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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

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 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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.

maxerickson 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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.