Why is music so loud in restaurants? (Serious)

JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 226 points –

I got my hearing professionally checked today and all is normal. But I have difficulty hearing people I am dining with, talking in restaurants. Is it me, or is the music just too damn loud?!

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Apparently, these restaurants want to make your dining experience unpleasant, so you won't linger over your meal. The sooner you leave, the sooner they can replace you with another paying customer. You probably shouldn't give these places your business.

exactly, hence why coffee shops in particular play the same three obnoxious Christmas songs on repeat during the season. They don't want you to stay, they want you pay and leave.

I will say that this tactic is just forcing people to invest in better headphones, but I lament that we're now in an auditory arms race for merely existing in a public space

"Simply . . . Having . . . a Wonderful Christmas Time!"

/sorry

At one restaurant this week a woman was playing and watching a video on her phone very loudly, oblivious to bothering everyone, and a foodworker came and asked her to turn it down. The woman replied, “You can here THAT?!” She turned it down and the foodworker went back to her station screaming orders are ready out to other customers. The video-watcher proceeded to walk around and stand near people’s tables to watch her video.
What is going on with this world?

I think the world has become decidedly louder, and people having TV on in the background all day every day has desensitized them to the idea that sound travels further than they think. I genuinely believe her surprise that she could be heard.

Was that my mom?! She had all her volume for everything turned up to 11.

This could be solved by a system of reservations. You know... "Ok, one coffee and a sandwich. You have three seating choices: 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 1 hour. Which one do you want? 30 minutes? Ok! Here's your hourglass."

everyone would pick the 4 hour sofa slot though

So they're all gone and isn't an option til someone leaves, first come first served.

"Hey homeless guy, I'll pay you 10 dollars if you get in line early at this store and claim the 4 hour sofa until my friends come a few hours later."

Those scenarios can be solved. From "4-hour sofa slots are reserved for groups of three or more people" to "Sofas are reserved to 1-hour max."

In the end, as it is now, people are overstaying anyway.

Let them. Either provide public spaces for people to just chill, or let them spend the entire day at a coffee shop after buying a coffee.

I'm sick of this "pay-to-live" society we've built around us.

I.... actually agree with you. It would be nice to have a cozy indoors public space. Sort of like an "indoors park." But you'll have to yell at your city hall reps, not a small business owner who, like us, also has to make a living.

If the city provided a nice public space, I would happily just buy a coffee to go and then to chill there