Wowee!

I and a  friend elected to try out a new restaurant.  Eating outside of course, because both of us are too scared of the delta version of SARS-CoV-2 to eat indoors, where we may fall prey.   After all, this was my first outing after some 9 months of dealing with my affliction,  I am almost able to hobble a few steps, and I have no desire to be on my back again.

So, he picked me (and my wheelie) up and we headed out to this new restaurant.  It had supplanted one of the neighborhood treasures that closed a while ago.  (Actually it was the second reincarnation, the first having succumbed to the pandemic quarantine.)  It claimed to be an Italian restaurant, so I was hopeful I could find something to eat.

When we were allowed to sit down, we were dismayed that it lacked menus.  Instead, a QR code was on the table. This bar code of sorts, purporting to be touchless, would allow a menu to pop up on our smart phones- and then take our orders.  All we had to do was scan the code with our smartphone camera, input our credit card information, and receive our wares with no server interaction, no menu that may be dirty or infected, etc.

Sounds good, right?  

I was leery of the system.  But, it turned out- it was leery of me.  Since I refuse to engage location services, it refused to populate a menu on my phone.  (This will turn out to be a big plus, as you will see soon enough.)

My buddy had no such qualms and got the menu.  Which was mediocre at best.  And, the choice of wine was less than mediocre- and was priced at FOUR times retail.  I know the pandemic has hurt business but this price multiple was ridiculous.  I even mentioned that if we come again, we should pay the corkage fee, which would still be cheaper than their drecky wines- and we’d have much better vintages.

So, he placed the order.  15 minutes later, we still had no wine, no water, no bread, no food.  So, we immediately left for our favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed the food, the wine, AND the service.

But, that’s not the subject of this blog.  OK,  I touched on it.

Many restaurants are adopting this QR code system.  Trying to convince their patrons that it’s touchless and cuts down costs and keeps the COVID at bay.   It’s not just restaurants (about half of all full service restaurants have installed these) – bars, CVS, FootLocker, Nike and a slew (about a million or more) of others.

What these vendors don’t tell us is that the system is not touchless.  In that it sets up an elaborate tracking, targeting, and analytic system against us.  The vendors track when, where, and how often a scan occurs. It can open other apps to track our personal information.  That way there’s no guessing if you’ve seen their offering or how you interacted.   Allowing these vendors to construct a database of our contact data, our credit cards (just imagine when they get hacked how secure your credit card information may be), and our order history.  Think Minority Report on steroids.  Now, you no longer just worry how Google tracks your internet behaviors, but how your meal choice lets you fall subject to surveillance outside your home.

Sure, it lets the food vendors cut down on servers (no need to take orders or collect payments)- which means 30 to 50% of labor costs.  (Of course, if there are no servers, they may have to finally pay their remaining help subsistence wages, since we won’t be leaving tips.  Although the restaurant we first visited notified my buddy it was adding a tip to the price of the food!  For no service!)

Think about that the next time you are confronted with this QR code “option”.   My choice is to use my feet…  excuse me, my wheelie– and depart for better locations.

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