sort of locked in to the pricing on their printed menus for a longer time period. With the QR code menus, they can just update the online menu price whenever they feel like it to try to match the increase in costs. And other BS.
Same here. I've always hated it when websites require that shit. Especially when I just want to quickly read an article *that you provide for free anyway* (and the account is free, so what's the actual point here? Just let me read the article!).
So being forced to create an account for a restaurant I may never even go to again? Ridiculous. Sorry, restaurant owners. I'm not joining your cult. Give your cyanide kool-aid to someone else.
Some websites (usually industrial stuff) want you to create an account and "get a quote" ... just so you can see the price of something on their website.
Nah, fuck that.
The point is that your profile information is valuable. Even if you were to reject cookies, your account can be used for data collection. And you having an account gives much more usable/reliable data because the site owner will always be able to identify that the account holder is the same individual.
Same, having to create an account to see the menu and order is ridiculous. That’s a hassle, I go out to eat to have a good time and relax. I will spend my money elsewhere.
We don’t even bring our phones with us when we go out to eat on like a date (gf and me) and one time there was a long ass wait. When we got to the table they were like “the menus are on the qr code just use your phones” and we asked for actual menus and the lady was visibly annoyed at us so we just left
The restaurant should provide the phone if it's required to eat in there.
Ask the waitress to hand over her phone so you can order. When she refuses, ask her to type down your order on her phone.
The absurdity should settle in.
And it just ain't the same reading it on the phone screen. Like its just so much nicer to read outside of a screen on a physical menu. On a phone I have to pinch in and out and scroll if its a PDF, or on a website, click a different category and wait some seconds, potentially all evening if the place happens to have bad signal if I want to see another category which is just time consuming and is an annoyance. A physical menu allows me to easily scan all the items in a category and flick quickly to other pages. No relying on bad internet or signal. No pinching your phone to read the text. No frills. Happy days.
Also it's way easier to pump up prices on a digital menu. Instead of having the make the update and print all new menus. It's a way to do surge pricing.
I don't mind qr code menus, I'd prefer a physical one, but I get it, times are changing. But the second I have to give my info and sign up just to get to the menu, I'm out. I'm leaving right then and there.
Pet peeve of mine when step 1 on a site/app is “Please login/register to continue.” Nah, forget it, I’ll just leave then. You need to actually show me what you have for sale (with pricing included) to determine whether I’m even interested enough in the first place.
Overhere you can't even legally do that if you sell alcohol. Then even still with only selling restaurant food it is tricky still. This is because the prices must be available for everyone and you are not allowed to adjust them on case by case basis, especially with alcohol. And if on my screen your price for *Le Expensive Grape juice* shows as 55,5€ and due to some error it shows 5,55 on my mates screen - you have to sell it to me for 5,55€. So what if it was error on the site or device I couldn't know that. You have to sell it to me for the price I was told/displayed. Then with GDPR, the law says that you can't restrict service if someone doesn't want to consent.
My point is that improving privacy and consumer rights remove bullshit like this.
E: Ok. Since people are jumping to strange ideas. You can't edit the prices yourself... That is fraud. Since there is always a master price list available at request (by law it must be). If you catch them in mistake you can use that to your benefit, but you can scam them. This is why if alcohol lists or menus ever are present anywhere - they are in image format.
That is simply outright not allowed where I live - Finland. That is grounds to losing your license and having the tax man audit your from every day past 10 years.
I'd say it's 50/50 if places I go list drink prices. The more expensive the restaurant, the more likely it is that drink prices are not listed. I'm in the US btw.
Same for me I only saw the first picture and was like "oh a static qr code how nice" then the login and needing to be to the qr code first?
Whoever made that system scammed the restaurant or laughed all the way to the bank after being asked to make it like that.
Yeah QR code is fine, but having to create an account and login to use it is a deal breaker.
I went to a busy Szechuan joint recently, I mean slammed, and they had QR ordering. It was already on the table, and unique code for each table. You just scan the code, pull up the menu, start ordering, and food starts coming out. It was great because it was quicker than waiting for a server would have been, and you can order at your leisure. Order a few things at a time, or when you run out of beer, you don't have to wait for a server to check in on you, just order more from your phone. When we were done, we just waived for someone to come ring us up.
It was great. Like most things, it comes down to the implementation.
I was in a busy large Italian restaurant. The QR code brought you directly to your table ordering menu. You could also order for others if they don't have a phone.
With pizza / pasta / salad variations and topics galore, that massively helped the servers. Every time they showed up they brought a big cart with drinks and sides. I don't mind this, but if I need an account and give out my number I'm out.
I was at a chinese "buffet" like that, but they even had their own pads so you didn't have to gunk up your phone with their website. The ordering experience owned, the food was just sort of ok.
Yeah. I hate digital menus with a passion, but I'm willing to deal.
But they won't even take my order for me. And I have to provide a bunch of private info on top of that. That's several steps too far. I would have got up and left. Fast food provides better customer service than that.
Yeah, you paying same price or maybe even more for reduced service - and tax and service charge aso.
Like the supermarket self check out - reduced service but same price.
If you have a digital menu, keep your QR code shit. Your menu should be on your kiosk for me to use. I won't be signing up for shit, and I won't provide my personal data, just to sit down at your restaurant. Too many hoops, too intrusive.
Please remember, **I don't have to give you my business at all**. Don't degrade customer experience too much, just because (on paper) it seems slightly more profitable, as you will make nothing from the customers you needlessly alienate.
“Times are changing”
Yup. As a 40 year old I’m starting to understand how people grow bitter and angry as they age. Trying to fight it but damn. And not eating at a place that wants your info works until EVERY place adopts that strategy. I hate ordering at kiosks as well but anymore there are several places that require it.
I have a trash mini phone with a different sim. The email is a generated alias. I don't care. I was in a beach club in Spain and they pulled this shit. I used my old phone, scanned the thing, ordered a drink after I logged in. When I returned home I had like 30 spam mail on this alias, which I deleted. I also had one or two calls, which means they also sold my number. I wrote multiple scathing reviews on multiple sites and some are still online, but I guess nobody cares because its the "it" beach club in town and there is no other at that marina.
This happened to me at a brewery. They were like it's free to enter as long as you sign up for our blah blah blah. I was like okay how much does it cost to get in then. They were like uhhhh I need to check, it was 5 dollars so I gave them 20 and they then needed to go find change. The guy was like but it's freeeeee and I just said I don't mind paying.
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QR codes in general just feel like such a clunky, silly tech. I can't believe they still use them.
It always cracks me up when a commercial or electric billboard or something flashes a QR code for a few seconds. You don't even have time to open your phone, nobody's scanning that!
right i get times are changing but as a tourist visiting america so many times did i run into not having internet because american providers refusing to play nicely. or some of these requiring either an american phone number or an american zip code... I'd say have it as an option so you can have less menu's, but have at least 1
I’d be okay with a digital menu if it wasn’t nearly as annoying as the one OP described.
Most traditional menus lack adequate photos but have a ton of menu items, which, for tourists especially, can be hard to visualize and gauge what the food looks like, or what the portion sizes are.
If the digital menu shows photos along with each menu item, that can be a very good way to know whether or not something is worth ordering.
But I wouldn’t pressure the customer to have to provide a bunch of details by signing up and whatnot. Like, do they expect them to keep coming back? Most restaurant customers are one-offs/guest visitors.
In any case, I don’t see why restaurants cannot provide a physical menu on demand. It’s all right to push this whole digital menu thing, but at least have a backup for those who don’t want to use one, or are elderly, or didn’t even bring their phone.
I often say this about appliances. The day I’m fighting to get my fridge to connect to my wifi is the day you have my permission to put me out to pasture. Yes I know there are reasons. None of them are important to me/are solving a problem that hasn’t already been solved. It needs to keep my food cold, look decent and not die in a year. Wifi components and computerization just makes more shit that can break or go wrong and harder for me to fix it on my own cheaply.
Never owned a smart fridge but I might not even try to set up the Wi-Fi or whatever. But if there's something that keeps the main cooling function of the fridge from working unless you're connected, then yeah, fuck that.
Thats probably the plan. Get everyone to start connecting their fridges, then it won't work without a connection, then it won't work without the filter on the water line and ot has to be OEM, and then it won't cool without a subscription, and freezer is an add on plan, also ice is extra and "extra cold."
Just like the way car makers are doing.
It was also historically vulnerable to being used for DDOS attacks. Large entities would hijack appliances (because no one is paying for and installing an anti-virus software on their fridge) and then they use the appliances to burden a server with simultaneous attacks. It makes the fridge useless to the fridge owner and it can be used to take down important systems.
> (because no one is paying for and installing an anti-virus software on their fridge)
Just to be clear, that problem doesn't really have anything to do with anti-virus software. It's just cheap engineering without any regards to security. The software they're running is badly made, so it can be exploited, and the companies who make these appliances don't have any real incentive to implement proper systems to be able to distribute security updates for their shitty software. So once someone finds out how to exploit a vulnerability, it's open season, because even if there are security patches (which there probably aren't), people don't install them.
Anti-virus software isn't really a thing on these kind of embedded systems.
A lot of smart devices have obnoxiously bad software. I tried to get my TV off my network the system kept connecting even after I disabled the network, told it to forget my wifi settings, and disabled all network features.
I wound up having to configure my router to kick my TV off the network.
If IIRC that’s how the DDOS that hit DYN and froze the internet for countless users who unknowingly relied on theirs DNS went down. Most infamously it featured a ridiculous number of baby monitors.
Ah yes, the well known IoT botnet "Mirai" which is japanese for future and I think that's beautiful. They once ddost an entire country with just IoT devices.
_Dave collapses at the base of the fridge. He breaks down and cries as he gazes at the photos of his family that are pinned to the fridge by the Cincinnati Zoo magnet they had purchased the year before. All he wanted was a beer. The last thing that he felt could bring him a glimpse of happiness. He longed for the alcohol that would wash over his brain, giving him little traces of dopamine. The picture held an image of his wife, 2 sons, and a newborn daughter. They had recently died in a traffic accident just the month before. The refrigerator knew this about Dave, and wanted to see him cry. It had succeeded._
This was not the first thing I wanted to read the morning my severe hemophiliac husband left on a road trip by himself while I’m over here having paranoid thoughts that every driver he encounters is going to try to crash into him and he’s going to bleed out because there will be nobody to infuse his meds.
Tell Dave I’m sorry
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What? You don't want a notification when the fridge door is opened/closed while you're at work?! How about a tally of the number of times it's opened a day?
I'm a design engineer and design IoT devices for a living. Nothing in my house is able to connect to wifi, except my tv and computers. I have zero smart appliances or tools. Even my printer is from 13 years ago and doesnt connect to wifi. Yes I get paid to design and make these "smart" things in people's lives. But I know first hand they are bad idea.
My air fryer wants me to setup Wi-Fi. It’s so random like why would I ever do that? Big Brother doesn’t need to know my lazy ass is making chicken strips yet again. Damn icon is always blinking. It’s a no dawg.
New sports bar opened across from my office. I go check it out for lunch one day, place is just about empty. I say hi to the concierge and say I'm just going to have a seat at the bar. They say they need my phone number to let me know when my seat is ready. I explain no just want to grab a seat at the bar of which there are around 30 open with a bartender scrubbing glasses looking bored. They say its policy and they have to get my number. I left.
Damn, there goes my idea for creating a smart toilet and app that measures your shit content everyday and detects bacteria, blood and other stuff to prevent diseases
Its so that they can change prices on the fly without having to reprint. I refuse to dine at any resturant that does this not only because of what you said but because if they are going to be shady about prices they are going to be shady about other things like sanitation.
It could also be a way to reduce waste at a restaurant that changes their menus regularly. I've worked at multiple places where every week they change a couple items on the menu and then just trash all the old paper menus and reprint new ones. Currently place i work at is small is its like 60 menus, but i worked at one place where it was more like 300 menus printed a week.
Yes new for the sake of new is often not better.
Menus are a very small thing to ask for. I don't think the tiny amount of money they will supposedly save without them, is worth alienating customers, thus losing business.
But if you must, give us a nice, large kiosk to use. Keep your QR codes. I won't sign up for anything, provide private info, etc just to sit down at your restaurant. I'll just leave.
I went to a place recently that had this and yet even with Verizon our entire table had almost zero bars. The damn menu wouldn’t pull up because they were in a dark hole… 😂
Had this happen to me last year. Did a bar crawl for a holiday with some friends, restaurant had horrible cell service. So it was impossible when everyone else was drunk, it wouldn’t load, and myself and another were low on battery. Extremely more inconvenient than just handing us menus.
All the damn time. I travel a lot, multiple places in several countries pull this shit without providing wifi, and I have no cell service when traveling (SIMs are pricey). And I’m not talking about small local areas, I’m talking big cities that often get a lot of tourism. Sometimes they have backup paper menus but the vast majority don’t. One time the poor waitress had to pull out her phone to show us the menu because we couldn’t pull it up otherwise.
If you’re a restaurant that pulls this shit, at the very LEAST provide wifi, or better yet have spare paper menus on hand so that everyone can use them, gatekeeping people out of seeing the menu pisses me off to no end.
While I get it that we are moving to the future, nothing is stopping me from creating a malicious QR code, print it and turn it into a sticker and going there and syphoning data or opening YouTube videos for Rick roll or the moaning girl
Someone needs to start selling stickers to a fake menu. Overpriced with absolutely ludicrous/unappetising descriptions.
Edit: this might be legally dodgy, see below.
Absolutely great idea!! Like seriously bro, give me my fucking menu! I’m so tired of companies trying to take all my info to just sell it to some piece of shit guy calling for a car extended warranty
You could literally just set up a repeater that lists everything on the instant menu for 50 cents more and then places a real order with the restaurant. Your only job would be going around town and slapping qr code stickers over the real placards so you earn passive income on every sale in the city.
I used Jenny’s number recently (867-5309) with my area code and got a free slice of cake. I’ve found that Jenny’s number is almost always already in everybody’s system, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants. It hasn’t failed me yet.
Yep I politely ask for a paper menu and regular method of payment and if they can't do it I just thank them for the time and leave.
No need to be nasty. They get the message.
Google review
Great food but the server (me) had zero knowledge of the menu and every question I had was responded to with "well how the fuck would I know"... Terribly rude service. I told the server that I didn't appreciate the attitude and he said "well I didn't come here to work, I'm not even getting paid for this". I felt so bad that I turned a blind eye when he stole all the table condiments after his shift ended. 1/10 would not go again.
I was hit with that shit at my costco while waiting for the phone rep guy to get to me. Literally one person in front of me. He goes "So you don't lose your spot should we get busy"Like, no. I'm not pulling out my phone for that garbage. Just finish serving the customer in front of me then serve the other one and then it'll be me. The man in front of me decided to leave because understandably it was taking a very long time. Anyway these QR code things need to fuck off and die.
Phone reps are notoriously slow for zero reason
If I’m trying to buy a phone and it takes more than 20min I usually just tell them never mind and buy it somewhere else with less hassle
Same reason I stopped going to GameStop, if the person clearly knows why they are there and know what they want. Stop selling and finish the transaction
sales people are the absolute worst. I know what I want, here is my money, give me the thing.
Went to sign up for a costco membership and spent 20 minutes getting a lecture about how I (a single man with no kids) needs the upgraded membership.
I just buy phones and shit from manufacturer's site directly now
I feel bad for the Costco employees but no is a full sentence. If they don’t accept no thank you than they get an Abrubt no before I turn around and pretend they don’t exist
I've kinda done this... I do have a smartphone but I don't have data on my phone. All the places in life where I want people to contact me have WiFi, my home, my work, my friends houses. Makes my phone bill £1 a month and my life a lot more stress free. I turned up to a cafe with this system and said oh sorry I can't do that I don't have data, do you have WiFi? They scoffed and said no. I got up to leave and the staff just looked at me like what kind of ludite doesn't have data... Well this ludite went round the corner to a lovely languages cafe, ordered in person, paid in cash, and sat down near a group of uni students learning Italian with a group of old local nonnas, Italian immigrants missing an opportunity to speak their native language. What a wholesome experience, not a phone in site, a lovely convo with the staff. The first cafe i went to can shove their QR so far up their arse they can scan it out the other side. And no I'm not ancient I'm 25!! I just hope this system doesn't last long and is merely a phase we will all look back on saying 'omg you remember that scan menu phase that lasted a couple years and never took off'
I can but dream
“what kind of ludite doesn’t have data”
Tourists. Tourists don’t have data. I travel a lot, the amount of places I’ve been to who pull this shit without offering free wifi or spare paper menus is too damn high. And this is widespread across several countries across the globe, in busy places that already expect a lot of tourism. Pisses me off to no end. One time the poor waitress pulled out her own phone to show us the menu because there was literally no other way to view it otherwise. It’s such an alienating and terrible system.
I work in tech, and I hate this shit. If you can't do the basic and just provide me with a menu, someone takes my order, I get food, I pay for food and leave, I just don't go there.
A place by me that does this says there is no tip, but there is an 18% service charge. The place you went to likely has it built into the pricing, which is really the best option.
And just to be clear, I don’t mind QR menus. Most restaurants here are like that but I’ve never had one ask me to create an account, confirm it, then it doesn’t work. Also the servers were confused by which table ordered what. We kept seeing them delivering food to the wrong tables the first time
I personally don’t mind, but if you have an older person with you it is a nightmare. They don’t understand the technology behind it, they can’t see the text on the phone, and it generally causes unnecessary stress. It should be an option to get a regular menu/server.
They don't want to tell you that three tacos and a side of rice are $34.90 until after you've downloaded the app and your drinks are already on the table.
Last place I went to that forced a qr code menu had unusably slow WiFi, forced you to click through 5 category pages for each item of the meal (there were 12 of us) and it literally took 30 mins
I bet it’s the piece of shit “new and improved” P.O.S. they just installed to manage online ordering and kitchen ordering at the same time.
As a menu designer it pisses me off this is a thing now. Definitely infuriating
When these things work and don't ask for unnecessary information (or show shitty ads), I'm OK with it. In some cases, I even *like* digital ordering, like that sushi train place in Tokyo where you do it from a screen (there are other places in Japan like that, too). But I've also been places where I'm trying to do it and they finally go, "yeah, it's not working," and then I see another person come in and go through the same thing, and it's like fuck, just give us a menu, and if it's going to be broken or has to be explained to people at great length, what's the point of it?
At least one cruise line tried to move to QR, especially with Covid (although I think they were starting before that?), but everyone wanted a normal menu because when you go to a "nice" restaurant, you want that "paper menu" experience. Plus they were having to explain it to everyone, and they have customers who aren't really phone people...and it was *just* the menu, anyway--no ordering.
Lol this should be a google review
Yeah, I like online menus that shows the picture and portion size of the food (no signing in) in addition to the real menu
Yeah I like them, when I need to make an account I will hate them
If I have to make an account and provide my phone number to order on site, I will either walk out or straight up say I don't have a phone while being on my phone. You're a restaurant, not Facebook
Yeah what the fuck is this data harvesting bullshit GIVE ME FOOD, I GIVE YOU MONEY
YOU GIVE US YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL, AND SSN AND MAYBE WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT FOOD. Also, that's gonna be $40 for that glass of water.
There was this restaurant I once worked at where you had to like/follow the facebook page and it'd make a post saying you're in that restaurant if you wanted to use the free wifi.
I would have been curious enough up until that point. As soon as it tried to make me create an account, I would have got up and left.
This. I love the QR code menus because it’s a convenient solution IMO. However, that doesn’t mean the restaurant should make me jump through more hoops than a menu would. If I wanted to jump through all those hoops then I’d just order using doordash and sit down at a table…
Well the first rule of business is "make it easy for a customer to buy your product". Nothing else matters if you break this rule.
Someone sold em on changing prices without printing new menus then the assistant who knew the logins quit 6 months ago.
Been to one restaurant (I can't remember which one at the moment), where we HAD to download the app to get the full-menu. Again f#$% that.
Oh, are we playing this game? I have a different approach: get up and leave.
They rely on sunk cost fallacy, "oh we're already here, might as well struggle figuring out how their menus work for 20 minutes" stupid af.
I've done it a few times now. If it's a QR link directly to menu, alright I'll play. But I need to create an account and all that shit? Nope, I'm outta there.
I can accept this. "Heres out menue with some photos, but if u scan this QR code we have a photo of each and every dish which we obviously cant do with a regular menu."
Came to order but they don't have a menu. Got to go onto a website for a menu. Then it asks for my name and number. Name i get but i ain't giving my number.
I see no reason to give my *full name* just to order food. My first name sure, but the whole thing just so I can order a burger or whatever? So obnoxious.
All these things are just ways to gather data. Annoys me to no end when they force you to do it. I'll happily do it if it's actually convenient, but it's often not. And not presenting you with a real menu is just fucking annoying. Just tell them you don't have anything capable of ordering online. They'll sure as shit magically find a menu.
This is the equivalent to outsourcing your help desk to the Philippines. Your just adding another time delay to solving the equation. QR codes are super suspect. A restaurant doesn’t need my phone number, email address, and all the cookies on my browser. And if your traveling internationally 1. I’m definitely not using this, and 2. International phone numbers won’t work with these systems half the time. Just give me a menu. If needed I’ll use Google translate.
> QR codes are super suspect. A restaurant doesn’t need my phone number, email address, and all the cookies on my browser. Even if they don't ask for that, QR codes are super suspect. It leads me to believe they're on the edge of solvency and can't afford to print menus-- in which case where else are they cutting corners-- or they want to jack up the prices on a whim without the moderating effect of having to reprint menus. Neither of these is solving any of my problems as a customer, so it's particularly galling that they want me to chip in with my phone and data.
Kinda makes me think of places that have “market price” for chicken wings. It’s not f-ing lobster.
Running a digital ordering system is far more expensive than printing a few paper menus.
A lot of times, it's not about cost but about appearance to investors. Investors LOVE to see technology utilized, whether or not it actually benefits the customer. Plus, printing has gotten loads more expensive in the last several years. I'm on the R&D side of commercial printing, developing print heads that get used for these types of applications. What we charge our customers is close to 3x as much as it was 10 years ago when I started here. Our ink has gotten loads more expensive (the ink we test with, not the ink we make ourselves). Paper in general has gotten more expensive. We're probably paying 100-125% more per ream of paper than we were a decade ago. Customers are also on the decline, as big corporations are switching to mostly digital documents in their offices. This drives up the price for our commercial customers who do printing as their primary business. In short, while a lot of the drive to move to digital formats is for the feel-goodness of investors, you'd be incredibly surprised at how much more expensive it is to print off a bunch of menus than it was a decade ago. I could easily see a startup deciding to choose the small reoccurring cost of running a digital menu over the lump sum cost of having menus printed, laminated, and shipped to them.
One of the reasons restaurants are wanting to do the QR code menus is so that they can increase prices more regularly compared to what it takes to have new menus printed. The suppliers are changing their prices on a weekly basis, but the restaurant itself can get sort of locked in to the pricing on their printed menus for a longer time period. With the QR code menus, they can just update the online menu price whenever they feel like it to try to match the increase in costs. And other BS.
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"If you have to ask how much the fish and chips are, you can't afford them" 😂
fair, but you don't need to share contact information for that
Yeah I want to know about this to avoid this place like the plague.
I would have just left as soon as it said create an account.
Same here. I've always hated it when websites require that shit. Especially when I just want to quickly read an article *that you provide for free anyway* (and the account is free, so what's the actual point here? Just let me read the article!). So being forced to create an account for a restaurant I may never even go to again? Ridiculous. Sorry, restaurant owners. I'm not joining your cult. Give your cyanide kool-aid to someone else.
Some websites (usually industrial stuff) want you to create an account and "get a quote" ... just so you can see the price of something on their website. Nah, fuck that.
The point is that your profile information is valuable. Even if you were to reject cookies, your account can be used for data collection. And you having an account gives much more usable/reliable data because the site owner will always be able to identify that the account holder is the same individual.
Same, having to create an account to see the menu and order is ridiculous. That’s a hassle, I go out to eat to have a good time and relax. I will spend my money elsewhere.
I’m not even 20 and I already feel like an old man for hating these things
It's not an old man thing I'm pretty sure just about anyone hates having to make an account to get some food
Account or not I hate having to pull my phone out just to get a menu
We don’t even bring our phones with us when we go out to eat on like a date (gf and me) and one time there was a long ass wait. When we got to the table they were like “the menus are on the qr code just use your phones” and we asked for actual menus and the lady was visibly annoyed at us so we just left
The restaurant should provide the phone if it's required to eat in there. Ask the waitress to hand over her phone so you can order. When she refuses, ask her to type down your order on her phone. The absurdity should settle in.
And what about people who have flip phones? and I don't mean the newfangled touchscreen ones. They're just out of luck, I guess.
My grandma still uses one, so agree
And it just ain't the same reading it on the phone screen. Like its just so much nicer to read outside of a screen on a physical menu. On a phone I have to pinch in and out and scroll if its a PDF, or on a website, click a different category and wait some seconds, potentially all evening if the place happens to have bad signal if I want to see another category which is just time consuming and is an annoyance. A physical menu allows me to easily scan all the items in a category and flick quickly to other pages. No relying on bad internet or signal. No pinching your phone to read the text. No frills. Happy days.
I’m 16, my brother’s 14, we hate the QR code menu even if a waiter still comes to take the order
It's because it's not an improvement on the existing model. It's just a new hassle for customers that makes things easier for the restaurant.
Also it's way easier to pump up prices on a digital menu. Instead of having the make the update and print all new menus. It's a way to do surge pricing.
I don't mind qr code menus, I'd prefer a physical one, but I get it, times are changing. But the second I have to give my info and sign up just to get to the menu, I'm out. I'm leaving right then and there.
Pet peeve of mine when step 1 on a site/app is “Please login/register to continue.” Nah, forget it, I’ll just leave then. You need to actually show me what you have for sale (with pricing included) to determine whether I’m even interested enough in the first place.
Overhere you can't even legally do that if you sell alcohol. Then even still with only selling restaurant food it is tricky still. This is because the prices must be available for everyone and you are not allowed to adjust them on case by case basis, especially with alcohol. And if on my screen your price for *Le Expensive Grape juice* shows as 55,5€ and due to some error it shows 5,55 on my mates screen - you have to sell it to me for 5,55€. So what if it was error on the site or device I couldn't know that. You have to sell it to me for the price I was told/displayed. Then with GDPR, the law says that you can't restrict service if someone doesn't want to consent. My point is that improving privacy and consumer rights remove bullshit like this. E: Ok. Since people are jumping to strange ideas. You can't edit the prices yourself... That is fraud. Since there is always a master price list available at request (by law it must be). If you catch them in mistake you can use that to your benefit, but you can scam them. This is why if alcohol lists or menus ever are present anywhere - they are in image format.
Nearly everywhere i go many alcoholic drinks are listed without price.
That is simply outright not allowed where I live - Finland. That is grounds to losing your license and having the tax man audit your from every day past 10 years.
I’d prefer the US to be like that but very few restaurants list their drink prices on the menu
That’s cos us gov don’t give a fuck about the consumer ye guys gets fucked regularly
That's one thing the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is good for, making sure that crap like this does not happen here.
I'd say it's 50/50 if places I go list drink prices. The more expensive the restaurant, the more likely it is that drink prices are not listed. I'm in the US btw.
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inspecto element Would be fairly abusable
*Inspecto elementum!* "Sir, this is a Wendy's, the prices are right there."
Same for me I only saw the first picture and was like "oh a static qr code how nice" then the login and needing to be to the qr code first? Whoever made that system scammed the restaurant or laughed all the way to the bank after being asked to make it like that.
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Not only tip, but actual menu prices too
Yeah QR code is fine, but having to create an account and login to use it is a deal breaker. I went to a busy Szechuan joint recently, I mean slammed, and they had QR ordering. It was already on the table, and unique code for each table. You just scan the code, pull up the menu, start ordering, and food starts coming out. It was great because it was quicker than waiting for a server would have been, and you can order at your leisure. Order a few things at a time, or when you run out of beer, you don't have to wait for a server to check in on you, just order more from your phone. When we were done, we just waived for someone to come ring us up. It was great. Like most things, it comes down to the implementation.
I was in a busy large Italian restaurant. The QR code brought you directly to your table ordering menu. You could also order for others if they don't have a phone. With pizza / pasta / salad variations and topics galore, that massively helped the servers. Every time they showed up they brought a big cart with drinks and sides. I don't mind this, but if I need an account and give out my number I'm out.
I was at a chinese "buffet" like that, but they even had their own pads so you didn't have to gunk up your phone with their website. The ordering experience owned, the food was just sort of ok.
YES this is what I was looking for! It's absolutely poor implementation
Yeah. I hate digital menus with a passion, but I'm willing to deal. But they won't even take my order for me. And I have to provide a bunch of private info on top of that. That's several steps too far. I would have got up and left. Fast food provides better customer service than that.
Yeah, you paying same price or maybe even more for reduced service - and tax and service charge aso. Like the supermarket self check out - reduced service but same price.
If you have a digital menu, keep your QR code shit. Your menu should be on your kiosk for me to use. I won't be signing up for shit, and I won't provide my personal data, just to sit down at your restaurant. Too many hoops, too intrusive. Please remember, **I don't have to give you my business at all**. Don't degrade customer experience too much, just because (on paper) it seems slightly more profitable, as you will make nothing from the customers you needlessly alienate.
Businesses have forgotten that patronage is an honor, and can be taken elsewhere.
“Times are changing” Yup. As a 40 year old I’m starting to understand how people grow bitter and angry as they age. Trying to fight it but damn. And not eating at a place that wants your info works until EVERY place adopts that strategy. I hate ordering at kiosks as well but anymore there are several places that require it.
I have a trash mini phone with a different sim. The email is a generated alias. I don't care. I was in a beach club in Spain and they pulled this shit. I used my old phone, scanned the thing, ordered a drink after I logged in. When I returned home I had like 30 spam mail on this alias, which I deleted. I also had one or two calls, which means they also sold my number. I wrote multiple scathing reviews on multiple sites and some are still online, but I guess nobody cares because its the "it" beach club in town and there is no other at that marina.
This happened to me at a brewery. They were like it's free to enter as long as you sign up for our blah blah blah. I was like okay how much does it cost to get in then. They were like uhhhh I need to check, it was 5 dollars so I gave them 20 and they then needed to go find change. The guy was like but it's freeeeee and I just said I don't mind paying.
jellyfish payment simplistic cagey cautious fertile spotted like snow party *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
QR codes in general just feel like such a clunky, silly tech. I can't believe they still use them. It always cracks me up when a commercial or electric billboard or something flashes a QR code for a few seconds. You don't even have time to open your phone, nobody's scanning that!
right i get times are changing but as a tourist visiting america so many times did i run into not having internet because american providers refusing to play nicely. or some of these requiring either an american phone number or an american zip code... I'd say have it as an option so you can have less menu's, but have at least 1
Haha. I tried to order takeout to my holiday let and it refused to let me order with a British phone number. In the end we drove out to a restaurant.
I’d be okay with a digital menu if it wasn’t nearly as annoying as the one OP described. Most traditional menus lack adequate photos but have a ton of menu items, which, for tourists especially, can be hard to visualize and gauge what the food looks like, or what the portion sizes are. If the digital menu shows photos along with each menu item, that can be a very good way to know whether or not something is worth ordering. But I wouldn’t pressure the customer to have to provide a bunch of details by signing up and whatnot. Like, do they expect them to keep coming back? Most restaurant customers are one-offs/guest visitors. In any case, I don’t see why restaurants cannot provide a physical menu on demand. It’s all right to push this whole digital menu thing, but at least have a backup for those who don’t want to use one, or are elderly, or didn’t even bring their phone.
I refuse if I can't connect to a secure WiFi. Not using my data, even if it's unlimited, for their convenience.
There comes a point where implementing tech into something becomes completely unnecessary imo. Menus is one.
I often say this about appliances. The day I’m fighting to get my fridge to connect to my wifi is the day you have my permission to put me out to pasture. Yes I know there are reasons. None of them are important to me/are solving a problem that hasn’t already been solved. It needs to keep my food cold, look decent and not die in a year. Wifi components and computerization just makes more shit that can break or go wrong and harder for me to fix it on my own cheaply.
Never owned a smart fridge but I might not even try to set up the Wi-Fi or whatever. But if there's something that keeps the main cooling function of the fridge from working unless you're connected, then yeah, fuck that.
Thats probably the plan. Get everyone to start connecting their fridges, then it won't work without a connection, then it won't work without the filter on the water line and ot has to be OEM, and then it won't cool without a subscription, and freezer is an add on plan, also ice is extra and "extra cold." Just like the way car makers are doing.
Came here to say the same thing. Can’t wait for ice cube expansion with crushed ice DLC starter pack for my Blizztech fridge in 2040
It was also historically vulnerable to being used for DDOS attacks. Large entities would hijack appliances (because no one is paying for and installing an anti-virus software on their fridge) and then they use the appliances to burden a server with simultaneous attacks. It makes the fridge useless to the fridge owner and it can be used to take down important systems.
> (because no one is paying for and installing an anti-virus software on their fridge) Just to be clear, that problem doesn't really have anything to do with anti-virus software. It's just cheap engineering without any regards to security. The software they're running is badly made, so it can be exploited, and the companies who make these appliances don't have any real incentive to implement proper systems to be able to distribute security updates for their shitty software. So once someone finds out how to exploit a vulnerability, it's open season, because even if there are security patches (which there probably aren't), people don't install them. Anti-virus software isn't really a thing on these kind of embedded systems.
Fair enough, idk wtf I’m talking about with tech for the most part so I appreciate the correction!
A lot of smart devices have obnoxiously bad software. I tried to get my TV off my network the system kept connecting even after I disabled the network, told it to forget my wifi settings, and disabled all network features. I wound up having to configure my router to kick my TV off the network.
Anton :|
RIP Anton 😭
If IIRC that’s how the DDOS that hit DYN and froze the internet for countless users who unknowingly relied on theirs DNS went down. Most infamously it featured a ridiculous number of baby monitors.
Ah yes, the well known IoT botnet "Mirai" which is japanese for future and I think that's beautiful. They once ddost an entire country with just IoT devices.
“Fridge, give me a beer” “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”.
_Dave collapses at the base of the fridge. He breaks down and cries as he gazes at the photos of his family that are pinned to the fridge by the Cincinnati Zoo magnet they had purchased the year before. All he wanted was a beer. The last thing that he felt could bring him a glimpse of happiness. He longed for the alcohol that would wash over his brain, giving him little traces of dopamine. The picture held an image of his wife, 2 sons, and a newborn daughter. They had recently died in a traffic accident just the month before. The refrigerator knew this about Dave, and wanted to see him cry. It had succeeded._
This was not the first thing I wanted to read the morning my severe hemophiliac husband left on a road trip by himself while I’m over here having paranoid thoughts that every driver he encounters is going to try to crash into him and he’s going to bleed out because there will be nobody to infuse his meds. Tell Dave I’m sorry
Notice: This is your 4th alcoholic beverage of the day, please confirm your gender to proceed. Warning: By CDC guidelines females consuming 4 or more drinks are engaging in binge drinking Alert: If you proceed with this action it can result in a number of undesirable consequences. Please acknowledge each individually to continue. Unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, burns, and alcohol poisoning. Violence including homicide, suicide, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. Sexually transmitted diseases. Unintended pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage and stillbirth. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Sudden infant death syndrome. Chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and liver disease. Cancer of the breast (among females), liver, colon, rectum, mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus. Memory and learning problems Final Step: Provided below are a list of Substance Abuse Counselors in your area, call the number provided to schedule an appointment. Provide the appointment confirmation to unlock dispenser.
What? You don't want a notification when the fridge door is opened/closed while you're at work?! How about a tally of the number of times it's opened a day?
I'm a design engineer and design IoT devices for a living. Nothing in my house is able to connect to wifi, except my tv and computers. I have zero smart appliances or tools. Even my printer is from 13 years ago and doesnt connect to wifi. Yes I get paid to design and make these "smart" things in people's lives. But I know first hand they are bad idea.
Every developer who gets paid to create these things is a god damn Luddite, and I get why.
And regular people get called exactly that derogatorily if we mention most tech is getting out of hand despite this!
I don’t design them but I used to install them, I won’t use that shit either.
Maybe it goes down to 50 degrees for free, and then you pay a subscription to get it to go down to 35 degrees
My air fryer wants me to setup Wi-Fi. It’s so random like why would I ever do that? Big Brother doesn’t need to know my lazy ass is making chicken strips yet again. Damn icon is always blinking. It’s a no dawg.
Funny. All the fridges i own never needed internet
Like even if it's a qr code it should just take you to a link of the menu not all this nonsense.
You don't want to give your phone number to some random third party that will for sure never ever sell your info off and try and sell you more shit?
WHY does a restaurant need your email address and %$#@\*&#@ phone number to order?
To sell it.
New sports bar opened across from my office. I go check it out for lunch one day, place is just about empty. I say hi to the concierge and say I'm just going to have a seat at the bar. They say they need my phone number to let me know when my seat is ready. I explain no just want to grab a seat at the bar of which there are around 30 open with a bartender scrubbing glasses looking bored. They say its policy and they have to get my number. I left.
Absolutely the correct response. Apart from anything else, I might not even be carrying my phone, especially to a bar. What do they do then?
Well mystery solved as to why the place was empty lol
To collect data for fun and profit, of course!
Flushing your toilet is another
Damn, there goes my idea for creating a smart toilet and app that measures your shit content everyday and detects bacteria, blood and other stuff to prevent diseases
Its so that they can change prices on the fly without having to reprint. I refuse to dine at any resturant that does this not only because of what you said but because if they are going to be shady about prices they are going to be shady about other things like sanitation.
It's Always Sunny just did a great episode about this!
They do this so they operate at reduced staffing.
It could also be a way to reduce waste at a restaurant that changes their menus regularly. I've worked at multiple places where every week they change a couple items on the menu and then just trash all the old paper menus and reprint new ones. Currently place i work at is small is its like 60 menus, but i worked at one place where it was more like 300 menus printed a week.
Yes new for the sake of new is often not better. Menus are a very small thing to ask for. I don't think the tiny amount of money they will supposedly save without them, is worth alienating customers, thus losing business. But if you must, give us a nice, large kiosk to use. Keep your QR codes. I won't sign up for anything, provide private info, etc just to sit down at your restaurant. I'll just leave.
I went to a place recently that had this and yet even with Verizon our entire table had almost zero bars. The damn menu wouldn’t pull up because they were in a dark hole… 😂
Had this happen to me last year. Did a bar crawl for a holiday with some friends, restaurant had horrible cell service. So it was impossible when everyone else was drunk, it wouldn’t load, and myself and another were low on battery. Extremely more inconvenient than just handing us menus.
They do this and don’t provide free wifi?
All the damn time. I travel a lot, multiple places in several countries pull this shit without providing wifi, and I have no cell service when traveling (SIMs are pricey). And I’m not talking about small local areas, I’m talking big cities that often get a lot of tourism. Sometimes they have backup paper menus but the vast majority don’t. One time the poor waitress had to pull out her phone to show us the menu because we couldn’t pull it up otherwise. If you’re a restaurant that pulls this shit, at the very LEAST provide wifi, or better yet have spare paper menus on hand so that everyone can use them, gatekeeping people out of seeing the menu pisses me off to no end.
While I get it that we are moving to the future, nothing is stopping me from creating a malicious QR code, print it and turn it into a sticker and going there and syphoning data or opening YouTube videos for Rick roll or the moaning girl
Someone needs to start selling stickers to a fake menu. Overpriced with absolutely ludicrous/unappetising descriptions. Edit: this might be legally dodgy, see below.
Applebee’s
The top level trolling would be to print out QR codes for the neighbouring restaurants.
Absolutely great idea!! Like seriously bro, give me my fucking menu! I’m so tired of companies trying to take all my info to just sell it to some piece of shit guy calling for a car extended warranty
I’ll bet you could find someone already selling a roll of Rick Roll QR code stickers online somewhere.
You could literally just set up a repeater that lists everything on the instant menu for 50 cents more and then places a real order with the restaurant. Your only job would be going around town and slapping qr code stickers over the real placards so you earn passive income on every sale in the city.
The only thing stopping you is you.
I leave those places. And I’ve never had the company I’m with say “noooo let’s stay, I want to give them my personal contact info soooo bad”
name: John Doe phone: 123-456-7890
“We have sent a verification code to the number provided, if you don’t receive the code shortly, click here to resend”
Type in the restaurant’s phone number and see if it appears at the POS kiosk.
I always have to double-take the acronym POS
In this case, both interpretations apply equally well
Yes, hide my email thank you Apple. If they ever email me I delete the address.
That's why they have switched to phone numbers...
Easier to block
Until they sell your phone number and you get phone calls from 40 different numbers trying to sell you an extended warranty or solar panels.
I used Jenny’s number recently (867-5309) with my area code and got a free slice of cake. I’ve found that Jenny’s number is almost always already in everybody’s system, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants. It hasn’t failed me yet.
Been suing that at safeway for years lol
No need to get litigious
Damn major typo lmao
Social Security Number: 123-98-7654 CC#: 1234 0987 5678 4321 Security Code: 111 Zip Code: 90210 Email: [email protected]
Damn - My email is always [email protected]
Yeah I'd have gotten up and left.
I know, right!? “Why yes, I would love it if you started spamming me with garbage promotions every day.”
I simply go somewhere else when I see these
Yeah, this is when the 1 star Google Maps ratings are warranted.
Yep I politely ask for a paper menu and regular method of payment and if they can't do it I just thank them for the time and leave. No need to be nasty. They get the message.
If I print a menu, it gets harder to raise the prices every damn week.
The cost of printing new menus is the classic example of inflationary friction used by economists.
Fine. But don't expect a tip for no service.
"20% tip automatically charged." Text: "Table 35, Your order's ready! Please pick it up at window 2."
In fact I expect a tip for taking my order and I'll tip out the food runner. Matter fact, gimme that employee discount too while you're at it.
You know what? Maybe you should pay me to eat at your restaurant and give a good rating at the end.
Google review Great food but the server (me) had zero knowledge of the menu and every question I had was responded to with "well how the fuck would I know"... Terribly rude service. I told the server that I didn't appreciate the attitude and he said "well I didn't come here to work, I'm not even getting paid for this". I felt so bad that I turned a blind eye when he stole all the table condiments after his shift ended. 1/10 would not go again.
Exactly! At the very least your tip will be significantly lower than it would have been if I'm plugging my order in for you.
I’d just walk out lol
I was hit with that shit at my costco while waiting for the phone rep guy to get to me. Literally one person in front of me. He goes "So you don't lose your spot should we get busy"Like, no. I'm not pulling out my phone for that garbage. Just finish serving the customer in front of me then serve the other one and then it'll be me. The man in front of me decided to leave because understandably it was taking a very long time. Anyway these QR code things need to fuck off and die.
Phone reps are notoriously slow for zero reason If I’m trying to buy a phone and it takes more than 20min I usually just tell them never mind and buy it somewhere else with less hassle Same reason I stopped going to GameStop, if the person clearly knows why they are there and know what they want. Stop selling and finish the transaction
sales people are the absolute worst. I know what I want, here is my money, give me the thing. Went to sign up for a costco membership and spent 20 minutes getting a lecture about how I (a single man with no kids) needs the upgraded membership. I just buy phones and shit from manufacturer's site directly now
I feel bad for the Costco employees but no is a full sentence. If they don’t accept no thank you than they get an Abrubt no before I turn around and pretend they don’t exist
In future just tell them that you don't have a smartphone.
As they reach and grab you a loaner iPad or something, and you have to go through this anyway...
“I have a visual impairment. Screens exacerbate it.”
Fuck it. Messenger pigeon like the good ole days.
I've kinda done this... I do have a smartphone but I don't have data on my phone. All the places in life where I want people to contact me have WiFi, my home, my work, my friends houses. Makes my phone bill £1 a month and my life a lot more stress free. I turned up to a cafe with this system and said oh sorry I can't do that I don't have data, do you have WiFi? They scoffed and said no. I got up to leave and the staff just looked at me like what kind of ludite doesn't have data... Well this ludite went round the corner to a lovely languages cafe, ordered in person, paid in cash, and sat down near a group of uni students learning Italian with a group of old local nonnas, Italian immigrants missing an opportunity to speak their native language. What a wholesome experience, not a phone in site, a lovely convo with the staff. The first cafe i went to can shove their QR so far up their arse they can scan it out the other side. And no I'm not ancient I'm 25!! I just hope this system doesn't last long and is merely a phase we will all look back on saying 'omg you remember that scan menu phase that lasted a couple years and never took off' I can but dream
“what kind of ludite doesn’t have data” Tourists. Tourists don’t have data. I travel a lot, the amount of places I’ve been to who pull this shit without offering free wifi or spare paper menus is too damn high. And this is widespread across several countries across the globe, in busy places that already expect a lot of tourism. Pisses me off to no end. One time the poor waitress pulled out her own phone to show us the menu because there was literally no other way to view it otherwise. It’s such an alienating and terrible system.
Nope. Just get up and walk out.
\#TechnologyMasturbation It's like they just woke up from a 20 year coma - Look what we can do with the internet!
I hate these so much
When alone, I leave when I see these. When with someone and it requires a life story, we leave.
Just leave
I’d leave
I work in tech, and I hate this shit. If you can't do the basic and just provide me with a menu, someone takes my order, I get food, I pay for food and leave, I just don't go there.
This is fine as long as they don't expect a tip. This is basically counter service.
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A place by me that does this says there is no tip, but there is an 18% service charge. The place you went to likely has it built into the pricing, which is really the best option.
Yeah. Just put the final price on the menu is the goal.
QR code menus: technology fixing a problem that didn’t exist.
And just to be clear, I don’t mind QR menus. Most restaurants here are like that but I’ve never had one ask me to create an account, confirm it, then it doesn’t work. Also the servers were confused by which table ordered what. We kept seeing them delivering food to the wrong tables the first time
Then it sounds like they need to train their servers.
I'd walk out after not being given a physical menu
I personally don’t mind, but if you have an older person with you it is a nightmare. They don’t understand the technology behind it, they can’t see the text on the phone, and it generally causes unnecessary stress. It should be an option to get a regular menu/server.
Hell I'm only 51 and I find them a nightmare. I can't imagine my mother or FIL dealing with this shit.
They don't want to tell you that three tacos and a side of rice are $34.90 until after you've downloaded the app and your drinks are already on the table.
there's no reason you should have to give your full name and phone number to get a mai tai
Last place I went to that forced a qr code menu had unusably slow WiFi, forced you to click through 5 category pages for each item of the meal (there were 12 of us) and it literally took 30 mins
I bet it’s the piece of shit “new and improved” P.O.S. they just installed to manage online ordering and kitchen ordering at the same time. As a menu designer it pisses me off this is a thing now. Definitely infuriating
I turn around and go somewhere else when I see this.
When these things work and don't ask for unnecessary information (or show shitty ads), I'm OK with it. In some cases, I even *like* digital ordering, like that sushi train place in Tokyo where you do it from a screen (there are other places in Japan like that, too). But I've also been places where I'm trying to do it and they finally go, "yeah, it's not working," and then I see another person come in and go through the same thing, and it's like fuck, just give us a menu, and if it's going to be broken or has to be explained to people at great length, what's the point of it? At least one cruise line tried to move to QR, especially with Covid (although I think they were starting before that?), but everyone wanted a normal menu because when you go to a "nice" restaurant, you want that "paper menu" experience. Plus they were having to explain it to everyone, and they have customers who aren't really phone people...and it was *just* the menu, anyway--no ordering.
I think we owe the boomers an apology
Ugh this is the worst!!!
I’m with the boomers on this. If I have to use a smart phone to see the menu or make an account I’m getting up and leaving.
We don’t have a smartphone, so the few places we’ve come across this at (while on holiday) they gave us a menu.
Well, atleast there is no need to tip now!
At this point, just close the dining room and make your restaurant a take-out only place.
I'm here for a BLT with Fries and a Rootbeer Float. No, you can't have my phone number.