Restaurants are ditching ‘tacky’ QR codes and bringing back paper menus after customer backlash
Restaurant patrons have had their fill of menu QR codes.
nypost.com
Restaurant patrons have had their fill of menu QR codes.
Once a new-age innovation to easily and quickly access menus on your smartphone, the existence of the humble barcode plastered to the table is now the hallmark of a tacky eatery.
“It’s like self-checkout or putting your own IKEA stuff together,” Oz du Soleil, a 59-year-old software trainer, told the Wall Street Journal.
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Recently, Soleil walked out of a Las Vegas brunch spot before even placing an order for his matcha latte because of the digitized menu, telling the Journal it felt like work to use his phone and voiced concerns over data privacy.
He is one of the many patrons nationwide who have lamented the proliferation of QR code menus, prompting restaurants to ditch the square barcodes altogether in favor of tried and true paper menus.
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“In the restaurant industry, the QR code menu is seen as a little bit tacky,” Teddie King, the director of operations at the Japanese chain Zuma, told the Journal.
Zuma swapped QR codes for paper two years ago after the pandemic, which proved to be a boon for the barcodes as eateries attempted to limi the transfers of germs — after all, menus are one of the dirtiest surfaces in a restaurant.
According to The Journal, a survey conducted earlier this year by Technomic revealed that QR codes would not encourage customers to dine at a restaurant more often. The market research firm also reported that, in 2022, 88% of diners preferred paper menus over QR codes at sit-down establishments.