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Quoting from the article:
"The company said that it had not eliminated any staff roles to make way
for mobile ordering,"
I call absolute, total BS on that statement.
I'd say that there are at least a dozen, if not more, fewer workers at the venue I'm
familiar with. While they might not have actually, officially, laid anyone off, they
played games with some employees hours and shift schedules, to the point where
some just quit because it just wasn't worth the trouble for them to come in to work. -
This is likely related to the ACA requirement that if an employer has more than 50 full time equivalent staff (which the company in question does, even allowing for the fact that some of its branded operations are franchises), they are required to provide healthcare benefits to any employee who averages 30 hours a week or more. So of course companies in this position juggle schedules to try to keep as many staff as possible below that figure.Comment
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- - and, also, Leo, if an employee quits or just 'abandons' their job, a company
doesn't get stuck having to deal with paying their unemployment benefits.Comment
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Going back to the core of the issue: The mobile ordering...
A small local cinema around here (I'll not name them, because I don't like to blame small local businesses), has been doing this mobile ordering via phone for a few years now. The trouble already starts right at the beginning; You need to scan a QR code in order to start the process. The QR code includes your seat number, so they can track the order back to you.
With house lights up and no movie on-screen yet, this system works pretty well and doesn't really annoy me. I don't have to wait for someone to collect my order, I can log it straight in there.. fine. But the trouble obviously starts during the movie. Scanning a QR code with the house lights down requires the flashlight to be activated, unless you're watching the Matrix and you're in the scene with the white room. And obviously, it's very irritating to see people scrolling around on your mobile phone.
Another issue I had, which was just recently solved: One of my Internet banking apps, which was needed to complete the transaction, wouldn't honor the phone's silent function and would acknowledge any successful payment with some kind of "Hooray" sound... I was obviously not the only one with that problem...Comment
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While I still think implementing the QR system discussed here was a really, really bad
idea, this issue you bring up has been addressed at several locations, although they
are still working out a few bugs. The QR code stickers at each seat have all been
scraped off and replaced with another sticker that has some sort of NFC or RFID
chip embedded in it, which eliminates the need for a phone to 'see' a QR code.
But, personally, this raises several concerns to me. I've never used the system
so I can't say if there is or isn't some sort of privacy agreement or statement that
you agree to if you decide to 'tap your phone' to order. But exactly what other info
can they see, or take, from your phone while you are ordering? They've already
got access to your name and credit card/bank info, but what other info can they
'see' and potentially take from you, and sell, or share, with others? I don't mean
to suggest that they are actually doing anything nefarious. I'd have the same
concerns and I'd be asking the exact same questions if my neighborhood pizza
place or sandwich shop installed a similar ordering system.
Just FYI, the underlying system behind all this is managed by TOAST, which is a
major player in the restaurant/hospitality POS system world, and which is certainly
no 'fly-by-night' company and which has solid reputation. But I still have concerns.Last edited by Jim Cassedy; 05-28-2026, 07:34 AM.Comment
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If the QR code takes you to a web page and your phone's security settings allow the browser app to harvest data from other apps in the phone, you can rest assured that the system processing your order is sending everything it can find about you on your phone that the website's owner is interested in (including, for example, if you have the apps of rival theater chains installed, what movies you've been to see there, and when). This is why I lock my browser down as far as possible (including, on my desktop and laptop computers, using Firefox with NoScript to prevent Google, Facebook, etc. launching code from websites that appear to have nothing to do with them in order to harvest data about you), and resist installing vendor-specific apps on my phone unless absolutely necessary.
As for the failure rate when scanning QR codes, this is why I insist on printed boarding cards whenever I fly, even though when I ask for one, the agent at the baggage drop station looks at me as if to say "You do realize that you're about to board a Boeing 737, not a 314, right?" I've seen too many occasions on which someone's phone won't scan, holding up the boarding line while they fiddle with their brightness setting and make other attempts to get the code to scan, and I don't want to be that person.Comment
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. . I'm glad I'm not the only person who does exactly the same thing. I still
print a hard copy of my boarding pass either at home or at the airport.
Almost every time there's a delay in the boarding line, it's somebody whose
phone won't scan. "If I were king", there'd be separate lines for people with
paper passes and those with phones. I take the BART (subway) system
several times a week here in SF. You can load up your phone with an
electronic pass, but I choose to use a credit-card like pass with an NFC
chip inside to pay my fare. ( I can re-load it online) Just like at the airport,
almost every time I see a back-up at one of the fare gates, it's somebody
who is fiddling with their phone trying to get the gate reader to recognize it.
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I'm currently using the Brave browser on Android... Not perfect, but it prevents quite a lot of those things. In the end, it's probably the payment provider that's going to end up with the most useful information about me, not so much the cinema itself.
The first 737 flew back in 1967. What came first, the 737 or the QR code?
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I thought they already got rid of those employees, and now they are trying to get rid of the pricier "ordering kiosks" and their maintenance contracts, that previously replaced the humans.Comment
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It's only a matter of time before casual restaurant chains replace servers with mobile ordering and robots that bring the food to the table. If a robot is designed that can do it in an auditorium, Alamo will do that as well.Comment
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It's already quite common around here... Scan a QR code on your table, place order, order arrives by robot. The places that have this figured out best do this with amazing speed.
So, I'm not even offended by this idea, because the service level is high... In the end, I'm there to have a good time with the people I'm hanging out with, I'm not there for the staff. I don't have to wait for anybody to take my order, I don't need to wait for anybody to pay my order and there's also nobody that will get a tip...Comment
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I recently discussed with Theater Toolkit who makes the website that Alamo uses for in seat ordering if their system could support using NFC/RFID tags for seat ID instead of QR codes, so the lack of light during the movie isn't an issue and they indicated that this was an option. I really hope Alamo will switch to NFC/RFID tags. Anything requiring light in a theater if you can avoid it seems foolish.Comment
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