Episode 14: Paying in restaurants, eating out and coffee shops

‘Yeah please scan this QR code which takes you to our app via our third-party partner to pay. An automatic service charge of 12.5% will be added to groups larger than 0. A brand and marketing charge of 15% will be added if you want a physical menu’

Not much to say here really than ‘give me a break’. Short blog I guess. The digitalisation of restaurants has been an absolute train wreck for the experience of eating out in my opinion. QR code menus totally suck: it kills social interaction, it kills the vibe, it encourages people to sit on their phones, the apps barely work and often inside you don’t have internet. So then you have to go find their wifi, put your email in, accept their T’s and C’s, avoid the marketing subscription checkbox….

….and then there’s even worse offenders, like restaurants using Sunday.com. You mean to say you want me to pay 2% for the pleasure of the payment itself? C’mon. I just want to order my food??

I’ve not got much in the way of advice other than asking for a physical menu when presented with a QR code, they usually have one. Likewise if presented with QR code related payments, playing dumb seems to work,  ‘sorry I don’t have my phone’.

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There’s something to be said about service charges here too. No matter how many headlines make the news of owners stealing digital tips, they seem here to stay. We police each-other and judge each-other for refusing to pay flat service charges – even though we don’t know where the money is actually going – to the team or to a greedy owner??

The solution here comes straight from my grandpa’s tried and tested playbook: big wallet stuffed with cash. Note on the table. Straight into the servers pocket (or team jar). Sorted.

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You want my email for the receipt too?

Goes without explanation: no I don’t want a digital receipt, you don’t need my email for a coffee.