
Busy NYC Restaurant Solves Major Mystery by Reviewing Old Surveillance - profquail
http://dineability.com/busy-nyc-restaurant-solves-major-mystery-reviewing-old-surveillance/
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jasonlfunk
Am I the only one questioning the legitimacy of this post? Why was it posted
on Craigslist? That seems weird to me.

Also, some of the statistic seems unbelievable. 60% of customers asked the
waiter to take a group photo? 17% of people bumped into someone while texting?

I need more evidence that this isn't fake.

~~~
thenmar
I felt like towards the end it started reading like one of those old style
email chain letters with bulleted lists of fake statistics that support some
kind of "kids these days"-tinted conclusion.

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drdeadringer
"If you do not forward this to at least 10 restaurant suppliers, your business
will fail."

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tomasien
Is this a supposedly true story? Anecdotally as a server as recently as 2
years ago, I never experienced this. As a consumer during the entire iPhone
era, I've never seen this. I don't believe this story, it has all the makings
of something somebody made up:

1\. No reference to the actual restaurant 2\. No reason a busy entrepreneur
would post this on Craigslist 3\. Convenient coincidences (2004 - 2014 is ten
years, finding exactly 1 tape, all the evidence lines up PERFECTLY against
cell phones, not a single piece of data out of line, etc) 4\. No way to cross
check whether this is real or made up

I not only don't believe this is a real post, but I do not believe this
phenomenon exists.

~~~
jeffmould
As a former server and bartender (and still part-time though not as much any
more) in a busy resort/tourist town the current climate of customers coming in
requesting seat changes and playing on phones is significantly higher than 10
years ago. In personal experience I would say that if a server has a 5 table
section out of those 5 at least 3 will hold the server up while they play on
their phone or talk among themselves before even looking at the menu.

On the flip side though, friends of mine that work in restaurants in less
touristy areas don't seem to experience the same type of customers.

Based on this I think a lot depends on where the restaurant is and the type of
customers it attracts. I think when people are on vacation (i.e. tourist) they
tend to want to converse more with family/friends and take pictures of every
little thing. Some even tend to be more "picky" about simple things such as
seating.

To me it is an interesting observation, but I don't think you can draw a
general conclusion about all restaurants just based on the experiences of one.
It would be neat to look at multiple restaurants in completely different areas
over the same period. From a restaurant perspective the "slow" customer is
frustrating and costly and if there was a way to speed the process up it may
be worth something to a restaurant. We went as far as hanging menus in
different parts of the waiting areas so customers would look at them and get
ideas before they were seated to help speed the process up for servers.

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throwaway283719
This started off seeming like it might be a promising article, but by the end
it becomes clear that it's just terrible clickbait / blogspam.

The story seems to be "people use phones and social media more now than in
2004, one restaurant in NYC has failed to keep up with this."

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falcolas
> one restaurant in NYC has failed to keep up with this

How have they failed to keep up? Customer interactions are taking twice as
long and consume significantly more of their staff's time, do we expect them
to double their prices to compensate? Charge for Wi-Fi?

I found it to be a fascinating view into how cell phones and the internet have
changed our interactions in an every day situation.

~~~
gbhn
Well, one clue is that despite spending 10x longer on customer interactions,
the waiters are somehow still able to immediately take orders -- no change
there.

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BCM43
Actual link:
[http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html](http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html)

~~~
leviathant
That reads exactly like something I'll see blockquoted on Snopes in the near
future.

I'll probably be at Snopes because I'm replying to a Facebook repost by an
older relative, the kind who forwarded pearl-clutching emails before they
joined Facebook.

There are more than a few cafes and restaurants that I've seen in Philadelphia
that have a sign indicating that as a restaurant, they do not allow the use of
laptops or phones, and as best as I can tell, it's had no negative effect on
how busy they've been.

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bhouston
There is obviously some truth to this, but the number seem made up (+50% of
people talking pictures of their food seems funny, but doesn't seem
realistic.)

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potatolicious
My gut feel is that this is a heavily tourist restaurant in NYC (maybe in a
heavily tourist area like Times Square or Rockefeller Center).

A few giveaways: lots of people taking pictures of food. Lots of people taking
pictures of each other. Requests for WiFi (international tourists who don't
have data plans). Requests to take group pics.

Smells like Times Square :P

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nmrm
The fact that there are no conclusions about what the restaurant might to do
fix the problem is a bit of a let down.

At the end of the day, social pressure to _put down your damn phone_ is
probably the best solution. But if the restaurant isn't up-scale enough to use
social pressure, there are probably other options.

Given that a significant number of customers were requesting wifi access, I
wonder if some sort of landing page could be used to encourage the customer to
choose something more quickly.

Some other subtle tricks might work as well. E.g waiters might give an
explicit time frame ("I'll check back in 3 or 4 minutes") instead of the more
common open-ended "in a few minutes"/"in a bit"/"later".

It also seems like the "request to be seated elsewhere" problem would be easy
enough to solve by allowing customers, when they arrive, to select a table
_or_ ask for the soonest available table. I have a feeling most parties would
select the latter. And then there's an implicit agreement -- whether a table
is selected or not -- that the person will sit where the waiter take them.

The pictures of food/friends/etc. is annoying and probably not solvable except
by social pressure. Except maybe the hostess (or another staff member) could
field these sorts of requests so that waiters don't get behind with other
tables.

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pbhjpbhj
"Today's wifi password will be provided once you have ordered. Our in-house
photographer will be happy to take a photo for you, please inform your
waitperson."

[Of course no in-house photographer need be provided, or a waitperson could be
designated, or you could outsource photographs if it proved popular; for a
charge of course.]

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personlurking
It's not just in restaurants. I've met people over the years who take every
empty second to browse stuff on their phone, heavily use FB, are always taking
pictures and posting them, and constantly mentioning things seen online that
don't seem to lead anywhere conversationally. It's a strange, strange world.

~~~
michaelfeathers
It brings to mind The Truman Show.

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galago
I go to places like this when I'm NYC, which has been a few times in the last
year. Its probably Katz's Deli or Grimaldi's pizza or similar. Its one of
those destination restaurants where you send a pic of yourself eating to yoru
friends and family. It would be interesting to see similar data from Olive
Garden-type chains to see if anything has changed in that space--probably a
little. Mobile devices also make people more tolerant of a wait, particularly
in line.

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nness
Just a funny side story; I was at a cafe for breakfast two months ago where a
group of a half-dozen early-twenties diners came and sat down, ordered, then
like clockwork photographed their food. What got me was that they paused to
snap it, all got up, changed seats, and photographed their neighbours plate.
One girl took out a DSLR once done with her iPhone.

We were outside, it was sunny but very windy and quite cold. There was also a
line for tables. I felt a certain schadenfreude in knowing that their actions,
as it delayed others who were waiting, ultimately meant a cold breakfast for
them all. I suppose I can't fault those who would rather enjoy the visual
sense of eating than the taste.

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toddmorey
The data feels totally made up, but more importantly, I think the conclusion
is a huge mistake: time per table has doubled from one hour to almost two
hours, and the single culprit is the smart phone. I just don't buy it.

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cordite
What a the point of offering wifi for phones at a restaurant? Don't they
already have service? Its not like an airport where you might be there for
hours without something to occupy yourself with.

~~~
iancarroll
Kids have iPods, some cell phones have bad reception, customer ran out of
data, the list goes on.

~~~
ConnorBoyd
Plus for international travelers, restaurant wifi is sometimes the only way to
get internet access

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nawitus
>Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their
order 21 minutes.

That's interesting. I'm ready to order in about one minute.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
On the rare occasions I get to eat out I find the waiter asks after about 1
minute if you're ready to order, if you're not ready then it can be 20 mins
before they'll even pass your table again ... presumably the computerised
seating plan/order system records average times [from seating to ordering] and
the waiters are prompted appropriately (slightly early if the restaurant wants
to push orders through faster)?

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jschwartzi
It's strange. I've had waiters ask if we're ready before everyone at the table
has even closed their menus. I recall being taught to use the menu as a signal
for whether you're ready or not. Is that not a thing anymore?

~~~
zimpenfish
I don't necessarily think it's a thing that waiters know about these days - in
my (admittedly limited - I'm more of a sandwich and fast food guy) experience
of eating out, closing the menus doesn't seem to trigger interaction any
sooner.

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keithpeter
Good catch. Just wondering, has neighbourhood use pattern changed? From a
predominantly business to mainly leisure/shopping focus?

Sounds like recent customers more 'event oriented' as well as having smart
phones. Perhaps 2004 customers more utilitarian/eating for need? That could be
checked by tallying group sizes.

~~~
yaur
If this is real it has to be Times Square/Theater District IMO so that is
unlikely to be a factor.

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beachstartup
i remember very clearly the first time i saw/held an iphone in person - it was
maybe 4 months before the release and a group of my friends were at brunch in
san francisco, in pac heights. one of my friends was working at apple
(actually he still works there...) and had a test model on him.

needless to say the entire restaurant stopped eating and was staring at us/it,
and we stayed at least 30 minutes longer than we would have otherwise. pretty
sure the waiter was annoyed.

recalling that scene in retrospect is quite telling. also, this was only in
2007! not that long ago. i have pants older than that that still look good.

anyway, about the article... since the restaurant is in NY they should just
put up a sign that says "using your phone causes slow service" or just ban
them outright.

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inturbidus
The fact that this has 133 points as of 7/24 is proof that, true or false, the
campaign worked. It was shared on my FB feed 4 times today. People don't care
if the stats are real because it resonates with them on a personal level.

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n0rm
> Before even opening the menu they take their phones out

> 26 out of 45 customers spend an average of 3 minutes taking photos of the
> food.

It's like instagram and pinterest and all the other feel-good platforms are
making us less efficient.

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fit2rule
Phew. For a moment there I thought the conclusion was going to be that the
waiters were all checking their phones between customers. Huge relief!

;)

