Here’s to You!
My sons and I have been debating whether the “You!” identified as Time magazine’s person of the year includes me and other Baby Boomers or just refers to Generation Y/Millennials (those 12 to 29 years old in 2006). Unlike my sons, I don’t have a MySpace or Facebook page, I’m not in starring in a video on YouTube and I haven’t rated a seller on ebay.
But I beg to differ. I do blog (not as often as I intend to) and I have contributed to a travel wiki and I have added a book review to Amazon. So I am exhibiting a bit of personal control on the Information Age in my own modest way.
While it’s true that most of us who are computer literate aren’t taking advantage of all the ways we could imprint our opinions and personalities on the great world, we are making our thoughts, feelings and ideas known. Even in the area of food.
Recently, I had a bad experience at a Mexican takeout restaurant. It was overpriced, compared to similar takeouts. We ordered four dinners, got enough taco chips for one and had to ask for more. At home, we found that they had forgotten to add the rice and beans with our order. Where to complain? In San Francisco, there’s Yelp. On this site, you can share the good and the bad of restaurant dining.
Another popular source for voicing opinions is the Between Meals blog of the San Francisco Chronicle’s executive food and wine editor, Michael Bauer. Readers are active and vocal, responding with comments to the subject of the day, whether it’s identifying the best burger restaurant or deciding how to handle boors who poach your dinner reservation.
On TV, there’s Check Please! Bay Area, hosted by Leslie Sbrocco. The show selects regular people to dine at restaurants and review them in a round table panel on San Francisco’s PBS TV station, KQED. The show is patterned after Check Please! from Chicago’s PBS TV station, WTTW. Each station’s Web site also provide places where others can add their own picks and pans.
For consumer package goods, there’s Phil Lempert’s Supermarket Guru. The site enables consumers to compliment or complain about food products and to participate in various polls asking their opinions on anything, from hot issues of the day, to evaluating and ranking the best food products by brand.
More and more, consumers are being heard. With cell phone cameras and videos, and easy access to uploading information for the world to see, there’s no place to hide anymore. Unsanitary restaurants or manufacturing plants, improper handling of food, dangerous or unfair work practices — all can come to light, inviting increased transparency in everything we do.
While we can’t screen out unfair criticisms by cranks with ulterior personal motives, in the aggregate, most people are honestly just trying to have their point of view heard.
INSIGHT: There’s a lot to be said for this new, empowered world. Knowing we are all on stage, 24/7 and being able to hear consumers voice appreciation or frustrations about food products or services, should lead to better food experiences for all.
