The Appetizer ... or the Main Course ... of Things to Come?

This place has been open a couple of years. You use an ipad to completely order your food at your table. Waiter then brings your food.

http://stacked.com/#exp

 

I think this can work at Chili's, Denny's, Applebees, Perkins, Red Robin type places.

If you try it at more upscale places there will be backlash.

 

When I got to one of the chain's, I just want to eat something quick.
When I got somewhere nice, I want the experience. If some of the non-chains used this, I'd stop going. Few things make for a more pleasurable dining experience than a waiter who knows his stuff.

 

I'm all for this. Anything that keeps the tip money in my pocket.

 

I got food the other day from Qdoba and there was a tip jar by the register. Same with Starbucks, I've heard. Ridiculous. I'm a good tipper. When someone actually waits on me.

 

Same here...

 

I agree. One tipping situation I struggle with though is takeout, which we get often with a toddler at home. There's usually somebody making some kind of effort to handle the order, but tipping them the same as a waiter who takes care of you the entire meal doesn't seem right. I usually end up adding a couple bucks to the tip line regardless of the size of the bill, but I don't know if that's the way to go or not.

 

Uno's has those tablets and has had them for a couple years now. I hate them. They feel like an intrusion. We only eat there with our kids in the first place and then they just start whining to play the games on the tablet (which cost extra). I want my kids to be able to sit in a restaurant and engage in conversation when they're waiting for their food, not get more addicted to screens than they already are.

 

At King's Food Host in Bismarck, you picked up a phone and ordered from your booth. Thirty-five years ago.

 

1. I have no problem with this. Eliminating half the serving jobs at Chilis and Applebees will be a blow to high school students around the nation (or in the case of IHOP and Denny's, it will be a blow to dirty toothless 55 year old women.) Anyway, this is the wave of the future for these type of places, and that's fine by me.

2. The propagation of tip jars is a travesty. I live in a very tourist-dependent town, so maybe it's a little more common here, but it's ridiculous. The only food/drink places in the entire town that don't have a tip jar are the fast food places (McDonalds, Wendy's and Taco Bell.) There's a tip jar in the Domino's here. WTF? The only reason to go pick it up is to avoid tipping, now I'm still supposed to tip? I guess you still miss out on the bullshit "delivery fee." There's a tip jar in a pizza buffet place. WTF? I'm serving myself. There are tip jars at Subway and every other sandwich place in town. There's a tip jar at the hot dog cart. It's ridiculous.

 

I think you're going to be seeing a lot more of this type of thing, in places you wouldn't ordinarily expect to see it. There are obvious efficiency/productivity drivers of it, but I think there are some non-obvious customer satisfaction facets in play as well. Customers won't have to wait to be waited on, and they can be kept more in-the-loop regarding how long it'll be before their entrees are ready. Managing expectations is HUGE in service environments, and this technology can be a very powerful tool in that regard. It also wouldn't take very much tweaking to make it work in higher-end restaurants -- I could see the menu being one of those ultra-thin tablets. The whole role of the server is going to be changing radically in the coming years.

 

Reporters should, in their taglines, have a PayPal account set up for readers to pay them tips. Newspapers can then save more money from salaries. Win-Win!