Interesting, but a lot of it seems a total contradiction of a New Jersey diner menu. Even a small diner menu here (e.g., Broad Street Diner) is eight pages.
Lots of discussion about this topic in the trade. Good article overall. Missed the element of sanitizing menus vice paper disposable that many places are torturing themselves over. Plenty of places are indeed going to QR codes. Just under 80% of Americans have smartphones (behind Germany and UK). That does mean QR-code-only approaches leave 20% of the market on the table (ha!).
Unfortunately phones are Petri dishes. See https://time.com/4908654/cell-phone-bacteria/ . If more people are washing their hands more often that should be getting better, but how many people really clean their phones regularly?
Of course we are not āpost-pandemicā yet. Weāre definitely mid-pandemic. It will be quite some time before my wife and I dine out. A little take-out (six times since February) but mostly cooking and eating at home with curbside delivery of everything except produce for which we make quick early-morning runs with masks and gloves.
You donāt miss physically going shopping at the grocery store?
Iāve never been a list guy. I connect to the store when Iām walking through it.
Besides, I canāt shop the markdown meat section on my phone.
I miss physically shopping in the world of January 2020. I donāt miss dealing with anti-maskers and the ānose outā and āchin braā set. Iām happy to minimize the time wearing nitrile gloves and a mask. We arenāt ready to hand off produce shopping to someone else. Everything else is okay.
Your point on in-store specials, discount bins, etc. is well taken. We tack those onto our produce runs. 60 to 90 minutes in the store are still down to 15 to 20 minutes and reduced exposure is good. The world has changed and behaving as if it has not is not a survival characteristic. āI Am Legendā and āThe Walking Deadā come to mind.
Interesting read, thanks! I have noticed that the few local places we order from, which are independently owned, have shortened their menus since the pandemic.
During lockdown, two offered short menus geared for takeout (and delivery) only. Family-style specials were a āthingā then, with different dishes on different nights. I am guessing family-style options will return when outdoor dining is no longer practical in the cold.
Timely. Yesterday, for the first time since March I decided to venture into a market. The number of people was small so that was good; the number of people who canāt manage to follow the directional arrows placed by the store was mind boggling. But, the worst was a man who decided to attempt to leave with his goods without paying. He got combative with store staff who stopped him, a wine bottle went flying, breaking and spilling, tortillas were thrown etc. it was sad and a bit scary.
So, Iāve confirmed that for now, in store shopping is not for me.
Added a third knife and fork to your post, @aussieshepsx2 just as an acknowledgement for what you had to witness. Unfortunate.
