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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 unbelieva

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.

samstave 12y ago
They should release the tapes.
- busterarm 12y ago
  Unless their customers all signed release forms, they can't.
  - x1798DE 12y ago
    Not that it's ever going to happen, but can't they just blur the faces of the customers like they do on Cops?
    - busterarm 12y ago
      Assuming they have the skill, time or budget to do that. It's a restaurant...
      - x1798DE 12y ago
        I don't even think they have anything even resembling an obligation to explain themselves. I personally think the whole thing is made up, it's got too many telltale signs, but I'm sure they don't care whether or not I believe that. If true, they're basically doing a public service to other restaurants by sharing their findings. If false, they wouldn't be able to prove anything anyway. It's really up to them whether they want to be believed or not, and I'm guessing they don't care.
  - jellicle 12y ago
    [citation needed]
    - busterarm 12y ago
      This is a fairly stupid/insipid response. Educate yourself. http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html#.U8FgF7QZYcs http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html#.... http://www.create-legal.com/867/model-release-forms http://www.create-legal.com/867/model-release-forms
  - gcb0 12y ago
    this is actually the reason i believe it was published anonymously. i doubt anyone would have a problem suing any restaurant for using security tapes for anything but security incidents. even that marketing research is muddy waters legally.
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
I think it's fake, but based on genuine observations.
- jellicle 12y 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.
  - belorn 12y ago
    The culture of photographing everything, or talking/texting in the restaurant can't really be attributed to "kids these days". In my limited anecdotal evidence, I more often see kids being neglected by parents in favor of a smartphone, rather than the other way around.
nmrm 12y 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 12y 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...
funkyy 12y 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 12y 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?
  - funkyy 12y ago
    The restaurant might identify a problem - few minutes longer serving time than 10 years ago caused by mobile usage. Restaurants want to guide people to not use mobile phones less in NYC restaurants. People use mobiles less = less time spent on serving them and quicker customer rotation. Restaurant saves up to 5 minutes per customer which equals to higher profit margins. Campaign is successful, marketing company responsible for it gets paid huge chunk of money as those few minutes in top restaurants is worth gold. If this is the case you might notice soon in NYC newspapers/NYC food guides articles about culture in restaurants. I have been doing "shadow marketing" for 7 years and such a strategy seems like a very good way to actually do this. It dosent seem to be effort of just one restaurant. I am not saying this sound impossible - I am saying this sound extremely stretched - instead of 40 minutes we are talking about probably 5 minutes top unless they are Hard Rock Cafe which is 100% tourist oriented.
thenmar 12y 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 12y ago
  No kidding. The horrible grammar is reminiscent of those letters, too.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- drdeadringer 12y ago
  "If you do not forward this to at least 10 restaurant suppliers, your business will fail."
asdfologist 12y 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 12y 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!
raverbashing 12y 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 12y 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.
  - raverbashing 12y ago
    Yes, I know about appetizers.
    - asdfologist 12y ago
      Then what's strange about food coming in 6 minutes?
- drmirror 12y 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.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
>CL >new york >manhattan >all personals >rants & raves It's in R&R, if that helps.
sxcurry 12y 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.
- gcb0 12y ago
  you never saw people take pictures of their food? are you for real?
  - sxcurry 12y ago
    I live in the Western US - it isn't very prevalent here. I suspect it's more common in NYC, where this supposed analysis took place.
  - ScottBurson 12y ago
    I don't recall seeing it either. I must not eat at the right restaurants. (I live in Silicon Valley.)

samstave 12y ago

They should release the tapes.

busterarm 12y ago
Unless their customers all signed release forms, they can't.
- x1798DE 12y ago
  Not that it's ever going to happen, but can't they just blur the faces of the customers like they do on Cops?
  - busterarm 12y ago
    Assuming they have the skill, time or budget to do that. It's a restaurant...
    - x1798DE 12y ago
      I don't even think they have anything even resembling an obligation to explain themselves. I personally think the whole thing is made up, it's got too many telltale signs, but I'm sure they don't care whether or not I believe that. If true, they're basically doing a public service to other restaurants by sharing their findings. If false, they wouldn't be able to prove anything anyway. It's really up to them whether they want to be believed or not, and I'm guessing they don't care.
- jellicle 12y ago
  [citation needed]
  - busterarm 12y ago
    This is a fairly stupid/insipid response. Educate yourself. http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html#.U8FgF7QZYcs http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html#.... http://www.create-legal.com/867/model-release-forms http://www.create-legal.com/867/model-release-forms
- gcb0 12y ago
  this is actually the reason i believe it was published anonymously. i doubt anyone would have a problem suing any restaurant for using security tapes for anything but security incidents. even that marketing research is muddy waters legally.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

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

jellicle 12y 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.
- belorn 12y ago
  The culture of photographing everything, or talking/texting in the restaurant can't really be attributed to "kids these days". In my limited anecdotal evidence, I more often see kids being neglected by parents in favor of a smartphone, rather than the other way around.

nmrm 12y 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 12y 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...

funkyy 12y 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 12y 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?
- funkyy 12y ago
  The restaurant might identify a problem - few minutes longer serving time than 10 years ago caused by mobile usage. Restaurants want to guide people to not use mobile phones less in NYC restaurants. People use mobiles less = less time spent on serving them and quicker customer rotation. Restaurant saves up to 5 minutes per customer which equals to higher profit margins. Campaign is successful, marketing company responsible for it gets paid huge chunk of money as those few minutes in top restaurants is worth gold. If this is the case you might notice soon in NYC newspapers/NYC food guides articles about culture in restaurants. I have been doing "shadow marketing" for 7 years and such a strategy seems like a very good way to actually do this. It dosent seem to be effort of just one restaurant. I am not saying this sound impossible - I am saying this sound extremely stretched - instead of 40 minutes we are talking about probably 5 minutes top unless they are Hard Rock Cafe which is 100% tourist oriented.

thenmar 12y 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 12y ago
No kidding. The horrible grammar is reminiscent of those letters, too.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
drdeadringer 12y ago
"If you do not forward this to at least 10 restaurant suppliers, your business will fail."

asdfologist 12y 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 12y 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!

raverbashing 12y 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 12y 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.
- raverbashing 12y ago
  Yes, I know about appetizers.
  - asdfologist 12y ago
    Then what's strange about food coming in 6 minutes?
drmirror 12y 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.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

fnordfnordfnord 12y ago

>CL >new york >manhattan >all personals >rants & raves It's in R&R, if that helps.

sxcurry 12y 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.

gcb0 12y ago
you never saw people take pictures of their food? are you for real?
- sxcurry 12y ago
  I live in the Western US - it isn't very prevalent here. I suspect it's more common in NYC, where this supposed analysis took place.
- ScottBurson 12y ago
  I don't recall seeing it either. I must not eat at the right restaurants. (I live in Silicon Valley.)