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Comment by totallywrong | Hacker News Reader

I've actually stood up and left restaurants when their QR menu sends me to IG.

I wouldn't even make it this far, I'm not scanning their QR. Give me a paper menu or gtfo.

This. I've never scanned a QR code and I don't intend to learn how.

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.

The sad part is that practically all patrons that could hear you will just label you as a "Karen". The owners will not change their ways. It works for them, their client base and the vast majority of potential clients.

People do not care at all whatsoever about their privacy being invaded, generally.

Imagine you go out for launch and see this random guy "loudly insulting" the staff because of some random internet stuff you don't understand or care about.

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.

The point is not to persuade you of my point of view, the point is to ruin the mood of the workers and customers. So if I leave you fuming about the Karen (eg me, but wrong gender fyi), mission accomplished. If it were legal I'd pull the fire alarm on my way out.

It's just sad that such a great tech like QR's has caused you so much pain

> I've never scanned a QR

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.

The point is to sabotage the business in a more impactful way than merely walking away. Harming employee morale, and consequently employee retention, is an effective means of protest. If the employees get a sour mood about it and give other customers worse service, all the better.

On the other hand, you're being an asshole to someone that has to stand there and take your shit because they have debts and a rent to pay. And, since they deal with people all day, they know that moving to another work place with a paper menu won't fix anything because there's always some asshole that will do their best to make them feel like crap.

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.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiter_Rule

> "If someone is nice to you but rude to the waiter, they are not a nice person."

As someone who works in the industry I can assure you that you're not harming morale nor affecting employee retention in the slightest. Being an asshole doesn't make you relevant, it only makes you an asshole

Perfect on a first date.

You’ve got to case the restaurant, run background checks on the staff. Can the menu be read without a phone? If not, I gotta go somewhere else.

Excellent reference.

Glad it shone through even with the edits.

The risks of picking a place you don’t know for a date ;)

Hahahaha I was picturing this idea before asking tbh...

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...

Or you could just print a goddamn paper menu?

Who still has a printer? Maybe they could fax you one instead?

Print shops.

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.

Sure, the same is true of anything written. But much of that has shifted to digital media because it's more convenient. A print shop has much higher latency and change costs. The newer restaurants in my neighborhood mostly use flexible ways of conveying prices. QR codes, menus on big screens, chalkboards, or computer-printed paper menus on disposable paper.

More convenient for the restaurant, less convenient for the customer.

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 don't think it's "the customer". I think it's you and some other folks who are in a relatively narrow customer niche who are very big on convenience and grew up on paper menus, making those feel convenient.

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.

They don't feel convenient because we grew up on them, they feel convenient because your alternative is obviously and extremely inconvenient.

Businesses

Come on, you can get one for under $100

I'm one of those customers. QR menus must die.

I'd refuse to touch your phone and insult you for the offer. If you don't have a paper menu the question of me giving you money is already off the table; the food is forgotten and my new mission in your restaurant is to punish you with my vindictive attitude. If enough waitresses complain about obnoxious boomers giving them grief, I think the business owner will eventually wisen up.

At The Fish Market, they had menus printed out each day with the current market rates of all the fish that they had and modified it for that day's availability.

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.

You don't know how the restaurant business works, for one thing. For another, acting like an asshole to waitstaff just makes you look like an asshole, and gratifying yourself in public over your supposedly principled stand in acting like an asshole doubly so.

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.

> 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.

The only person unclear on who the asshole is here is you.

Acting like an asshole is the means of protest I consciously choose. Another commenter here chooses to put stickers over the QR codes instead; I think that's pretty clever and I applaud that, but I prefer to keep it strictly legal. Stickers are technically vandalism, but ruining your day by acting like an asshole is completely legal and very effective.

...he said, to somebody who responds to such behavior by tipping double or triple, and by taking the manager aside to note that the best way in the world to retain my custom is to throw your ass out and make sure you stay that way.

You're nice. I replace them with "HaCKed" videos from YouTube.

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.

I'd just try to get rid of you as fast as possible. kicking you out if needed.

You can be doing all this nonsense to an owner serving you.

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