AI6YR BenApr 9

BEFORE last year at the school's cafeteria:

1. Chat with the nice lady behind the counter, ask her how she's doing
2. Discuss what's good today, what kind of sandwich I should order
3. Order sandwich, lady makes it for me. Asks me what various items I might want, and if that's enough of whatever ingredient
4. Finishes making sandwich, smiles and tells me good day

REPLACED BY:

1. Must load app
2. Must select food on app. No indication what the food looks like or what is good.
3. All ingredients must be selected beforehand
4. Must pay with app
5. Order gets transmitted behind a wall to kitchen worker (nice lady was fired, replaced with cheapest worker they could find. That worker to no doubt be replaced as convenient.)
6. At some point, order is done. App notifies you it is done
7. Food appears in window, no human interaction... never see or talk to anonymous human behind the wall.

😡

Show threadsofticecreamlesley
@ai6yr I also have a vile hatred for restaurants with QR code ordering. What’s so wrong with having an actual human do it?
Apr 10 at 2:27pmWeb
Show threadRichardApr 25
@softicecreamlesley tbh, when done well, there are situations where I like QR code ordering. If there’s an English translation, allergen info, photos etc. and I just want a simple, quick meal … I don’t speak Cantonese, my Japanese is rudimentary, thus I’m a bottleneck in human to human communication, so this has made my life easier many times.
But for a “real” restaurant with specials and recommendations and all that: this needs the human touch.
Show threadsofticecreamlesleyApr 25
@richrants All good points, but I still dislike it. 😊 I live in Japan but usually use English on my smartphone. So when I scan the QR code on a menu, it automatically shows badly translated English instead of the original Japanese and sometimes there’s no way to switch it back.
Show threadRichardApr 25
@softicecreamlesley Oh, absolutely, I’d prefer being able to talk to and order from an actual person. Most of the time restaurant is the constraint with short staffing, cost cutting ➡️ dislike. But sometimes I’m the biggest constraint on effective communication, in which case ➡️ like … but I guess with rising costs for ingredients, energy and labour, restaurants have to squeeze every line on the budget 🙁