Grab and Go or Smash and Dash: Hospitality May Have to Find a New Hame

Restaurant Menu via QR Code

Professor Joe Goldblatt

“You need to pay before you are served.” As I sat upon the sidewalk of an outdoor cafe in the brilliant, albeit rare, Scottish sunshine, a twenty – something man surprised me with these words. I naively asked “Excuse me, how can I pay you if I do not know what I am receiving?”

He then admonished me as though I was not intelligent enough at 72 to dine at his establishment by saying “Didn’t you see the QR code? You have to order on line and pay in advance for any food or drink if you wish to be served.”

I squinted my eyes in the bright sunshine and soon realised that this was one one of those new fangled high volume establishments that only employed servers to, pardon the pun, quickly serve the food and drink and then tidy the table to make room as soon as possible for the next punters.

Raising my eyes to meet his I asked why payment in advance was required and he replied with an accusatory attitude saying “We have a lot of runners!” A runner, I have come to learn in my post graduate hospitality dining education, is someone who orders, eats and / or drinks and then actually runs away without paying their bill.

I then grabbed my walking stick, creakily rose from the uncomfortable metal chair and leaned into the young man’s face and said “Don’t worry, if I was to run, at my age, you would surely catch me!” And as I hobbled down the lane I realised that was the last time I would ever visit this establishment. I decided then that I needed, to use the Scots word for home, a new ‘hame’ for my pensioner’s many years of work, hard earned pound.

I later learned that at this popular tourist cafe runners are a common occurence and if the servers did not collect payment in advance they could suffer personal financial consequences. No wonder this young man was so insistent that I pay immediately. However, as soon as I was out of his eye sight I turned on my camera phone and looked carefully at my ageing face to see if I passed the “criminal line up” test in my current state.

A few days later my wife and I returned to a very popular local tourist attraction that when it opened featured a lavish buffet featuring fresh salads in giant bowls, lasagne that looked like it had some straight from Milan, and piping hot soups that appeared to be bubbling with delight.

Upon our arrival we discovered the tantalising buffet had been replaced with electronic signs featuring the names of the menu items and their much higher prices. These were the same signs you would regularly see in anyone of thousands of fast food outlets. I also noticed that all food that was previously served upon lovely white enamel plates and bowls was now served in cardboard containers with plastic lids. I was shocked because the tourist attraction that housed this restaurant has been focused upon sustaining and improving the natural environment for over 300 years!

I raised and waived my hand as if I was an impudent pupil and asked the staff person who was busily cleaning tables to make room for future punters, if she would answer a few questions. She smiled, approached our table and asked “Are you enjoying your meal?” I grimmaced and said that I had not ordered a meal due to my environmental sustainability concerns about their packaging.

I explained that I was disappointed that when I approached the counter to order a bowl of soup that the buffet had been eliminated so I could not preview what I might be enjoying in the future. She shrugged her shoulders and said confidentially “The queuing system has been confusing since we changed it. People cannot read the small text on the signs and there are no photographs of the food, We have changed from our former service to a ‘grab and go’ service to allow people to eat more quickly and to make our food more portable.” Interestingly, she did not use the word “guest” once as she described those of us who would suffer the dramatic downward shift in presentation and service.

At that point my long suffering wife of 47 years explained once again to this stranger “I am so sorry, my husband taught hospitality management for nearly 50 years and he likes to give advice.”

The polite young woman smiled again, thanked us for dining, and handed us a comment card to complete. I filled every inch. front and back, with my recommendations.

As we departed the woman approached me again and said “I have some good news. We are soon opening a sit down restuarant with real plates and it will be right next door to our ‘grab and go; service. So, do come back!”

I suppose while my wife was well intentioned by reassuring the server that I was not just another grumpy old man, my wife did not realise that I believe no one, including myself, may completely teach the core values within hospitality. In my view, being hospitable is an innate value, purpose, raison de’etre, that one must instead possess from infancy and further develop as a result of being surrounded by hospitable people such as grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, other family, and friends. It also helps if future hospitality professionals regularly dine out at restaurants where folk with a hospitality ethos actually served them. For me, hospitality is a culture of kindness, thoughtfulness and compassionate care.

The thousands of students studying hospitality management throughout the world are fortunate to be tutored by experienced, trained lecturers who often have many years of professional hospitality experience. Their academic research and talent for teaching future generations of hospitality professionals is beyond compare, however, they are also facing a steep and uphill battle as this industry is rapidly and dramatically changing.

As a retired professor and now regular hospitality guest, I slowly began to wonder why, how, and when this spreading’ ‘grab and go’ ethos had developed. I decided to speak to a few former hospitality colleagues and one general manager told me that after the pandemic where working from home became de rigueur he had trouble finding staff with a sincere hospitality personality. He seemed as astonished as the young man serving me from the cafe when I refused to pay in advance.

“I just interviewed a dozen potential, experienced, qualified servers. The majority began by asking if they could work only three days per week and if two of those days could be spent working from home!” I was gobsmacked and quickly asked him how they could serve from home and he said they did not wish to serve, instead, they actually wanted to consult, manage, or take reservations.

How can we develop and grow the service economy unless folk wish to actually still serve others? Some young people seem to have confused service with being servile or subservient. They are also under enormous pressure from their owners to generate more income per square metre of their establishment.

Hence forth, I am afraid that ‘grab and go’ is now only one step away from ‘smash and dash’ which is the slang term for criminals who smash shop windows and steal as much as possible and then dash away. As the generation gap widens due to the rapid growth in ageing, I am afraid that gulf may dramatically widen between those of us who can afford a nice meal at a good value price and those who simply want to generate as much revenue as quickly as possible. In other words, we may all drown because of the gulf between some hospitality investors who desire expedient lucrative returns upon investment as commpared with of those who provide a more relaxing and pleasing dining experience. I suppose those who can do both will be the real winners at the end of this race.

I emphathise with hospitality owners and managers and especially with their staff because every minute of every day operating costs and competition are rising making these enterprises more and more challenging through their short term quarterly revenue cycles to achieve long term success. Further, as stated earlier, it is more and more difficult to find staff who have a natural hospitality ethos and wish to work long hours and for what some consider modest pay as compared to other professions.

Perhaps, the dramatic changes in service that I have experienced will lead to a permanent replacement for traditional French white glove, English rolling cart by table side, or even Russian sterling silver Samovar style fine dining service. However, this new service may be even more personable to satisfy older diners such as myself and we will see the QR code magically evaporate each month as it is replaced by a personal chef / butler who comes to our home to offer us a uniquely bespoke, dietary appropriate fine dining experience. In the future some of us may not dine out as often in the past but when we do dine in, it may be even more memorable, fresh, healthy, and delicious.

Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University. His views are his own. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot