←back to thread

Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

(slate.com)
527 points lxm | 4 comments | 29 Jun 21 03:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.729s | source
Show context
sksksk ◴[29 Jun 21 08:51 UTC] No.27673432[source]▶
When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad.

The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows...

Arrive at the table, scan the QR code

No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi.

Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal

Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no signal, so I need to go outside, to receieve the confirmation code.

Connected to the wifi, scan the code again, choose my food.

Go to pay, need to register an account

Put my email address in, I already have an account on this food ordering service!?

Do a password reset

Put in my credit card details (why not use apple pay?).

This whole time, we're sat at a table, in theory to meet friends, but we've spent the first 15 minutes all glued to our phones!

replies(26): >>27673456 #>>27673485 #>>27673529 #>>27673544 #>>27673575 #>>27673592 #>>27673616 #>>27673680 #>>27673725 #>>27673750 #>>27674317 #>>27674718 #>>27674768 #>>27674810 #>>27675286 #>>27675356 #>>27675397 #>>27675440 #>>27676026 #>>27676226 #>>27676355 #>>27677430 #>>27678005 #>>27687050 #>>27687537 #>>27689555 #
HelloNurse ◴[29 Jun 21 09:00 UTC] No.27673485[source]▶
Assuming there was another restaurant nearby, I'd have simplified the process to "go outside". If a restaurant is too cheap to print a menu, why should I consider it good enough for me?
replies(1): >>27673590 #
topicseed ◴[29 Jun 21 09:19 UTC] No.27673590[source]▶
With covid, many restaurants removed paper menus to avoid transmission. I hate QR codes so that was a move I was not in favour of.....
replies(7): >>27673742 #>>27673766 #>>27673777 #>>27673998 #>>27674555 #>>27674981 #>>27675450 #
nly ◴[29 Jun 21 09:43 UTC] No.27673742[source]▶
Laminated menus that you can spray and wipe off would make a lot more sense.
replies(2): >>27673776 #>>27673847 #
bloak ◴[29 Jun 21 10:00 UTC] No.27673847[source]▶
On the other hand, pathogens survive longer on a smooth surface than on a rough absorbant surface, and I would guess that they are more likely to be transferred from a smooth surface onto somebody's hand than from a rough absorvant surface. So, taking account of people perhaps not doing all that spraying and wiping properly, a paper menu might turn out to be safer after all.
replies(3): >>27674442 #>>27674466 #>>27678144 #
1. mosselman ◴[29 Jun 21 11:42 UTC] No.27674466[source]▶
I could be wrong, as I often am, but I think getting covid from a surface is recently proven to be highly unlikely.
replies(2): >>27674543 #>>27675510 #
2. cinntaile ◴[29 Jun 21 11:50 UTC] No.27674543[source]▶
They have known this since april 2020, it was a German scientist that first tested this I believe.
3. Symmetry ◴[29 Jun 21 13:30 UTC] No.27675510[source]▶
In March of 2020 we were pretty sure that at most 5% of Covid transmissions were through touched surfaces (fomites). Currently we're sure that at most .01% of Covid transmissions are through surfaces and still haven't found clear evidence of it ever actually having happened so literally 0% still can't be ruled out. But upper respiratory tract infections like the flu do actually spread through fomites pretty easily so we've defaulted to the flu playbook for many public health measures.
replies(1): >>27678137 #
4. stjohnswarts ◴[29 Jun 21 16:25 UTC] No.27678137[source]▶
There are a lot of diseases out there that are transferred on surfaces however. Not everything is about covid