'People come for the selfies but won't pay $2 for pizza' | Hacker News Reader

'People come for the selfies but won't pay $2 for pizza'

bbc.co.uk

If you show up, order a $2 pizza, take a selfie, and then cancel your order, then you are a garbage human being, full stop. I cannot even imagine what you are like in other aspects of your life.

If it happens enough it can be 90% fixed by plopping an ATM out front and only accepting cash at almost no cost (the customers you lose will be made up for by the lack of processing fees).

Edit: I'm genuinely curious why is this such an unacceptable opinion.

Maybe because they could still refuse to pay? Anecdotally, I know of at least two pizza shops near me that only accept cash, and don't deliver. They're not hurting for business in any way. They're also on their 3rd and 4th generation of owners, so maybe they never adopted the practice of accepting credit cards.

It's the tourist effect. Tourists tend to be cheap, and have zero emotional investment in what they're touring or the people there.

You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally, which is mostly limited to yourself, your family, and your tribe (and people also spend money for signaling). This is also part of the reason why OSS and public service projects don't get many donations, except for short bursts when it's fashionable, and why you can't have nice things as a society without taxation.

"You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally, which is mostly limited to yourself, your family, and your tribe (and people also spend money for signaling). This is also part of the reason why OSS and public service projects don't get many donations, except for short bursts when it's fashionable, and why you can't have nice things as a society without taxation."

The entire reason for taxes, and nation states. Those whose ambition is not paying taxes really do not understand what we're all trying to do together.

As someone that lives in Charleston, SC it's way too easy to hate on tourists. They jam up the roadways, fill up all the restaurant reservations, take all the parking, etc. However, at the end of the day, it's hard to overstate what a tremendous benefit it is for the local economy to have a firehose of money dumping into your town the better part of the year.

Charleston did a great job persevering the character of the city as well... That's partly why the tourists flock. Probably also why there's a vibrant culinary scene. So you gotta be careful what you wish for.

>Tourists tend to be cheap, and have zero emotional investment in what they're touring

Then why do souvenir shops exist? Wouldn't they be extremely unprofitable if this was true?

Souvenirs are a way to signal to your friends & family. People don't buy them because they serve a practical purpose.

That's precisely the argument he was making...

Buying impractical things for social signalling is not characteristic of frugality.

Not necessarily. To suggest that souvenirs are only used for showing off is pretty cynical. For example, I cannot fathom how people buying fridge magnets use them to let everybody know about their trip. I doubt they buy them with the intention of signaling to their house guests every time the guests look at their fridge. A lot of people buy souvenirs (memorabilia) just for themselves because they evoke nice memories.

If the goal was to let everybody know that you went travelling, you can simply post pictures in some social media network.

Souvenir shops basically prove this phenomenon. The goods they sell are universally crappy and not a true representation of the place. The sorts of things they sell are about proving to others that you went there, not about taking back a piece of the actual experience. A souvenir is the physical equivalent of a selfie.

This.

Whenever I go I try really hard to find actual local craft and buy a single thing that is connected to place and will remind me of if.

Universally this one thing will cost me more but its actual local craft not Chinese import.

I've found you can buy the exact same generic souvenirs off Amazon when you get back. Less hassle and much cheaper.

>Tourists tend to be cheap

Interesting take considering the existence of "tourist pricing".

>You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally

Is this usually how you decide what to eat? I've had $2 pizza in the past but it was because I was hungry and it was $2.

> Tourists tend to be cheap

Maybe that depends on where you live. In my village tourists tend to tip 25-100% of the final bill and spend 10x more than non tourists.

> "We had a guy come in the other day who took a selfie, ordered a pizza, cancelled it and left. Is it really that hard to order a $2 pizza?"

I feel like there’s more to the story here. If I ordered a pizza and I cancel it, something happened. I probably didn’t suddenly get not hungry or find an investment opportunity that I was $2 short for.

Maybe the shop told me “that’ll be ready in 45 minutes” and I canceled over the service not meeting my needs.

Yeah, now it reads like this person is a piece of garbage, but maybe that is not what happened. I mean, what would be the goal? Did he get the slice, took a selfie and then send it back (in which case 'cancelling' seems the wrong term)? Did he order one because he wanted not to feel awkward just walking in for a selfie? Or, if the order of the sentence is correct, he took a selfie, then ordered a slice, changed his mind (maybe a colleague texted him for donuts 3 doors along)?

Don’t be so generous.

I worked at a place where Pokémon Go led some people to scale a jump a fence to get to some poke-thing in an area that was both sensitive and incredibly dangerous.

The site police people put up signs warning Pokémon players that they would be arrested for trespassing, and I believe that at least 2-3 were!

I can see how this is a story about stupidity, but not so much about cheapness. Not sure it's the same thing...

People pay 1k for an iphone but won't pay $2 for an app.

So if its $2k app people will pay?

It turns out, yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich

As someone who's launched a few apps myself, that wasn't the strangest part. People will throw down a fiver without hesitation or thought for mediocre coffee but spend hours agonizing over a $1.99 app. And still be angry about it a month later if it didn't perfectly meet their expectations.

Humans are just odd.

Try offering a free product - you'll meet real assholes.

Well you can drink coffee, whereas most apps are garbage and not useful.

It doesn't seem odd when you consider the effects of supply and demand. Many players in the app market are willing to price their apps much lower than the price of a cup of coffee. Maybe the way we got here is odd, but maybe not since initially apps didn't come with business models, the culture could've extended from there.

I wouldnt undervalue coffee production either, producing a cup of coffee actually does cost more than digitally replicating and distributing an application. The microeconomics are much different.

Coffee is tangible. Physical things are tangible. I can drink coffee and it tastes good and wakes me up.

Digital artefacts on a sharecropper platform where content and applications can be removed, "upgraded" aka less features. It's not something I 'have' so yeah the $2 could very well be smoke and mirrors.

As per the article text, the event in the clickbait title was in fact an isolated incident. So in reality there's not much to write about, except that a pizzeria staffed by disabled workers doesn't immediately become profitable.

I don't know why I even clicked on this. Somehow I think I lower my clickbait defenses while on HN.

The incident may be isolated, but the overall trend is valid: if people come, take a selfie and leave without buying anything that still fits the title

Lengthy but worthwhile article about a similar situation:

I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed-will-...

And really what is the point of the selfie at the Pizzability pizza restaurant. A few seconds on a person's Instagram page or maybe ever never used.

Trophy selfies remind me of the trophies a serial killer takes from their victims. Whether serial killers or Instagram nuts the only thing taken comes from the victims.

I really wish more companies with altruistic hearts would simply embrace the Patreon model. There could even be a QR code on the front so that selfies become even bigger drivers to the fund. At least one of the donation levels could be free pizza every month (or whatever works)

Maybe they should make their products as noteworthy as their hiring practices.

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