Cell phones cause restaurant delays

[speedog]

Cell phones cause restaurant delays - don't know how prevalent this is but from the Toronto SUN...

A Craigslist ad claiming selfies and cellphone use are the reason for slower service in restaurants is going viral.

The anonymous restaurant upon reviewing surveillance footage from both 2004 and 2014, it determined that people using their cellphones increased the average dining experience by 50 minutes.

Although the post has been removed from Craigslist, you can read it in its entirety here.

Link to Toronto SUN story.

Link to copy of Craig's list story.

Now I'm not a regular restaurant patron and can't really comment on this but I do notice the cellphone usage in other venues (grocery store line-up, retail store line-ups, coffee shop line-ups, etc) does slow things down a bit - not a major inconvenience but it is there. I guess that's just maybe going to become a sort of society norm.

[jwslam]

does this not tie into your other thread?

I'm all for it
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/383367/de...-a-cell-phone/

[speedog]

It does and I did think about bumping this thread but I believe the restaurant angle can stand on it's own merit.

Back on topic, I suppose that NYC restaurant could consider not offering wifi service although that wouldn't address most of the issues they're experiencing. But by removing the public wifi service, they'd at least have waiters that weren't having to perform a rudimentary IT support role.

Anyhow, have the Beyond members who regularly frequent restaurants experienced any of this? And should restaurants be offering free wifi because if in the end, free wifi contributes to even a little bit more to extended customer stays with no additional revenues - is that in a restaurant's best interests?

Now I know it's illegal (if done through active or passive means) unless people just voluntarily turn off their devices, but a cellphone free dining environment would be kind of nice.

[lasimmon]

I can only see it if the Waiter or Waitress was on their cellphone?

How is me sitting at my table on my phone slowing down the Waiter or Waitress getting my food or drinks? Or the kitchen making my food?

Those are the main slow downs in my opinion. And terrible servers at that.

[rage2]

I could see this being true in NY. Tourists are going to snap away at pictures and get group photos because it's a touristy thing to do. Anywhere else, not so much. I eat out a lot, and when I'm just going for a meal I'm in and out in under an hour, cell phone or no cell phone. When I'm with a group of people, we're there for 2+ hours, hanging out and chatting. I don't think cell phones is the contributing factor, it's the clientele.

[Feruk]

Seems a little far fetched. 26 of the 45 customers take a picture of their food? Doubt it. Once in a while I see someone doing this, but it's pretty rare. To suggest 60% of people do it seems obsurd.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by Feruk
Seems a little far fetched. 26 of the 45 customers take a picture of their food? Doubt it. Once in a while I see someone doing this, but it's pretty rare. To suggest 60% of people do it seems obsurd.

I wouldn't be shocked. Take a look at Instagram or look at all the people with #foodporn as part of their posts.

Upon reading the Craigslist post, it seems that disabling WiFi would probably be in the best interests of the restaurant. It might cut down on the times slightly, but in the long run you're going to have to find a way to deal with chatty people if dining times are such a huge issue.

[rage2]

Again, NY, tourists. I think I took pics of my food at every place I went to on my last NY trip where I was sober enough to remember to take pics.

[speedog]

In 2014 at that restaurant, 20% of the customers sent back their food to be reheated and presumably because of the time they spent doing things other than consuming said food and also probably because they're on their cell phones. That increase to 20% compared to less than 5% 10 years earlier once again contributes to restaurant delays/slowed service because that waiter and some kitchen staff now have this increased workload to deal with.

As far as posting food pics, FraserB is right - I don't get it but it appears to become a social norm to post up a pic of every little change/event in their life on some social media platform.