I'm with boomers on this. It's even worse if it redirects you to their FB page
If I have to log into fucking facebook to see a goddamn menu I'm leaving.
Agree. And it is an unnecessary wall to go through for most people. Printing a Menu is really simple.
Boomer is a state of mind.
That's not a menu! That's a QR code!
So I threw it on the ground
The moral of the story is
You can't trust the system!
Man!
(Very Lemmy take, there)
My dads not a menu.
What drives me up the wall is when it just links to a scanned image of the menu they used to have, so instead of a full sized menu, you have to pinch and zoom and swipe around on your phone. What's the fucking point? I went to one and the menu was FOUR PAGES LONG like that! If I hadn't been promising my daughter I'd take her, I would have walked out.
Folding phone works well for this. Kinda sucks that you need an $1800 device to have a decent menu viewing experience. I'm more miffed that they expect my reception to be a given. Towers go down, congestion happens, give me a physical menu!
I am fine with it but I feel they should have alternatives. Some people don 't have a device, connection. Or have issues with using technology for whatever reason, being old, incapacitated, etc.
There's a waiter, so I assume you could just tell them you don't have a phone for it
Exactly lol, everyone crying about this is just inventing a problem
Then they don't eat there. I don't see the problem. Might be the owners problem. But hopefully it was taken into cinsideration. If not, though luck again.
That's not quite how accessibility regulations are structured. Wouldn't surprise me if there are requirements on this in any given jurisdiction. Perhaps not a 'thou shalt have printed menus' but some kind of reasonable accommodation I think isn't absurd.
I think it's pretty reasonable to require restaurants to spend a little money to print menus, and even a little more to get braille ones. There's millions of people who might have some difficulty or another using a browser based menu, certainly we can do better than saying "sorry, tough luck."
It shouldn't be on the customer to have the tech to view a menu. If you're gonna run a restaurant, have a paper menu available to customers somewhere, even if your primary menu is behind a QR-code.
I went to a restaurant that had the barcode menu. I prefer a physical menu, but fine whatever. The problem was, there was no reception inside the restaurant, and you couldn't connect to their wifi for whatever reason.
This happened to me recently as well, but while traveling when I was low on data. Like ok, I will use your stupid QR code menu, but then you better provide free functional wifi.
I don't know why but the QR menus just piss me off in a service restaurant. I won't use em (been bailed out by a date more than once).
For a counter place where they are just slinging me the food? Ok I guess. But if we're out paying for a dinner that'll hopefully lead to nookie, phones should be the last thing on the table.
It's because there is no need to involve your personal pocket computer in their food transaction, but everybody wants to get a piece of your data with their fucking apps and customer "rewards" programs. Of course just pulling up a URL may not give them much, but it's like they are working towards getting the tip of their data-raping dick in your pants.
And also, it's an extra step that's a bit of a hassle. I don't want to have to use my phone's browser and internet connection to read little words on a phone screen and scroll around and zoom in etc.
I don’t want to have to use my phone’s browser and internet connection to read little words on a phone screen and scroll around and zoom in etc.
The last place I went with a QR menu linked to a fucking PDF. It was absolutely abysmal trying to look through a phone PDF reader at a menu. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant had some of the worst service I have ever encountered in decades of eating at restaurants.
You're supposed to enjoy your meal, then tape a QR code to the table and say that's your payment as you walk out.
I am serious. And don't call me surly.
What's meshurley's phone number?
I love and seek out restaurants that use online ordering and payment. I don't need someone waiting on me. I'm in the US and they are not paid a living wage, the work is difficult with little reward. Now there is a place in my neighborhood where you sit down the QR code is table based, interaction is simple, clear and designed to work (uses Toast as the backend iirc). You order, the order stays open till you pay it's a restaurant/bar so if you need another you don't have to do anything but tap on your phone. They have amazing helpful servers that are paid well. You pay on your phone and leave when you are done. It's amazing.
I think this is more about power dynamics than currency and menus. I think many people just want or more accurately demand that others (with less power) to serve them. I've even heard people say "it's not my job to check me out or take my order." Those same people treat their waitress like shit, when those waitresses are paid basically nothing to take the abuse. Then they try to weasel out of the bill. Seen it time and time again.
Now, some restaurants do poor a poor implementation of modern menus and it's frustrating. However... long term those that do it well will win. It reduces friction and costs leading to lower prices higher margins and quicker more accurate service.
I hate them. Will never go to a place that uses them.
Nobody will win. The waitress stays or will return and still get paid shit. The menu will get digitised because it's cheaper. You know what less costs mean?
Higher profits.
The end.
Wake up.
You might want to reevaluate who needs to "wake up". Right now the only difference I see between you and Jeff Bezos is who has the money.
There are many other successful ways to run a business. Co-ops are one example... The legal and regulatory framework of our society should encourage and reward making and encouraging pro-social ethical decisions not discourage them. I think our problem is how we treat each other - not how we order food. Ordering food is just the symptom of the greater ill.
As long as you think like Bezos, nothing will change and more of your money will flow to the rich.
Thus, why I suggest the "waking up" that needs to happen is to realize we are in an increasingly unstable dream/nightmare (depending on whether you have money or not) that we collectively need to choose a different way that truly does benefit everyone.
Yeah I'd just walk out if the restaurant can't afford menus
What if the restaurant can afford it, but don't have it anyway?
I use a LightPhone II which has no camera. It gets me out of this bullshit all the time.
Wait staff: "oh god, here's the dude with the cameraless phone again 🙄"
"How insufferable and low tipping do you think he'll be today?"
I was visiting family and we went to a restaurant in NC that did this and the waitress just shrugged and said "We are environmentally friendly, we don't have paper menus. Borrow someone's phone" and then walked away.
Questions I didnt get to ask... Like how much environmental impact does a dozen menus have? Also before you walk away... can I borrow your phone? I am not asking some stranger for the phone.
My sister ended up having a smartphone with her. We wanted to leave, but my mom wasn't having none of it because "it would be impolite, they have already served us water".
Oh yeah. I absolutely hate this new trend.
I think if they don't have a printed menu at the next new place I go to I'm going to just get up and leave.
Doubly egregious when you have one of those annoying GDPR windows that make opting out a hassle just to view the menu. I’ve left restaurants over this.
for bonus points, the website uses 15 web frameworks and you have to click your way to a gallery of jpeg images for every page of the menu (obviously incompatible with half the mobile browsers so none of this even attempts to render).
"You need to enable Javascript to view this site."
For when trusting them to not leak our credit card numbers isn't enough.
Don't they legally have to have gdpr options?
Not if they don't track you. As far as I understand the fabled cookie law, you only need to have that notice if you're using cookies in a way that's not strictly necessary for the site's functionality.
I've been to a dine-in movie theater that had QR codes for the menu. Problem is, I typically don't bring my phone to a movie AND since you can order during the movie, who wants people turning their phones on to read a menu?
I first read that as a "drive-in" movie theater and was like "that sounds awesome" and "how is that the most annoying part of your experience" lol.
Ok. (hands out)
Waitress: ...What?
Your phone?!
I feel that. I can't stand this crap and I get you wanna save paper but some of us don't bring phones everywhere we go or we just have a flip phone or a phone without service. If you really wanna save paper instead of using more paper to print out a QR code just get a chalkboard or whiteboard
It would be nice if this was about saving paper but a website is being powered and that likely isn't a good ecological trade. You could say it's easier to change prices but it's also easier to track you; your browser cookies are like a membership card.
God I hate this world
They keep trying this in our small town, and they find out.
At my age my phone is too small sized for me to be able to view a menu properly.
Now if they want to loan me a tablet to review the menu I'd be fine with that.
Regardless of age, I think you could probably argue that the small, glowing rectangle in your palm is an inferior reading and dining experience compared to an actual menu.
That's not even to mention the unholy abomination of a tech stack that a system like this would be— Camera, QR decoder, web browser, WiFi/cellular, their web server— That signal might travel hundreds of miles to your ISP, their host, and then back— Probably a couple layers of outsourcing/contracting/helper apps they used to set it up— Though it's apparently normal to take all that for granted these days, it's still sorta ridiculous.
Don't forget propably relaying on old IPv4. ICANN domain space and DNS, IANA addressing space...
I'll have the 4 dots in an L shape, that looks good.
I guess I'll have the dinosaur in the middle of the QR code
Image Transcription:
X/Twitter post by user john is toast @johnistoasted reading: My dad and I went to a restaurant and the waiter pointed at the QR code on the wall and sad "thats our menu" and left and my dad looked at it really close and said "Is this some kind of joke"
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]
I fucking hate those! They spend so much money on the decoration and ads, but can't be bothered to print 10 menus? What a BS! If a café or a restaurant is still stuck in covid times and wants to use QR codes, they should provide free Wi-Fi otherwise I'm walking out (as I have done many times) because fuck you and your barcode and your shitty management cause if i'm picking from an app I should be able to order through and pay through the same web app, there is no reason for a waiter or reception and cashier its just half assing technocracy.
I ate at an airport restaurant recently that just had a QR code that let you order online. I do think the model works well in that one specific instance. On top of being more sanitary it lets the meal move at the pace you want it to, which is pretty important if you need to catch a flight in 45 minutes.
Newark does this. It's interesting but I didn't love it.
The last two exclusive QR Code menues I tried to use were just stupid:
One was on an island in the Adria without cell phone reception. I had to ask the waitor on his second round for the wifi password, which he did not know and supplied on his 3rd round. All of this took 20 minutes.
the other one was in an cafe mostly visited by tourists in Scotland. They had a website that was only accessible to British people since brexit, and they did not care to fix it.
I have no interest in a shitty laminated menu that is most certainly not clean.
Why are people so upset about this? It could not be more simple and as it’s on the phone you can select and search for things or maybe you weren’t familiar, etc.
It’s easier to update for the restaurant, no cleaning of the menus, etc. it makes everything easier for both sides of the coin
What are the downsides??
But that's assuming everyone brings their phone along everywhere and not everyone knows how to scan a QR code or even (think elderly people, for example) owns a smartphone.
I do agree that it's more sanitary, though. I did go to a place a while ago that had a QR code on the table which I thought was really cool, actually. Because it allowed me to place my order on my phone and even pay on my phone. But they offered a physical menu as well.
Pulling out my phone, opening the camera app or whatever one scams the QR code, pointing it at the thing, fighting focus because the code is so small or dirty, clicking to follow the link, downloading a PDF or following the website, waiting for it to transfer over mobile data, zooming in and out to move around the menu and read the tiny print, because half the time it's just the same PDF they would send to a printer and not optimized for viewing on a phone.
OR
Be handed a paper menu and just looking at it.
Which is more simple?!
But ignoring the simple aspect, I simply don't want to use my phone. I don't like how everything is on a cell phone.
Not having covectivity results in not having access to the menu.
I really don't want to be messing with my phone figuring out their wifi, if even available, which might have terms I would have to agree to to use.
Not having enough data left. Being an older person who is not good with tech or doesnt have a smartphone.
Am I the only one that doesn't mind these? You're all acting like you're being asked to murder somebody.
that I have had experiences with these websites having trackers and advertisements on the menu sites yes
Eta also what if my battery is dead or I got shit connection
Ask for a paper copy? They usually have them for people that don't like digital
Not everyone has a smart phone.
Or the eyes to read an eight and a half by 11 sized menu on a small cell phone.
I kinda like them. Anyone that's worked in a restaurant doesn't want to touch physical menus anyway lol
