Many restaurants are switching back to physical menus, in part because customers hate QR-code menus, The New York Times reported.

People hate QR-code menus. Now restaurants are ditching them.

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2023-05-25 00:30:04

Many restaurants are switching back to physical menus, in part because customers hate QR-code menus, The New York Times reported.

"They are almost universally disliked," Kristen Hawley, founder of the restaurant technology newsletter Expedite, told the Times.

QR-code menus became prolific at restaurants during the pandemic, enabling customers to view menus, order, and pay and tip all at once. These digital menus rose to prominence during the pandemic for sanitary purposes, as they helped to eliminate contact between restaurant staff and customers.

But since then, fewer restaurants are creating QR-code menus and the codes that are active are receiving fewer scans from customers, Mark Plumlee, the senior content manager for menu management and printing platform MustHaveMenus, told the Times.

Customers don't want to take out their phones when dining out, because it can be perceived as rude or distracting, the Times reported. One restaurant owner told the Times that that the QR-code menu is essentially "the antithesis of romance," because it can inhibit conversation. The QR menus have also sparked privacy concerns around tracking customer data, Insider reported.

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