Who wants to know? Who wants to know?… The song being blurted out from the speaker.
A visit to the Scottish restaurant. Just after mass at St. Thomas More Church in Subang Jaya.
As a gust of strong wind blows across the street (instead of “road” for this description)…it kicks up a lot of dust….tumbleweed rolling. Not many vehicles… a rare long moment or moments where Taipan is not clogged with traffic crawling.
So, yeah… Waiting for our food. Made the order through faceless, talkless, broad… Yes, I’m talking about the screen where you just scroll up and down, down and up; sideways – left to right, or right to left. Make a mistake and start all over again.
Funny, how with all this technology available, the special offers for the days of during a special offer period – they all don’t show up on these huge screens. Something like “Today, all food is on the house, yes absolutely free…
Terms and conditions: Provided you wear a Scottish kilt, play a full Scottish song with bagpipes (not provided. Bring your own) and dance a jig, all at the same.
In small print👆
You will have to check for special offers on an app on your phone. Possibly…just possibly…you were notified through your email, which by the way would most probably be on your phone; of the special offers. The only way to take up this offer is to turn up at the restaurant, stand in front of the big order screen, tap on a “redeem” icon which has a 60, 90 or 120 second time limit to lay claim for this offer, key in the code that shows up after the redeem button is pressed in the app on your phone to enjoy $0.75 off the burger that they (the restaurant) want you to buy. That sounds easy enough.
This is all well and good if you are tech savvy. Most people just want to order their breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, a drink or just a simple ice-cream. There are sure not coming to a restaurant to be dazzled by all the technology. They aren’t going to say, “Oh Wow! Look at all the technology that I have to go through! I am impressed with the testing of my know-how just to order some fries. Let’s do it again.”
For those who are not as tech-savvy as the ones who are, it is going to be quite a pain. Not to worry, you will get the hang (hopefully the system does not hang) of it once you come to restaurants such as these, often enough.
Then, the wait for the order. Either your order number shows up on yet another screen, or it will be called up by a human being as the screen system is broken, or it is served when it is ready.
The belief is this system cuts down time to its “bare knuckles”, meaning that your order will be ready almost instantaneously, it does not. In fact, at times, it takes a longer time than making your order in person, over the counter.
Finally, your order arrives, and you are satisfied as all you wanted was a simple pack of fries.
The moral of the story is, “Don’t leave home without it, your hand phone, that is. At all costs.” Life is easy peasy with it.
