The Reason Why Dining Out is Slower Than it Used to Be

The original Craigslist posting has been removed. Thankfully it has been preserved by others:

We are a popular restaurant for both locals and tourists alike. Having been in business for many years, we noticed that although the number of customers we serve on a daily basis is almost the same today as it was 10 years ago, the service just seems super slow even though we added more staff and cut back on the menu items...

One of the most common complaints on review sites against us and many restaurants in the area is that the service was slow and/or they needed to wait a bit long for a table.

We decided to hire a firm to help us solve this mystery, and naturally the first thing they blamed it on was that the employees need more training and that maybe the kitchen staff is just not up to the task of serving that many customers.

http://news.distractify.com/culture/...estaurant/?v=1

Life in the fast lane used to be a lot faster without all the "time saving" gadgets.

jtk

But look at all the cool photos I got!!

Post is probably fake.

Otherwise there is a restaurant somewhere where over half of the tables are asking server to take group photos, and I find that pretty unlikely.

I've never seen anyone photograph food in a restaurant. Nor have I seen any decline in service.

Service here is about the same, too. It's elaborately written, but it has no credibility (i.e., it's a hoax).

Last week, we were at a restaurant with our kids, a reasonably nice one, and I was checking the score of a game and my wife started to give me some grief. I looked around at 50 other people and literally saw nobody else using a phone at the time and put mine away.

Now and again, I've seen families in a restaurant where the whole family is on the phone, but they are the vast minority. I've also never seen someone photograph food in person, but we do know someone who thinks they're a critic who does. I've just never eaten with them or seen anyone else do it.

My latest dining out experience was watching our waitress flirting with guys sitting at the counter. Apparently our purchasing full meals for four people weren't as important as the guys guzzling coffee? The restaurant owner is family. Next time I run into her I'll be letting her know how pour the service was.

Folks are correct; it's a hoax. There's nothing the least bit scientific in this study.

I'm not surprised in the least.

The sad thing is that with the covers lasting nearly twice as long, both the restaurant and the staff are losing money. And many folks are waiting far too long for tables, or just leaving.

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Post is probably fake.

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That is quite possible. It may be a tongue in cheek writing from just about anyone in contact regularly with dining about town.

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Folks are correct; it's a hoax. There's nothing the least bit scientific in this study.

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Not sure if there was a claim of scientific evidence. Just, supposedly, comparing video surveillance recordings.

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Apparently our purchasing full meals for four people weren't as important as the guys guzzling coffee?

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To a young woman and the prospect of a ride in a fast car? Still no excuse for someone who is supposed to be doing their job in a professional manner.

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I looked around at 50 other people and literally saw nobody else using a phone...

Now and again, I've seen families in a restaurant where the whole family is on the phone, but they are the vast minority. I've also never seen someone photograph food in person

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I am sure things of this nature are location specific. There is (was?) a called TADS Steakhouse on Powell St. in San Francisco that I would eat at when I worked in the City. Often tourist would photograph their food. This was in the day of film. I have seen a few people take pictures of their food with their cell phones. If you are not a people watcher you only notice it when they use a flash. It all may be venue related. Some establishments are more likely to have everyone in the place give the evil eye to anyone yacking away on their yell phone. Go into a place full of young lawyers or stock brokers and you may see something not suited for family dining.

True or fake, it seemed a bit humorous. If nothing else enjoy it for the satire it may be on the mobil messaging society.

FWIW, I no longer have cellular service. I still use the phone for its time keeping and alarm.

jtk

There are many more folks photographing food than most that have responded here realize (I think anyway). That's how sites like yelp and urban spoon get "real world" reviews on their sites and apps. I know here in the Toledo, OH area it is a very popular activity to take a shot of your food and post it to Facebook or text it to others you know. Heck, I've done it on a Saturday at lunch when I know my daughter is at her drill weekend laying in a foxhole. I know she'll see it when they get on the bus to head back and she'll have a good laugh....

Funny this should come up this weekend. Friday we went to Big Bear Lake in the local mountains. We stopped for lunch at a place my daughter had heard of, and had BBQ. This place was basically a garden shed with a canopy covering some tables outside. The rest room WAS a garden shed 50' away, right next to an empty swimming pool.

I had never seen it before either, but my 49 year old daughter took pics of the food, and put them on YELP while we were there. I almost swallowed my plastic fork.

Oh yeah, the daughter was right....great BBQ.

Rick Potter

PS: Fine dining is where you find it, life's an adventure.

Interesting timing. 60 minutes last night showed a piece about a restaurant in NY that had banned cell phones because of the interruption to other customers. Business started to suffer and so now the phones are allowed. Apparently a lot of people are photographing their food when it is served and immediately post to whatever social site they like. One point the piece brought out is that, because of this, there is apparently an expectation now to really "wow" the customer with the presentation of the food, so it is taking extra time for the staff to prepare the dish. A food critic mentioned that sometimes food shows up cold because of this.

My wife is a great cook so we don't eat out much unless we're traveling. If i'm on the road and order something i think she'd like, i'll often take a pic for her. And, at times, i'll shoot a picture of my plate if i order something "healthy" when she knows i've been eating poorly (like a salad and glass of water when i'm at Steak and Shake--she appreciates that!!). And, there's always the pictures of my dinner at home that i text to friends working at race tracks--i know they're eating PBJ's and chips in their trucks so it's sadistic fun to send them pictures of cedar plank salmon with home made dill sauce and grilled asparagus!!

earl

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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

Go into a place full of young lawyers or stock brokers and you may see something not suited for family dining.

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Yeah, literally. Or some places with older lawyers and such. Last time I was in mortons, I sat next to a table with men in their 60s and girls who looked like they were barely out of high school. The men were telling tall tales of their manhood, and I didn't stare at the girls to see what their response was, but it was pretty odd - the girls were dressed in a way that suggested they were there on commission work. That would've been a day worthy of phone and camera use!

I hope to get rid of my cell phone when I retire, too. I don't know that my wife would accept that, and retirement is far enough away for me that I have no idea what my phone will look like by then. FIL who has been retired for a while has no cell phone - I think he really doesn't like the idea that when he is out somewhere that anyone can reach him at any time. I don't, either!

I do agree at the more trendy places (mortons not being that trendy, just expensive), there is probably going to be a lot of food picture taking. Funny enough, as a side thing, our favorite restaurant claims to have free wi fi without a password. I have never successfully gotten on it, neither has my wife. Nobody ever asks about it there that we've seen. I have no idea how the restaurant doesn't know it's not working - maybe they do. Most of us now have phones that go straight to the internet without wifi, and having wifi on and free all the time probably invites people to squat at tables that could otherwise be turned over to new customers.

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Originally Posted by Mike Cozad

There are many more folks photographing food than most that have responded here realize (I think anyway). That's how sites like yelp and urban spoon get "real world" reviews on their sites and apps. ....

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Yup...plus there are all sorts of "incentives" to posters of these pictures/reviews/I was here's for them to go out of their way to make sure they record their experience.

I've never seen anyone photograph food in a restaurant, but I've seen lots of photos of food that people take in restaurants. Scratch that, I saw some taking photos just last Saturday. I have seen plenty of group photos taken. It should be noted that the linked article is in a TOURIST locale. More people "out of touch", more people updating their statuses, and more people taking memories.

While I suspect that the article does exaggerate, it wouldn't surprise me at all that a touristy joint would see a 10-25% increase in customer turnaround time.

I've seen exactly what was said. People on their phones, not bothering to look at the menu.

Last couple of times we ate out was at different Mexican restaurants. At the one, most people were eating and conversing.

At the other, I remember commenting to the wife that I couldn't find a table where someone WASN'T playing with their phone.

She said "sorry, what did you say, I was texting Jason..."
;)

--true story. Depends on where you're eating I guess!

I spoke with a close friend the other day who is an executive chef...he indicated that the restaurant in the article is the Hard Rock...and that he will never provide WiFi to customers... ;)