Why are so many restaurants devoid of hospitality?

It was inevitable that after supermarkets introduced self-service checkouts that a whole range of other industries would follow suit and expect you to do some of the work they used to employ staff to do. Now, while I still don't like the self-service culture in supermarkets and usually try to use the manned tills when I can, there's not a chance that I'm ever going to accept the self-service culture that is slowly encroaching in the hospitality industry. Last month, when on a break in Llandudno in Wales, I went to a restaurant where they expected me to be my own waiter as part of the dining experience.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was presented with two options. Option one was to order from the table where I would scan a QR code which would bring me to a website where I could place my order. I don't know about you, but I don't like being given tasks when I go out to a restaurant. In the many years that I worked as both a waiter and restaurant supervisor, we never asked the customers to do any of our work as it tends to contradict the hospitality ethos of the hospitality industry. Anyway, I was tempted to ask the woman who seated us if I would also be expected to collect the food from the server hatch upon the chef ringing the bell for service. 

The other option was that I could join the queue and order the food at the bar. Now, I don't mind ordering food at the bar if it's a Weatherspoons or some other low budget eatery as these kinds of places are just a step up from fast food. However, when I'm paying fifteen pounds for what turned out to be half a sandwich (avocado on one slice of Ciabatta bread, two veggie sausages and a sprinkle of feta cheese) I really don't want to have to do any of the tasks that should be the waiter's job. As soon as we entered the restaurant and the QR code self-waitering option was presented to us, I wanted to leave. I object to even being in a restaurant that uses such technology. However, my wife was very hungry and we had been walking around for some time looking for somewhere to eat. So, I grumbled a little bit and compromised by joining the queue at the bar to order what would turn out to be tiny portions of overpriced, barely passable food. Once our deliberately rationed meals had been brought to us, they were plonked down without so much as an enjoy your meal or can I get you anything else from the person that purported to be our waiter. The table was cleared with the same level of disengagement. Maybe we were supposed to download a QR code to ask ourselves if we enjoyed being overcharged for tiny portions of food by staff that refused to engage with us.

Another time at an Italian restaurant in Manchester airport, I was shown to a table and once again instructed to order via a QR code. When I informed the staff member that I would like a waiter or waitress to take my order with a piece of paper and a pen, the waitress or whatever she was supposed to be stated: "I suppose we could arrange that." My desire to have a human interaction as part of the dining experience was as anachronistic to her as if I'd arrived to the restaurant straight out of the Victorian era riding a penny farthing and sporting a twiddly moustache. I get similar reactions in cashless shops or cafes when trying to pay with cash. Some younger staff members look at you aghast as if you're trying to revive the medieval system of bartering and you've just offered them three goose eggs for a cup of coffee when you try to pay with a sterling note. 

What I find so frustrating about these inhospitable changes in the hospitality industry is that I worked in that industry for years and took pride in being friendly and ensuring people had an enjoyable experience which was reflected in the generous tips I used to receive. What's more, those tips were optional. Service charges were only added to large groups and even then, the customer was given the option to decline. These days, a service charge is included in most restaurant bills regardless of the size of your table and it's incumbent upon you to object if you don't want to pay it. In that most British and Irish people don't like even low level confrontation, as culturally most of us don't like to make a fuss, we simply pay the service charge regardless of the quality of service thus detracting even further from an already negative dining experience. I implore my fellow Britons and Irish compatriots to speak up like I do and refuse to pay the service charge if you don't receive a decent standard of service. You're doing both the waiting staff and the establishment a favour by pointing out to them where they need to improve to ensure they get repeat customers so that their business and livelihoods can survive. 

It should always be up to the customer whether or not they want to leave a tip. Restaurant owners, who in some cases take a percentage of the service charge left for their waiters, have no business charging their diners extra for having the expectation that a member of staff will take their order and later bring the meal to their table. It's been my experience that most customers will tip if they have had decent service. Unfortunately, good service is increasingly becoming the exception rather than the rule. Welcome to the era of the service charge minus the service. Too many restaurants are staffed with young people with poor interpersonal skills who are indifferent to social interactions in the real world as they are more accustomed to digital interactions on social media. You can spot them in various eateries staring into their phones behind counters as you struggle to wrestle their attention away from their smartphones when you want to order another drink or are trying to ask for your bill. 

Another reason to oppose services once conducted via human interaction being replaced with a digital interface is that those of us prone to misanthropy with Victor Meldrewesque tendencies actually benefit socially from being forced to interact with other human beings. Sure, some human interactions can actually aggravate misanthropic tendencies, but for the most part engaging with other human beings in shops, cafes and restaurants is all part of the social glue that bonds a society together.  I don’t want to go to restaurants where I have to take my own order at the table. I don’t want to have to do all my banking on my phone or do all my shopping online. Replacing daily, face to face interactions involving other human beings with faceless and voiceless transactions is to replace the real world where society is formed with a soulless digital world.