QR Codes Make a Comeback as Restaurants Go Contactless

Leslie Ignacio

Leslie Ignacio is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is a recent California State University, Northridge graduate and previously worked for El Nuevo Sol, Telemundo and NBC and was named a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2019. As a bilingual journalist, she focuses on covering diversity in news. She's a Los Angeles native who enjoys trips to Disneyland in her free time.

QR Codes Make a Comeback as Restaurants Go Contactless

At the new zero-waste restaurant La Papille Gustative, customers don't even have to see a server to order $18 avocado toast or $15 buckwheat quinoa waffles.

They can order straight from their mobile phone while dining outside.


"We are not a full service restaurant; we don't have a server coming to you taking your orders, but this is your server. This is your waiter," said owner, Marina Aljanedi.

Aljanedi, like tens of thousands of restaurateurs, has had to adjust to the new pandemic normal. The California Restaurant Association estimates two-thirds of workers in the industry have been either laid off or furloughed since March as some of the biggest names in the Los Angeles-scene, such as Bazaar and Bäco Mercat, permanently closed.

Those that have survived have adopted new contactless menus, delivery services and other tech-powered solutions to keep their employees safe and diners fed.

Aljanedi, who had to scramble to provide outdoor dining, added Santa Monica-based Order For Me's service to let customers order ahead or at their table.

The service relies on QR codes — once said to be a thing of the past. But these codes help power services by companies including Paytronix, Presto and Zuppler that restaurants are increasingly relying on to keep their profits up and customers at a distance. The ordering system lets in-house diners buy food on their phone, a function that companies like Grubhub, Chownow and Postmates haven't focused on.


Order For Me's platform lets customers order, pay and tip from their phones. Its most distinguishing feature is that it allows diners at the same table to split bills and keep a running tab.

Although the company only operates in 35 restaurants in Los Angeles, it's working with several hotels to expand their services. And it has seen a spike in demand as California restaurants prepare to reopen in the coming weeks under Gov. Gavin Newsom's new order that allows for a 25% capacity at qualified dine-in restaurants.

But competition is stiff as the restaurant business is increasingly turning to tech.

Founded two years ago by Michael Jordan and chef Greg Daniels, Order For Me sought to develop a contactless ordering service.

At the time, Jordan thought the platform would benefit from California's minimum wage increase as restaurants sought to offset the cost of labor, but he never expected a pandemic to increase the need for the product.

Order for Me co-founders Greg Daniels (L) and Michael Jordan (R).

"I started in 2018. I knew this was going to be a very steep climb; we were thinking like 10 years to do this and disrupt the industry," said Jordan. "But we committed to it because we knew that it was going to happen, and it was going to be us. We were in a few restaurants before COVID and then COVID hit and we changed up our product a little bit."

He added an order-ahead feature to the service.

To draw in new customers, Order For Me is offered free for life to restaurants that sign on until the end of 2020 and to keep a 5% service fee that guests pay when using the platform. The company makes money by charging users a small service fee for the transaction.

Jordan said the pandemic likely changed restaurateurs attitudes about the need for technology as part of their business.

"The attitude was (once), 'Well, I can't wait to get this over with, and for it to get back to normal'," he said. But after restaurants had to shut down for a second time, there was a gradual acceptance. "Normal is going to be different," said Jordan. "Definitely the customer's mindset is changed, probably permanently."

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How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

  • 90% of startups around the world fail.
  • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
  • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
  • Less than 1% of startups go public.
  • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

Ouch.

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From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

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