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Comment by S0y | Hacker News Reader

As much as I hate having my quiet "hidden gems" become popular, I feel its very egotistical of people to actively try to remove it from the spotlight when I'm sure the owners very much appreciate the extra business.

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Extra business only lasts for a awhile. Then the restaurant goes under when the influencers moved on to new things and the locals learned never to bother.

Locals aren't smart enough to tell apart influencers from genuinely new customers?

Where do you live where that's the case?

Locals don't stop going because the crowd consists of influencers. They stop going because it becomes too difficult to get in, then the place stops being in their list of possible options. At that point, it no longer matters if the crowds go away. The place just remains in the "don't bother" category.

They aren’t automatons… they will understand it’s a temporary condition because influencers, whose motivations are well known, are easily identifiable.

It's not a question of understanding, it's just a matter of habit. The locals just don't develop, or lose, the habit of considering that place. I'm just speaking from what I've personally observed (as well as my own behavior) over the years.

In a similar vein, I saw this happen to some Italian place near the NC coast. During the summer season, they catered only to the tourist rush and somehow pissed the locals off. I forgot the details, but I believe they quit taking to go orders and maybe even reservations?

Lo and behold, in the fall they were begging for business on FB. They ended up closing shop, but I don't know the timelines.

It's probably pretty tricky to navigate both cases as a business owner, so I'm not passing blame here.

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