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Comment by wredcoll | Hacker News Reader

Because you're not paying enough to get that service?

This is actually a very valid point. The whole world works on equilibrium points between cost and annoyance. For the majority of things that point is closer to annoyance. Micro-annoyances usually go unnoticed.

I am paying enough, the prices are no different from restaurants with proper menus and wait staff. Again: Why must I peck around on a screen for ants and receive the bare minimum of service, at full market price?

On a similar vein: Why do I not get a small discount, say 1%, if I go and use a self-checkout instead of going to a manned checkout? The cashier isn't serving me, so why am I paying for his wages?

I am, of course, fine with receiving less service if I am expected to pay less accordingly.

why? Because as a society we value maximizing profit over anything else. The money that's saved by making you do a server/cashier's job is meant to make more money faster, at lower cost to line owners/shareholder pockets with more dividends, not to give you a fairer price or pay staff. Besides, why give clients a 1% discount to do work they'll do anyway for free instead of paying an employee to do it? How is a company supposed to accumulate capital if they redistribute the benefits of technological progress to all involved in the transaction? /s

Indeed. Unless you're some kind of VIP, the relationship between you and the restaurant is that serving you is the necessary dance required to get money from you, to be done as cheaply as possible. You don't pay enough for the business to actually care about responding to your individual preferences; it's cheaper to let you go and for a less preferential customer to take your place.

This is the usual race to the bottom on the market.

Spoken like someone that has never run a business

Spoken like someone that has just started to run a business and has not yet gotten burned out from asshole patrons/users/clients that absolutely ruin the experience. In my experience, it is the middle of the spectrum of users to shoot for. The upper to top end expecting so much stuff to be given to them and expect way too much babysitting and pampering at the expense of other customers and give lots of attitude. The middle segment just wants the service at a fair price and to be treated with respect and are typically polite about it. Then the lower end wants the same services at the lower price tiers and complains that there are other things not included at the base price. There's no way to make everyone happy all the time.

I think this attitude is true for many businesses, but not restaurants.

Restaurants are one of the few areas of the market where local businesses that are deeply connected to their communities still thrive.

There are plenty of restaurants & pubs near me who recognise me as a regular customer by name. The people at those places genuinely enjoy making their customers happy. It's much easier to care when your customers are living, breathing human beings with names you know whom you see frequently. The same can't be said for McDonald's, but there are places that aren't so soulless.

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