“Our customers love it,” says Michael Schatzberg, the co-founder of a US restaurant group.
He is talking about using QR codes (quick response codes), a technology from the 1990s, which is proving to be very useful in the Covid era.
Many restaurants have turned to the tech, which allows customers to see a menu, order and pay just by pointing their smartphone at the black, barcode-like squares.
“They don’t have to wait. They can just pay and leave without asking for the bill,” says Mr Schatzberg, whose restaurants include Duke’s and Big Daddy’s in New York.
QR codes were invented in Japan in the mid-90s to track components in car production.
They can hold a massive amount of data compared to standard barcodes - up to 2,500 numeric characters compared to a barcode’s 43.
That means really useful information, including names, locations and website addresses can all be reliably and cheaply held in one small box.
And reports say that Apple could be giving the format an upgrade with dots, circles and colours, instead of the current blocks.
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