[samatman]

Thing about an article like this, it might be completely fake. Made up for clicks. Nothing to it at all, just selling a narrative.

I'm fresh back in SF and have been indulging in a lot of restaurant dining. Luxuriating, even, the food here is really good.

I haven't seen any of this crap. Is it happening? Yes of course any journalist worth their mountain of student debt can call enough restaurants to put together a few anecdotes about bad behavior.

Doesn't mean we have to fall for it.

[tluyben2]

It might be, but, having owned a restaurant (not in SF), it doesn't ring untrue; some people are complete dicks all the time anyway and think because they are on the paying side of the table they can get away with anything and, as far as I have seen (and talked to the new owners of my ex restaurant) in the past weeks when travelling for the first time in 1.5 years, their fuse became just a bit shorter. When before they wouldn't have been nice (let's say they were difficult) while waiters would bend over backwards to accommodate them and then get a 2* star review (with made up things often!) anyway, now they become visibly agitated up to downright violent. It is probably temporary (hopefully?), but it doesn't ring untrue to me.

[Barrin92]

One more general point in favour of the narrative is the rate at which service industry workers have been leaving the industry in particular[1]. Of course that also can be a function of rising wages in warehouse work or better unemployment benefits so the phenomenon might not be solely recent, but I don't think the narrative is made up, retail work is pain.

And no offense but it might be your experience of luxurious SF dining that is a little bit unrepresentative.

[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-workers-leaving-quit-...

[samatman]

None taken, but there's a difference between luxurious (I've had one meal at a nice restaurant) and luxuriating: I was living in the middle of the Pacific, so I've been dining out a lot at middle-of-the-road taquerias and Chinese/Thai restaurants.

Not sure why you mentioned retail but service work has never been fun. Linking me to another narrative of the same basic story is in fact less convincing, because our journalists are awful hacks who see one of their gang harvest sweet sweet clicks with a narrative, and churn out a copycat.

The labor shortage is unemployment benefits, plus mandatory lowered seating requirements and other pandemic belt-tightening leaving restauranteurs unable or unwilling to pay higher wages. Customers being shitty isn't new, and again, there's no evidence at all that it's gotten worse: and plenty that journalists cynically lie to harvest advertising money from bored social media users.

[throwinawaysoon]

>Doesn't mean we have to fall for it

Thing about an comment like this, it might be completely fake.