rw2516

I touched on this in an earlier post. Technological innovation raises the cost of living regardless of inflation. New tech starts as a luxury but society embraces it to the point that it becomes a necessity. Hence, a new required monthly expense for those who can't afford it. I don't have a smart phone. No interest in it. Twice in the past year I had to jump through hoops to get something done because I didn't have a smart phone. Both involved my being sent a text with a link I needed to click on. I had no way to do it. Eventually everyone will be need a smart phone, and the monthly bill, to function in society, whether you can afford it or not.

jfoobar

Wait until the trend (which I hate) of restaurants not even having paper menus anymore really takes off. I have already eaten at two in NYC that only have a QR code that you scan with your phone to see the current electronic menu. Several of the restaurants we have eaten at in Costa Rica this week are doing the same thing.

Draven

Saving on the cost of constantly printing and reprinting menus is bad? And no more sharing menus with gods knows who from the previous table?

That's fine if it works for you, but technology has always marched on. New innovations that change society are always happening. I don't understand digging in your heels about it.

It actually strikes me as having more to do with the "mystery" of how something like a smart phone works. Even if you don't understand how electricity works, you can see the physical advantages to using light bulbs over candles or a car over a horse and buggy. But once the benefits become more nebulous and intangible, people start getting nervous.

Vibiana

When automobiles were coming onto the market, I bet blacksmiths were really pissed.

fujishig

While the top of the line cell phones have gotten ridiculously pricey, I think there are relatively affordable options if you don't need the latest and greatest. And I see it as replacing a landline as far as a monthly bill goes.

jfoobar

Truth be told, they are being priced out of property ownership. The cost of building an identical 1800 square foot bungalow does not (for the most part) differ very substantially from one place to the next. It's the value of the plot of land that differs so substantially. This is a fine point but also an important one as it pertains to Neil's point.

Location matters in a lot of careers. A lot of millennials are ridiculed for going to college and getting "useless" degrees and racking up a lot of debt with insufficient earnings prospects. However, there are a lot of college students doing things the "right" way but, in many careers, the pathway to higher lifetime earnings will pretty much automatically pass through a major city somewhere. Living with their parents is not an option unless those parents just so happen to live in one of the right places (unlikely). Moving to Wichita is not an option or, if it is, it is only an option for a small percentage of would-be job seekers.

Another problem with high property values is that it basically makes the ol' "starter home" concept somewhat moot in several metropolitan areas. The price ratio between a really nice house (your typical suburban "McMansion") and a "starter home" in an area like Wichita is probably 3-to-1 or 4-to-1. In areas with wildly inflated property values, the ratio drops to less than 2-to-1 sometimes. A $650,000 postage stamp lot in an area with high property values is always worth $650,000, no matter what size house you build on it. Young buyers get priced out of the market before you even account for the value of the home itself. It also means that "affordable housing" initiatives are mostly doomed to failure. Sure, some city government can mandate that apartment building developers have to include some "affordable" units in every new building, but it cannot do anything to affect property values. Capitalism wins.

jfoobar

Your gift for making no effort to understand the context of someone's comments before responding (see: axe-grinding) continues to be legendary. In this case:

• I never said that QR code menus are "bad" or in any other way suggested anything negative about them.
• I was responding to someone who said they do not own a smart phone and how they have been inconvenienced by this fact a couple of times already.

However, since you brought it up, yes, I think it is a pretty lame trend, at least when it used to completely replace paper menus and not used to also facilitate ordering (i.e., a server still comes to your table to take your order). The cost of printing new menu inserts is minimal, truth be told, assuming you even use individual menus at all (as opposed to just having it on the wall, for example). As for the "god knows who" from the previous table:

• You already commonly touch a bunch of things touched by previous patrons when you go to a restaurant. They basically just wipe the table surface off and that's it unless the prior customer has made a huge mess. Also, you may not want to know how many times that rag they just used to wipe your table off has been used since the last time it was replaced or disinfected.
• There is no reason why restaurants cannot also wipe down the menus when they are returned. If they chose not to (which most do not), that's on them. A wiped menu is just as "clean" as a wiped table and more clean than the salt/pepper shakers, votive holder, creamer pitcher, whatever else that sits on the table and rarely gets wiped down.
• Even when restaurants do adapt the QR code menu method, they still have to have at least some paper menus (or $$ tablets) for the customers who have problems getting their phones to work with the menus or do not have smart phones (either at all or just on them that day).
• They often do nothing more than link to a PDF of the menu, which means you are trying to read something designed to be read in an 8.5"x11" format on a screen that is much much smaller. That is hard enough to do for people who do not suffer from any sort of vision impairment. It is untenable for many people that do. This issue, at least, can be easily fixed with more intelligent use of the technology.

It is, IMHO, a stupid use of technology that irritates more customers than it pleases and does virtually nothing to advance sanitation. The term "security theater" has come into vogue since 9/11. "Sanitation theater" is something I am increasingly seeing as well, and this is an example of it.

Now, the first place I ever used a QR-code menu was in Brooklyn a few months back and was a somewhat casual ramen-type place. In that case, they used it to replace expensive (tablets) at-table electronic ordering. That at least makes sense. Every other place I have been to so far with the QR code menus used them only to replace the paper menus for most diners and changed nothing else.

spainlinx0

I agree with all your points.

I went to a brewery, and they had all their drinks on tap listed in the QR menu, and you could even order directly from that menu to have drinks brought to your table. It was great and I loved it. They have now removed that functionality (why????), but still kept the QR Menu. They also have the beer menu on a screen, but that constantly changes. Why wouldn't you make that screen permanent instead of shuffling images?

I do agree though that most QR menus aren't done well when you open them on your phone, and it can get quite annoying. They are improperly formatted, descriptions can be cut off, and often information is missing.

jfoobar

Probably because servers get lower tips if they don't also take orders as well, in much the same way that the servers in buffet restaurants make less money than traditional restaurants that otherwise serve similar food. Less customer interaction means the perception of less service/value means lower gratuities per table. No idea if this is actually the reason, but I suspect it is part of it.

Abob Teff

This problem trickles down further than that even.

My “hometown” in Illinois is roughly 3,500 people. It is a bedroom community immediately adjacent to the state capitol. A few years back I was on our village board. We commissioned a study to help with development of our 30-year plan. Among other eye-openers, the study found that our livable homes were 33% rental properties. The next closest municipality in our county was at 18%.

Our school has long complained about the transient student population (students who stay 3 years or less). Our village utilities have long absorbed unpaid bills from renters moving on or skipping out. Rental property is a problem. You want rentals, but not at that exorbitant rate.

I tried to develop policies and ordinances that would encourage home ownership, but I was often shut down by board members following the interests of the few families that own most of the rental property. We don’t have a lot of “large” houses in our town … lots of smaller “starter” or “small family” homes. When these properties go up for sale, the landlords sweep them up. The landlords have taken to buying lots meant for one home and building two (and sometimes three) on them. I fought against ordinance changes that allowed this, but never won. “Growth!” is how other board members saw it. I pointed out that it isn’t if it is just going to be revolving door rental property. People may fall in love with our town and wan to stay, but not if there is nothing for them to buy.

I would encourage municipalities and communities to take a good look at your rental-to-owned housing and develop policies to keep that in check.

Kurt D

ETA to give a to the above post

Apropos QR menus, there needs to be a way for those without smartphones to order as well, if not it's an innovation that can be viewed as exclusionary based on income.

Draven

Apparently I was confused by this:

Somehow I got the impression you didn't like QR codes. And even if there are other vectors of contamination, I'm fine with removing one that is unnecessary (paper menus for everyone).

Ditching our landline and cable and just going with cellphones (current iPhone models) and streaming and I'm probably about even on the costs.

About 85 percent of the country have smart phones. If a restaurant keeps a few paper menus on-hand, I imagine it's pretty fair.

mndtrp

As someone without a cell phone, it's becoming harder and harder to go without. Event tickets are moving to all-mobile ticketing, with no way to pick up tickets at will call. Menus, and even ordering, are going mobile. My wife's job has an app for scheduling and time reporting. 2FA is almost entirely based around text messages, although about half of my accounts that require it will also do voice calls or emails.

I choose not to have a cell phone but could afford one, so at some point it won't be a huge deal to eat the cost to have one. There is a large subset of people who are not able to take on an additional $50/month for service.

John Galt

And this speaks to another major problem. Money has been consolidated to those at the top, who then use that money to influence public policy to continue to line their pockets at the expense of everyone underneath them. With such a tight housing market right now, the only way to get a starter house is to pay in cash. Someone with $200-300k on hand isn't buying a starter house, so the only competition for these houses is between other investors. As a seller your choices are to negotiate with the first time homebuyer who is going to be a PITA about inspections and repairs, will take 30-45 days to close, and might have issues obtaining financing; or you take the investor who will pay you in cash, tomorrow, and never worry about getting inspection. The choice is obvious.

It would also be nice if a majority of voters would realize who these politicians are that are looking out for their own interests and instead elect the ones who serve the needs of the entire community. I've given up on that ever happening though.

Kurt D

- do the ethical thing? I know, who am I kidding? Self-interest will always win out, even to the detriment of society as a whole.

dork

Sdallnct

Ive eaten at a couple restaurants where not only is their a QR code only, but that is how u order and pay. You don’t even see a server till u place ur order (or some of it). Both also had the ability for the server to add tour order. The real intent was for you to do this.

thought was fine

jfoobar

OK, you win. I had forgotten that I had added that parenthetical remark. I shall eat this crow.

I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why they are indeed necessary. Also, at least in terms of Covid, there have been virtually no fomite-related Covid transmissions. It is, for all intents and purposes, a non-issue.

rw2516

I wasn't addressing the cost of a phone, but rather the monthly cost of service. If society requires you to take on a new monthly expense, with no correlating increase in income, then the cost of living increases without inflation, further diminishing wages.

I'm not talking about the convienence of smart phone, like having a remote control over getting up to change the channel on the tv, but basic necessities like having a drivers license. Because of the pandemic, the DMV is by appointment only. The ONLY way to make an appointment was to call DMV on a smartphone. The system would detect the smart phone's number and send the phone a text with a link. You then click the link to confirm the appointment. I had to have a friend call on his phone or I would no longer be allowed to drive.

fujishig

I have never heard of this before and am surprised that of all places the DMV would implement this. There's absolutely no workaround for that?

Josh-da-man

Atlas Got Woke

rw2516

It may not have been statewide but the local office was that way. There was a workaround. Get somebody to call for you. The last four digits of your phone number was your number in line. The doors of the DMV were locked. One person allowed in at a time. The line was outside. They'd unlock the door and call out the last four digits of phone number and then let that person in. They took your temp as soon as you walked in too.
I didn't have the phone with me. My friend got multiple texts "There are 4 people in front of you." "There are 3 people in front of you" "You're next in line"

John Galt

fujishig

that's a really crappy workaround. I'm glad your friend was able to help you and I get that it's probably a pandemic specific policy but man.

Draven

That's so messed up that I think a news station would cover it.