Off the menu: why restaurants are ditching QR codes

[Sam_400º]

Source: The Guardian

”A report in the New York Times says that scans of restaurant QR codes have fallen by 27% in a year. Plus, fewer restaurants are creating new QR-code menus and about 75% of all restaurant QR-code menus were scanned fewer than 90 times in the past 12 months.”

For me I’m still all in on QR codes and self serve at my pizza truck as it’s all about keeping things moving! 

[tranguyen]

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing @Sam_400º! I'm always the only friend in the group with the full battery phone ready for a QR code challenge so I can't say I'll miss that responsibility 😂

[LukeNieuw]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I haven't embraces them as much as I should. 

[BlackRockSeafoo]

Qr Codes are another step that people have to learn. My older customers don't even look at their phones when purchasing. They look at me and ask questions. I think AR might help if people embrace it, but it takes a long time to change. Even when "everyone else is doing it," Qr codes are Awesome for the business, but as a customer, they are another step. And battery life is a thing. Batteries are still not up to the challenge of holding a charge all day under heavy use. 

[mksavage]

How interesting! I've actually been curious about this. We had a QR code in place during the height of COVID (when we temporarily stopped printing reusable menus), but removed them about 6 months ago because we didn't see people using them, and they were cluttering things up. A manager recently suggested we bring them back (because people have such a hard time finding the menu stand for some reason), and I was wondering "does anyone even use them anymore...?"

I agree that it definitely seems divided by demographic, so maybe they still are helpful for some people. For me, I am sensitive to the amount of signage we have posted around -- with too many signs, people stop paying attention.

[Bronze_Palms]

I like QR codes for clients to follow us on Instagram or checkin with us on Yelp! Outside of that, we don't use QR codes too much. 

Great idea for menus on a food truck though! One less thing to clean and everyone has a phone!

[PeterIstrate]

There's also a high probability of fraud with QR codes.

There have been reports of thugs replacing different businesses' QR codes with their own custom codes, without the business noticing it. Those fake QR codes would direct people to different other phishing websites where their details were stolen, or even where customers made direct payments.

More and more people have become wary of this.

I personally, avoid the QR codes like plague, and I'm a youngster with background in tech and marketing, not an old guy who is not used with technology.