Busy NYC Restaurant Solves Major Mystery by Reviewing Old Surveillance

http://dineability.com/busy-nyc-restaurant-solves-major-mystery-reviewing-old-surveillance/

by profquail • 12 years ago

133 70 12 years ago

dineability.com

BCM43• 12 years ago

Actual link: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html

leviathant• 12 years ago

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.

throwaway283719• 12 years ago

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."

asdfologist3• 12 years ago

What's so bad about it? I found it short, insightful, and interesting. And the problem that they described apply to many other restaurants.

falcolas• 12 years ago

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• 12 years ago

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.

keithpeter• 12 years ago

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• 12 years ago

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

nawitus• 12 years ago

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.

pbhjpbhj3• 12 years ago

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)?

jschwartzi• 12 years ago

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?

cordite• 12 years ago

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• 12 years ago

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

ConnorBoyd• 12 years ago

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

nmrm4• 12 years ago

Many restaurants, in addition to the dinner crowd, also service a more business-oriented clientele during the day. Wifi might be more necessary for working lunches, which laptops/tablets instead of phones are necessary.

raverbashing4• 12 years ago

So how about this: don't work during lunch (at least not in a restaurant). Go to a mall plaza or somewhere that's not busy.

This is probably one of the most infuriating things in the work culture in Anglo North-America

nmrm4• 12 years ago

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.

pbhjpbhj3• 12 years ago

"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.]

fit2rule• 12 years ago

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!

;)

bhouston• 12 years ago

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.)

potatolicious• 12 years ago

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

samstave2• 12 years ago

They mentioned it was on July 3rd. Thats a holiday weekend, perhaps the % of patrons that weekend was exceedingly tourist and thus were more likely to "document" their NYC holiday vacation than patrons in, say, mid november.

busterarm4• 12 years ago

For an NYC restaurant? Popular with foodies? It sure seems accurate to me.

beachstartup• 12 years ago

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.

personlurking• 12 years ago

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• 12 years ago

It brings to mind The Truman Show.

jasonlfunk• 12 years ago

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.

samstave2• 12 years ago

They should release the tapes.

busterarm4• 12 years ago

Unless their customers all signed release forms, they can't.

pbhjpbhj3• 12 years ago

I think it's fake, but based on genuine observations.

jellicle2• 12 years ago

I think it's fake, not based on any particular observations, but instead just displaying the author's feelings about kids these days.

It's truthy, in other words.

nmrm4• 12 years ago

The first one isn't so unbelievable is the restaurant is a quasi tourist attraction.

The second one seems a bit high, but could be plausible if there are choke points.

superchan• 12 years ago

I don't think that it's that unreasonable. It's possible that this particular restaurant might be in a very tourist heavy area of NYC. Also, there might just have been an influx of customers taking pictures for that time period. Who knows...

funkyy2• 12 years ago

They wont show evidence. It seem manipulated for me as well. Never in my life I was in restaurant that could come any close to those numbers.

The only reason might be - this restaurant is focused on "Hipster" community known for heavy usage of their phones.

Also if user stays on his phone for so long I am sure he knows how to set Wifi without taking whole 5 minutes of waiter time.

And finally - 20% people sent their food back for reheating? I am not sure if there is different culture in NYC but from perspective of guest I my see 1% of returns in restaurants I go to.

This post seems like an instruction guide created by some restaurant union/organization to speed up the time and improve profits of restaurants by making people feel bad about using their phones.

randallsquared• 12 years ago

This post seems like an instruction guide created by some restaurant union/organization to speed up the time and improve profits of restaurants by making people feel bad about using their phones.

I'm a little confused about whether you essentially agree or disagree that the scenario(s) in the post are valid. If this isn't really a problem, as implied by your scepticism in the first few points, then why would there be any concerted effort to solve the problem?

thenmar• 12 years ago

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.

anondog• 12 years ago

No kidding. The horrible grammar is reminiscent of those letters, too.

drdeadringer• 12 years ago

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

asdfologist3• 12 years ago

I don't see what's so surprising about the statistics. First of all, the footages they described were for just 2 days, so that's a small sample, which means that many of the large numbers may just be due to volatility.

"60% of customers asked the waiter to take a group photo?" If a large percentage of customers come in groups (which makes sense), then that doesn't seem surprising.

"17% of people bumped into someone while texting?" Maybe it's a small restaurant?

jcromartie• 12 years ago

My problem is with the times they cite. They say that "on average" the group photo incidents took 5 minutes. That's utter BS. Imagine being at a table, having a waiter approach, and asking them to take a photo. You hand them the phone, they take a picture (maybe even fumbling to figure it out a little bit if they've never used that device before), hand it back, and you're either done or ask for another one. The second one goes faster.

All together that might take 30 to 40 seconds with a retake. Imagine actually sitting there for 5 minutes trying to take a group photo, and it's really ridiculous. 5 minutes is an eternity for one waiter to spend in a single visit at one table, and they say this is an average!

raverbashing4• 12 years ago

What rings the weirdest to me is: food coming in 6 minutes.

Maybe this is a cafe/snack place of some sort

It's a good story and it gets the idea right, but I would like to see this measured further.

fernly• 12 years ago

food STARTS coming in 6 minutes. That could mean a basket of rolls and some olive oil for dipping. Or maybe they have all the salads pre-made so they can whip out the salad course.

drmirror• 12 years ago

Six minutes sounds about right to me, if the food is not complex. Try using a stopwatch next time you're in a restaurant. The service industry is pulling some pretty amazing stuff, all the time.

fnordfnordfnord• 12 years ago

CL >new york >manhattan >all personals >rants & raves

It's in R&R, if that helps.

sxcurry2• 12 years ago

I agree - this whole post is totally unbelievable. I eat in restaurants all the time and have never seen a single person take a picture of their food - group photos are rare and happen quickly. I call fake.

gcb02• 12 years ago

you never saw people take pictures of their food? are you for real?

tomasien• 12 years ago

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.

maxerickson• 12 years ago

Last time I was in a restaurant the service was slow because the server wasn't watching their tables. We were on the bar side and had gotten menus (and drinks) from the bartender. At least 10 minutes later we hadn't even seen a server yet. That's nothing to get upset about given the place we were in, but it's also not a good way to run a business.

I don't think anybody at the table had their phone out for more than a minute, and no pictures were taken.

plorg• 12 years ago

Also, the not-apparently-in-jest use of the phrase "you'll never guess what we found" in the article body suggests to me that the author is making a ham-handed attempt at a viral story.

jeffmould• 12 years ago

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.

nness• 12 years ago

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.

toddmorey• 12 years ago

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.

n0rm• 12 years ago

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.

galago• 12 years ago

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.

inturbidus• 12 years ago

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.

Busy NYC Restaurant Solves Major Mystery by Reviewing Old Surveillance

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