Mendicant would work.
I’m trying to understand your bar for arrogance
Like beauty, it’s in the eyes of the beholder, I suppose, but in today’s climate one can become so inured to it that one cannot even see that one’s own discourse is shot through with it. _
What patience you have! You’re great, Minhua! Thanks for the detailed post.
Do you feel the same if a place only takes cash?
La Coroneta for example only takes cash [and despite having been there over 100 times I still often forget and have to run across the street to the ATM}
Yes, but not as strongly. If cash only is discriminatory , it’s discriminatory at least in part against elitists who won’t do anything unless there’s an app for it. At either extreme, owners are robbing themselves.
I believe in options, and inclusion rather than exclusion.
Well, I won’t call it elitists, but I do agree with you that there is a difference between cash only and credit card only. Everyone should have access to cash. Not everyone has a credit card or an app.
This is probably a generational issue, but this isn’t very convincing. Google Images and search results are not “research” to me. Again, that’s probably because my generation used to walk 5 miles to school in 10 feet of snow whereas now the kids get off if someone sees a snowflake. I will have to get used to this modern method of “proof”.
In general I have enjoyed the discussion here. Just specifically on this, I know it’s orthogonal to the main discussion, but I lived in China for a month last summer as a regular person, not tourist. Then spent a week in Beijing as a tourist. While I’m sure there are some people like this with QR codes, I didn’t see it even once. Maybe it’s common practice in different areas. Something about this sort of “reporting” really irks me.
I can back you up on all counts. A lot of Google searches usually just means a lot of people searching for the same elusive piece lof evidence.*
I spent a month in Shanghai last year, also not as a tourist. My wife is Shanghainese and we stayed at a relative’s apartment. I t was my 12th trip in 25 years, and I’m always looking out for cultural changes. I didn’t see a single teched-out mendicant (but can report fewer smokers and fewer people shopping in pajamas).
I too grew up in a heavy winter climate and snow days simply didn’t exist. Had only a mile to navigate but did it in temperatures as low as -40 and used snowshoes (but just as a lark) sometimes.
*The book below was required reading in one of my Freshman college classes and I’ve always been thankful for having had to read it.
I think that book was required reading for everyone in the 80s and 90s when I was going through school.
Some of my public school teachers would even have us call newspaper reporters to find out where they got their facts from; it wasn’t enough just to cite an article.
I used to outright dismiss the value of search engine and social media data, but now I think that’s too extreme a view. I do often find this data useful, it’s just I can’t yet quantify or articulate what that value is. So far nothing I’ve read has helped me refine my vague notions. Maybe I need to spend less time reading about food. I’m hoping for a book entitled “How to glean meaningful data via Google: A step-by-step guide explained through Taiwanese cooking.”
This was 1969-1960 at Cornell U. Probably a Frosh Econ class.
Okay, I should have added that while I continued my walk I noticed another food truck about a block away with no line at all. The long wait in a line, wasting half of one’s lunch hour maybe, is weird to me, but perhaps it’s a variation of “The journey is the destination.”
Since the op saw the truck at Powell and Ellis, I wonder how many of the customers are tourists? After all, tourists behave a bit differently than locals.
I still remember many years ago as a tourist we drove half an hour in LA to a Roy Choi truck, lined up for an hour to order $20 worth of food, then waited for 45 minutes to get the food, and found out that we were not even halfway full when we were done. That was stupid. And we did it because we were tourists who didn’t know better.
Inclusion does not always make things better. What does it mean for a restaurant that has to cater for every type of dietary restriction based on religious, health, or other needs? It translates to increased costs, which impacts the range and quality of food they can serve. There needs to some bar, it will be different for everyone person, I’m simply trying to understand where your bar is.
WRT the beggar qr codes, I felt silly for naively accepting what I had only read so I reached out to friends in Shanghai, one of whom has a friend that does a lot of outreach work amongst the homeless and has reported no QR codes in sight in major areas - People’s Sq, Railway station, Nanjing East rd, Jingan Temple. Apologies on that count.
What I don’t understand about Señor Sisig is why people stand in that long line when their food is incredibly dry and salty. As for going cashless, I think it’s the future and with most changes, people take time to adjust. But people who want to use cash everywhere are definitely part of the dwindling minority, especially in SF.
It could be class discrimination, but it’s not like colonial Britain or the Indian caste system. It’s only as discriminatory as much as pretty much everything else that comes out of the tech industry.
Reflecting back on my own experiences in China on the matter of panhandlers - major cities tend to be much much stricter in this area than smaller or more provincial ones. Shanghai are Beijing know to be elitist to a fault, and the general posture of Chinese cultural norms does not do much for those stuck in the rut.
When I was in Beijing as an exchange student (4 mo), the streets were absolutely clear of homeless. You’d get a few in the subway but even that was rare and considered bold.
Shanghai has never had a major homeless footprint from what I can remember as a child and as an adult in more recent years. Shanghai has an immigrant worker problem, and has had that for a long time (20+ yrs). But having lived as far west as Jiading and now splitting my time between Hongkou, Jingan, and the French Concession. It’s not something Ive picked out unlike here in SF.
How did you guys get from “accept credit card only” to “Chinese social inequality”?
That’s my fault, sorry. It wasn’t that big a deal, next time I’ll try not to derail the discussion.
I’ve been following this thread with interest after it caught my eye (due to the number of responses in such a short time). I live in LA, not San Francisco, but I think both cities tend to share many of the same trends at the same time.
Regarding the cashless payments – there are a number of food trucks and restaurants here in LA that already do this.
It’s for safety (no one can rob you if you don’t carry cash), it’s for keeping the employees honest (no one can pocket a few bucks while counting the register), it’s for ease during busy periods (you’re holding up the line trying to get more change, or open up rolls of coins), and it’s also for sanitation purposes (cash is pretty gross, and in a food truck, the people taking payments sometimes have to help out on the line).
I work in a food related industry that includes vending machines. We put credit card readers on our vending machines 3 years ago, in addition to them still being able to accept cash. Our sales were roughly 75/25 cash to card sales when we first implemented. Fast forward to today – it’s now 20/80 cash to card. If someone pockets some cash, it’s a lot more noticeable now since not as much cash comes in. So, it’s cut down on our sticky fingers that we used to have before. Some of our locations have asked us to remove the cash option on their machines and leave it as card only because of security/theft concerns.
The newer generations don’t carry cash like older generations do. I’m Gen X, and even most of my counterparts don’t carry much cash. I can tell you I have $11 in my wallet right now. It’s not because I’m broke, but because I can use a card everywhere I go – the grocery store, big box store, the gas station,etc. I’m not sure about SF, but here in LA, many of the parking meters are electronic and accept cards. There aren’t a lot of places that are cash only around here, except for the elote and fruit guys that come around my work. ($4 of my $11 will go towards a pineapple, cucumber, jicama fruit cup today). As a sign of the times, our gardener at the office, who is self employed, accepts credit card payments through Square, and our janitorial crew, who is a husband and wife team, accept payments through Paypal. That would be unheard of a few years ago.
One great example of a cashless business is the Costco gas station. They are card only. Doesn’t stop the crowds from going there. I’ve never heard anyone say they won’t get gas at Costco because they don’t take cash. It’s a great system, and keeps the lines moving.
Trucks (and businesses) like these are catering to the newer generations – the ones who are constantly on their phones, posting on social media etc. You can tell that just by looking at the pictures you posted – they’ve got all their QR codes for their social media accounts and their website displayed prominently. I googled them, and they are very active on Twitter, Instagram and their Facebook page. Their target audience isn’t “everyone”. Their target audience are the folks who are on their social media, posting pictures and comments throughout the day. Those people whip out their card, pay for their food, and then Instagram their plate. That’s how the word gets out about their food.
I agree with your description of SS’s market but you’ve put your finger on the problem when you said “Their target market isn’t ‘everyone’.” They are given a revocable permit by the City to operate on a public thoroughfare, and should be accessible to ANYONE with legal tender. I feel the City of San Francisco is derelict in its duty by not requiring this…
I disagree with your assumption that cashless processing is faster. Given the occasional glitches and card refusals (familiar to anyone who goes through supermarket checkout lines), cash transactios are in the aggregate faster, unless your cashiers are slow-witted or former Tower Records stoner clerks.
I’d also argue that the slowest step in the food truck delivery chain is preparing the food, and speeding customers through the ordering process just increases the time they have to wait for their purchase to be delivered to them (not that this is a concern of the vendor).
I also fiind it amusing, given the “roach coach” legacy of food trucks, that hygiene of the payment medium is cited as a justification for being cashless.
Regardless of their payment system, this is why I have mostly given up on SF food trucks [exceptions made for the OG taco trucks]. Nine times out of ten I find the food to be mediocre, expensive and small portions - on top of the long wait even after I have ordered.
I was really joking. I don’t mean it in a discouraging way. I was more surprised than annoyed. Like “Wow, how did you jump from A to D”? No apology is needed.
