It’s not just scanning a QR code. It’s that the sites almost always require you to verify your phone number so they can track you across orders. I mentally blacklist any store with online ordering and leave a negative review.
We're just talking about QR codes that open up a PDF or HTML page that shows the menu. It's not online ordering.
I mean I've seen online ordering as an option at a couple of places that I thought was cool, but you didn't have to. Literally everywhere else I've been (in NYC) it's just been a static menu. Not tracking you.
In the USA it's been 90% a redirect to some massive print-ready PDF stored on AWS, the other 10% it's a redirect to a hand-coded HTML file that is badly out of date.
But obviously no, I did the restaurant no favor. I financially deprived the restaurant of income, and the server unfortunately of a tip. And I tip big.
I don't owe the restaurant a visit. They do owe me an experience. If it begins with struggling with their QR menu system, I'm opting out for a variety of reasons.
And a struggle it is. First find the mode where QR results is something actionable (I have an older phone) Hopefully their WIFI is exceptional, and the password not onerous.
Then answer their marketing questions. Finally peer at a too-small menu you have to scroll through on a tiny screen with terrible pictures.
Find something interesting? How to share it with your dining partner(s). No, can't point to their menu or say "Page three on the bottom!". No, you have to give them your phone. Oops! They touched something or it scrolled or went into low-power.
It's a fairly miserable experience for some of us.
