DIY when going out AIBU to want to return to pre covid levels of service?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Odeon - no ticket office, buy tickets online or on a touchscreen machine when you arrive. Can’t order food / snacks at the counter, back to the touchscreen things to order what we wanted, back to the counter to be given our nachos and empty cups - go to the machine to fill it yourself.

Pizza Hut - could you please scan this qr code to order what you’d like. Ok, then they bring empty glasses and you have to go and get your own drinks from the machines. Ice cream for dessert? Here an empty bowl, fill it yourself. Sit down again, the spoons are back where the machine is, not on the table.

Nandos - you can order at the desk but we’d prefer it if you scan this qr code and order online. Then we’ll bring you empty glasses and you have to fill them yourself as well as collecting your own cutlery, condiments and napkins.

2 local very nice restaurant- now want food choices in advance. I like deciding what I fancy once I’m there.

I know none of these are very upmarket places, but if I’m eating out I don’t want to be up and down all the time sorting drinks etc for everyone (young kids and self service drinks machines aren’t the best mix!) I want to sit down and chat and relax with the rest of the group that I’m with. Please can we go back to pre pandemic levels of service?

And only the minority. Most people hated it, didn’t want it, knew it wouldn’t achieve anything.

It's the booking for deserted places that pisses me off. Was out and thought we could take 2 year old to the local city farm thingy. Got there and walked the path, nobody was around as usual, nearly at the end. Then footsteps and 'did you book a ticket?'. It's literally just us here, you approaching us to ask about a ticket and to kick us out is less social distancing than just letting us finish the path. We were told we now always have to book a ticket in advance and to leave, immediately. I've never once thought 'ooh, in a fortnight, I'd love to wander my 2yo round the city farm because I will have run out of ideas on a grey day' or 'I hope 50 other people haven't also decided to stare at the rescue chickens today' 🙄

I haven't been to Nandos post pandemic - you had to get your own drink even then.

Also McDonald's: last time I went (pre pandemic) you had to order on a screen which I didn't like so left.

Yanbu about the general trend though - it's shit.

In many cases it is true that covid restrictions may have kicked off some of these changes, but I suspect that it has little to do with the current situation.

I think the main drivers for the change you describe appearing to become permanent is actually that hospitality, tourism and entertainment venues are all struggling significantly to recruit and are also facing the same rising costs as everyone else. The former is largely due to a combination of Brexit and then the pandemic. Businesses are also facing huge rises in costs, just like the rest of us (most use if a lot of electricity/gas so utility bills rising, staffing costs rising with rise in NI etc, food and oil prices are rising, costs of other supplies are also on the rise).

They could increase pay in an attempt to attract staff but then they would have to raise prices, which would cause a hue and cry in itself. Some are bigger companies who may have a degree of wriggle room, and perhaps could take the hit (though that may impact the business longer term if investors pull the plug or it attracts less investment in the future) but most smaller businesses just don’t have the same leeway- increasing pay without increasing prices may just not be viable. And increasing prices may well lead to drop in custom as fewer people willing or able to pay higher costs, this negatively impacting viability in another way.

I purposefully choose restaurants and stores where I can order and pay without having to touch anything or come in close contact with anyone. I strongly prefer ordering and paying via app.

I don’t like fetching utensils from a communal location because that defeats the purpose of minimizing touch points

I have a friend who cannot use a smart phone let alone a computer (mental health issues & age).

All this online stuff is incredibly discriminatory against folk who (for whatever reason) cannot use online devices (including ourselves some nights when our mobile signal dwindles to zero and BT grinds to a halt)

I know take a bottle of wine to the Odeon with plastic glasses because I refuse to play their ridiculous order at the machine game! Drives me nuts!

Some of it I don't mind. I paid via QR code in Zizzis when I was finished. Brilliant. No waiting around for the, very overworked, wait staff to bring me the bill.

But I do prefer looking at an actual menu and talking to a human to place my order.

I love the touchscreens in McDonald's/KFC. The entrance to the store is devoted to those ordering and eating, while the counter space is for those waiting for food. Seems more efficient.

But saddened that I've only just realised there's no Pizza Hut restaurant within 20 miles of where I live now. There used to be two, but one closed pre-pandemic, and the other went about a year ago. Poor DKids won't get the fun of pizza buffet and ice-cream factory.

Pizza Hut and Nando’s were both doing those things well before covid

The cinema is a fair enough complaint. There should be someone to order tickets and drinks/snacks from if you don’t want to mess around with tech. I suspect they did offer both at some point but soon realised 80% of customers were happy to use machines for tickets etc. And as other posters have suggested, not a lot of Brits want to work in such jobs for minimum wage, a lot of these types of roles would have been filled by people from Europe.

Self serve drink machine is generally a good thing though, usually they have good customisation options so you can do weird flavours of coke or whatever and can do ice as you like it. Can also down a bit and refill whilst you’re there if you want to get your moneys worth.

Your local restaurant sounds weird… you booked over the phone and they demanded your order? Could you not just say you’d look at the menu on the night or were happy to risk some items not being available, if that was some of their excuse. I figure you can still just walk in and get a table?

I love ordering on a touchscreen or an app - I have time to think about what I want, and can see all the options set out clearly. Much easier than trying to read off a menu on the wall and hope the server hears you correctly.

I really wish they did away with app ordering as I think young people who are just starting to eat out could do with speaking to other humans occasionally. Especially after being deprived of doing so due to COVID. It’s why I don’t like self serve at supermarkets - it’s taking away human contact and leaving us with people totally incapable of holding a conversation with a stranger

Have you just never eaten out before? Nandos and Pizza Hut is not a covid thing.

Also if I harm no 4G allowance left and the Wi-Fi is dodgy it’s just frustrating!

This.

My grandad is 90, and he is out every day and usually pops somewhere for lunch. He’s as fit as a fiddle but he is also as blind as a bat! I get really frustrated when he tells me he has been told to scan a QR code or order on the app. He doesn’t know what that means and when he says that I think the servers are completely perplexed about what to do. If they happen to have a large print menu they often can’t find it. Poor man just wants a sandwich

I had a baby 9 months before the pandemic and generally didn’t eat out much when I was pregnant (sickness, exhaustion). So 18 months before Covid hit was likely the last time I regularly went to restaurants. Really common for big chains to have introduced QR code ordering at the table. So it’s definitely not pandemic related. And as lots of PP have pointed out, you’ve been given an empty glass/cup/bowl in Nando’s, Odeon and Pizza Hut for ions.

Doesn’t make it not shit though.

Not unreasonable at all, in fact customer service was awful pre covid, now its mostly an excuse to provide no human interaction at all.

I don't want to download an app to book farm tickets or to find out how much they cost, it drives me mad.

It's the same bad experience of self service as some supermarkets, you would surely only use these places if you had to, not by choice.

I love doing my own drinks, you can customise and get the exact ice ratio. No spoons on the table for your ice cream is a non-problem really, isn’t it, if spoons are available at the ice-cream stand or the cutlery stand. Plenty of pubs too have always had cutlery and condiments as a self-service thing.

Eat at fancier places if you want fancier service? Personally I enjoy a bit of screen service and not having to interact sometimes.

I hate the online ordering thing at Nando’s as for whatever reason it always seems to take much longer but I guess they won’t change it as then they don’t need so many staff

I fear this is going to be the norm now they know they can charge us all ever increasing amounts yet offer next to no service

We have just had a swanky new KFC open nearby. You cannot order at the till. There is a whole wall of touch screens to order yourself. You get a number and it's all thrown in a bag whether you are eating in or not.

And the price has gone through the roof. Took the DCs there on the last day of term, 4 of us had a box meal each, with sides added and drinks it was just shy of £30. And they got half the order wrong and/or missing. So I then had to try and find one of them to ask where everything was.

I've told the family now that since I'm going to practically do 90% of the work when we eat out and it costs so much to do so, I'm buying food in and making our own fake version.

Nandos and Pizza Hut have always had self serve drinks/ ice cream, even 10-15 years ago.

The QR codes are great for some people (I like it) and you can order at the till if you want to anyway, it's not the only option.

Haven't heard about the preordering at local restaurants. They might be understaffed, many hospitality places are due to Brexit.

But as someone above said - these are not fancy places - if you want better service you have to pay for it especially in today's world.

True. People simply cannot have the service they might like at the prices they used to pay any more, or possibly not even at any price. The labour isn't available.

At least with Pizza Hut, I only had to visit a web page to order. I hate those establishments that need you to download an app - I don't want yet another app on my ancient (but still working) smartphone, downloading an app takes data, and I'll only uninstall it again later because I won't be going back!

the nice restaurants probably want food choices in advance so they know what to order

similarly, I don't mind advance booking because they may need to know whether to open or not.

but downloading another app to book things - that's annoying, and who profits? We cba going to the Tiffany exhibition for just that reason.

Pizza hut has always been help yourself to drinks when I was taking dds years ago,Nandos is the same. Everything else I agree with you QR codes bring me out in a cold sweat the ordering or paying on touch screens is stressful and unhygienic. Just serve me thank you