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iPad's Momentum in Restaurants Grows with Buffalo Wild Wings Trial
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Regardless, the same germs are in the entire restaurant with or without the iPad. All the germaphobes with their anti-bacteria wipes and gels are contributing to the evolution of "Super-Resistant Bacteria."
What a dumb idea. I thought they were going to say they were going to use the iPads for taking orders, displaying specials or menu items, taking reservations and payments, and perhaps mounting them like mini TVs for viewing.
This is a terrible idea on so many levels:
One: The point of going out to eat with friends and family is to enjoy their company and good food together, not with your nose stuck in an iPad while the guys watch a game. What happened to etiquette of keeping your phone and devices off or at least in your pocket during dinner?
Two: Worse place to choose, imagine as others said how dirty and grimy these iPads will be. I'll bet at least one a day gets damaged.
Three: You'll have every one touching (read breaking) these things throughout the day. You'll get idiots asking questions about the iPad or how to do this and that on it slowing down service.You'll basically give your underpaid staff more reasons to hate their jobs I'm sure.
Follow this: K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid and keep iPads off my dining table.
This is a terrible idea on so many levels:
One: The point of going out to eat with friends and family is to enjoy their company and good food together, not with your nose stuck in an iPad while the guys watch a game. What happened to etiquette of keeping your phone and devices off or at least in your pocket during dinner?
Two: Worse place to choose, imagine as others said how dirty and grimy these iPads will be. I'll bet at least one a day gets damaged.
Three: You'll have every one touching (read breaking) these things throughout the day. You'll get idiots asking questions about the iPad or how to do this and that on it slowing down service.You'll basically give your underpaid staff more reasons to hate their jobs I'm sure.
Follow this: K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid and keep iPads off my dining table.
I'm actually not a fan of this move. giving the customer so much control over ordering can get messy. hate to be blunt but the customer is usually wrong 
go to any subway sandwich place and watch your average customer trying to order a simple sub. it's chaos
go to any subway sandwich place and watch your average customer trying to order a simple sub. it's chaos
A thought here but what about that waterproof coating?
Could that be used to "clear coat" the iPads so as not to be destroyed?
And yes, it is funny about germ-cautious people. Yes germs are everywhere but sometimes you help build tolerance.
As for wait staff, it will help make the experience "better" imagine wanting a drink/napkins/etc you can just "ring the bell" or order a refill and have it brought out rather than wait for the waiter/ress and get tired of waiting and give up.
Now granted after sitting and ordering, I do sometimes like to go wash my hands before touching food and maybe it will be at the table but there is not NEED to use it, just another avenue of activity and interactivity for the restaurant.
Maybe anyone afraid of a public iPad, should bring along some wipes to cleanse it first.
Could that be used to "clear coat" the iPads so as not to be destroyed?
And yes, it is funny about germ-cautious people. Yes germs are everywhere but sometimes you help build tolerance.
As for wait staff, it will help make the experience "better" imagine wanting a drink/napkins/etc you can just "ring the bell" or order a refill and have it brought out rather than wait for the waiter/ress and get tired of waiting and give up.
Now granted after sitting and ordering, I do sometimes like to go wash my hands before touching food and maybe it will be at the table but there is not NEED to use it, just another avenue of activity and interactivity for the restaurant.
Maybe anyone afraid of a public iPad, should bring along some wipes to cleanse it first.
I guess they will just have to ban seniors or other people who aren't tech savvy. OMG I think they would have to have it stuck on a particular app wherein you could not switch out, but they also mentioned people surfing or face booking, and seriously, wifi is NOT secure, that info can be merrily snapped up by anyone who wants it. Well anyone who has the tech to do it.
Good thing they are not using Androids or the food orders would get messed up.
You mean like accidently sending your greasy order to a stolen iPhone?
That would be bad. Burp, frap.
I'm with a few people above, terrible idea. People these days (particularly kids) don't know how to talk to people anymore if they aren't behind a keyboard. This will just increase the trend of people becoming more and more socially dumb. I know it's just BW3's but if successful this idea could expand. Now, instead of people watching the games and socializing, you'll have people waiting to get on facebook. Oh and I'm not some old guy complaining about the younger generation; I'm 23 years old. I'm all for technology moving us into the future but this is an example of us taking a step back in the social respect.
Oh and I'm surprised no one has mentioned about how there's so many drunk idiots at these places. More than a few will break per month by those that can't handle their alcohol.
Oh and I'm surprised no one has mentioned about how there's so many drunk idiots at these places. More than a few will break per month by those that can't handle their alcohol.
I will say I have seen ipads used as a checkout machine at a local brewery here. Very cool. Lets you pay for your beer with a card and then has tip options, etc.
I like how it was implemented
For those familiar with Fort Collins, check out the Equinox brewery in old town
I like how it was implemented
For those familiar with Fort Collins, check out the Equinox brewery in old town
Seems very similar to the old tabletop arcade machines they used to have at some bars. They had better have some hand sanitizer available.
There's a sushi restaurant in Tokyo which also uses an iPad to order food. Not surprisingly, there's always a line. I decided to wait for roughly an hour and eventually got a spot at a booth.
There are two sections of the restaurant- one is a counter/bar type seating area where you just grab the food you want from the conveyor belt in front of you, and there's a regular booth type seating area.
If you're seated at one of the booths, there are two iPads mounted that swivel around. There's a custom made app- tap the type of food/drink etc that you want, add it to your 'shopping cart' and click to 'check out'.
There's another conveyor-esque track on top of the regular sushi conveyor belt (think a city flyover). Your ordered food zips around on a little cart and when it gets to your table you take your food, push the button and off the cart goes to serve food to other people.
In case you're wondering, yes, they clean the iPad's screen after each customer left with a cloth and some spray stuff, but this is a sushi restaurant and the iPads are mounted in the air so there's nobody rubbing hot wings on the screen or dipping the iPad in coleslaw. Just fingerprints and a bit of soy sauce cleaned off I'm guessing.
And that's my cool story bro story of the day
There are two sections of the restaurant- one is a counter/bar type seating area where you just grab the food you want from the conveyor belt in front of you, and there's a regular booth type seating area.
If you're seated at one of the booths, there are two iPads mounted that swivel around. There's a custom made app- tap the type of food/drink etc that you want, add it to your 'shopping cart' and click to 'check out'.
There's another conveyor-esque track on top of the regular sushi conveyor belt (think a city flyover). Your ordered food zips around on a little cart and when it gets to your table you take your food, push the button and off the cart goes to serve food to other people.
In case you're wondering, yes, they clean the iPad's screen after each customer left with a cloth and some spray stuff, but this is a sushi restaurant and the iPads are mounted in the air so there's nobody rubbing hot wings on the screen or dipping the iPad in coleslaw. Just fingerprints and a bit of soy sauce cleaned off I'm guessing.
And that's my cool story bro story of the day
How do you pay for your purchase...
1) give cash and get change...
2) give credit card and get credit card back...
3) How many different people use that register or cc reader?
I hope you wash and disinfect your hands after any of these very unsanitary activities before you handle your food
You dont touch the table, salt and pepper shakers, ketchup, mustard and all the things that are at the table before you sit down?
Or, one better, use your own iPhone to place an order while in the drive thru line at your favorite take out restaurant...
Here's a no-frills app I wrote a few years back to demonstrate it with InN'Out.
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The Chili's here in Peoria already has a somewhat similar setup. They weren't iPads, but some kind of small tablet device. You didn't actually order your meal/appetizer on it, but you could use it to see the daily specials, to order drink refills, or tell your server you needed help, were ready to order, etc.
Our server still stopped by on occasion to check on us, but not as often as they normally would have. I assume because we didn't hit the button saying we needed help. However, I did order a couple of beer refills and they came right away as opposed to having to flag down my server and order another, then wait for them to make it back to the bar to pick it up and bring it to me.
Then when everything was done, you could either swipe your card through the device, or pay the server.
It really was pretty slick, and they cleaned each one when they cleaned the table.
I imagine the iPads will be built into some kind of case/stand to protect them from spills, etc, and make them easier to clean.
I would love it if our BWWs got this. It can be a pain to get a drink refills during Monday Night Football at ours and this would make it a lot easier.
Our server still stopped by on occasion to check on us, but not as often as they normally would have. I assume because we didn't hit the button saying we needed help. However, I did order a couple of beer refills and they came right away as opposed to having to flag down my server and order another, then wait for them to make it back to the bar to pick it up and bring it to me.
Then when everything was done, you could either swipe your card through the device, or pay the server.
It really was pretty slick, and they cleaned each one when they cleaned the table.
I imagine the iPads will be built into some kind of case/stand to protect them from spills, etc, and make them easier to clean.
I would love it if our BWWs got this. It can be a pain to get a drink refills during Monday Night Football at ours and this would make it a lot easier.
There is a restuarant right up the street from me "Stackers" that has one of these at every table. You order the food and someone brings it out to you. They are clean and I have yet to see any finger prints/smudges etc so I am guessing and hoping they will keep them as clean at Buffalo WW, which is also right up the street from me.