You can still go to the restaurant to eat presumably they'll have some paper menus in there, or QR's or whatever
Increasingly commonly, that's a "nope". If I don't have an internet-connected device capable of dealing with a QR code about my person, eating out is no longer for me. Perhaps it's time to go back to the old people's home, the nurse has been searching for hours.
It is annoying when a transaction that for ages has been all-paper gets bumped into the panopticon.
What kind of dystopian city do you live in? QR codes are on the decline again¹, fortunately.
1: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/may/23/off-the-menu-wh...
I'm an old guy with bad eyes I'm not going to try to read your menu on a 5" phone screen in a dim restaurant.
Reading a _paper_ menu in a dim room is a miserable experience, but you can zoom in as much as you want on a phone, and you control the brightness of it, and don’t have to angle the piece of paper to catch as much light as possible?
We sometimes get some customers who hate the QR's, or claim not having phone/signal/whatever.
I'll lend them my phone to check...
Restaurants already source their materials and equipment from other suppliers. They don't grow their own food; they don't need to print their own menus.
This defeats the whole purpose of a restaurant, which is to be convenient. If I wanted to be inconvenienced I would just buy groceries and cook them at home.
I'd add that the whole purpose of a restaurant isn't convenience for the customer. That's the purpose of going there for many customers, which should of course be honored. But the purpose of them for restaurateurs are generally on the order of "make an enjoyable living", which involves convenience for them too. As with almost anything social, the outcome must balance the desires of all involved.
Come on, you can get one for under $100
Each day, they had new paper menus ( https://menucuisine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Fish-... - note the top)
Their menu is now also at https://order.online/store/the-fish-market-palo-alto-723242/...
I'm not sure if they still have paper menus or what the expense of those menus were.
QR code links to menus are bad, sure. I'd still rather eat at ten places that have those than one place that has you.
If my making a scene makes other customers upset, then it's working. I know businesses hate it when people do this, and that's why I know it's an effective tactic. The whole point of the protest is to sabotage the business by making everybody else in the room upset.
Obviously a YT vid doesn't hack anything, but it does scare the companies out of complacency when it's trivial to swap to real malware.
You can be doing all this nonsense to an owner serving you.
And because the premise of a restaurant not having printed menus available is so absurd, I think I'd be compelled to stick around for a few minutes loudly insulting their business acumen before leaving (as I have done before at bars that didn't accept cash!) I consider this a service done for those who think like me but aren't brave enough to speak out themselves.
People do not care at all whatsoever about their privacy being invaded, generally.
Maybe you won't call the guy "Karen", but I'd be very surprised if you approved of the situation... Unless, of course, you think that insulting low paid workers loudly is something good and to be proud of.
That's okay. It's also okay to prefer a paper menu (I'm the same).
> I don't intend to learn how
I mean, no one is forced to learn, but knowing stuff is not a bad thing. It takes less time to read a QR code than to type that reply.
> I'd be compelled to stick around for a few minutes loudly insulting their business
What happened to calmly explain your position and then leave without giving that business your money? You don't have to be an asshole to the person serving you... in fact, they probably don't have a say on the matter.
Not to mention that the average person doesn't understand how online menus can be a problem. Most don't understand how tracking works, for example. So when you leave, things go back to normal because that was just one of those customers.
Menus on QR codes is a problem. People that behave like you are also a problem. I dislike both.
> "If someone is nice to you but rude to the waiter, they are not a nice person."
Not like they can see where the camera is pointing, let alone locate the code in the first place.....
Having a braille option is ideal, but not every vision impaired person can read braille and it puts a significant burden on every establishment. Readers provide a great alternative to that that restores a lot of autonomy to blind people.
Why have ADA at all? Just have every disabled person wait for an able-bodied person to just help them with whatever it's they need, right?
Since your standard seems to be one of jumping on people and painting with a broad brush - I'm left wondering if you've ever been to a restaurant? It's generally an interactive social process where you're repeatedly prompted if you're ready to order, often with the goal of speeding up your visit. Many times other people at your table will be ready but you won't be, so you'll say things like "Okay, but I'll go last" accepting a little bit of unnecessary stress to help you decide. It's a lot of social give and take compared to the unilaterality of say message board commenting.
Back to the objective topic - sure, I do agree with the idea that there should be as many options as possible, web menus are a necessity in this day and age, and putting a link to the web menu at the restaurant only increases choice.
But the topic under discussion is restaurants deprecating paper menus in favor of websites only. A theory was put forth this is due in part to ADA compliance - presumably due to some perverse logic that if there is a printed menu there also has to be a braille version of the paper menu, but if there is no printed menu then a braille version isn't required. So the existence of web menus isn't really being questioned (I'll acknowledge having fallen into the incorrect comparison as well). Rather what is being questioned is whether it makes sense to deprecate the overwhelmingly most popular option (printed paper menu) due to questionably-inferred legal requirements to have a third type of accessible menu (braille) in addition to web menus and verbal interaction.
Because it sure doesn't seem like you know the first thing about the issue....
And when we don't actually know what we're talking about what are we supposed to do?
Really, there's not a single thing that can be said to make it less stupid.
https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technolog...
They don't put them in the same spot always and there's often a no smoking or other stick as well, often several.
I could go on but really....
https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technolog...
It takes next to no effort to throw your menu as a photo on google maps for example.
You’re free to not do it, but the market will push you out in favor of businesses that do.
I personally don’t expect anything. I’ll just not go to places that don’t have information. That’s the market in action.