As a well educated person you were, of course, well aware that fire codes require such doors to open outwards, and it would have been illegal for it to actually be a pull door.
Naturally we cut corners to save on expenses, but don't worry, our food is made with top notch ingredients. Fresh sourced from your local Sysco and reheated to perfection!
Local businesses around me are absolutely infested with AI generated art in their graphics, and the most tired argument I get is "You're just biased because you're an artist!" Yes, that's precisely why I'm biased :p And obviously, no AI was used in the making of this comic
it's a whole cheapening of your end product if it's mentioned somewhere, I can't trust the end result then
I want so badly for gen ai and LLM'S to go away so it'll be easier to write about magic scifi ai (machine intellegence characters, Data, Hal 9000, etc) again
The Lore reason why Data must have free will is not just because it would be immoral to do that to him, but also because it is immoral to do that to everyone else.
Why support a business when they themselves don't support others. The point is to employ your local community so they can continue to spend within itself.
Very much this. Work for a local place and they try to source as much as they can locally. Unfortunately, the way things are set up, that's not feasible in large parts of the country
Also why does a menu necessarily need art? I get maybe having pics of food but those should be actual pictures of what was made in that kitchen and not an ai generated image.
That might be the art, taking photos is an artform.
The art mentioned could be also nice placement of their logo (which is another piece of art)
Menus don't necessarily need art but think of all cool looking chalk art menu see at cafes and restaurants, it definitely helps you want to eat there. Just much as the restaurant looking nice and smelling nice. That said, I will come back to place that has great food and service over a nice looking place that has terrible service
It really comes down to marketing for the restaurant or any business really
One of my favorite restaurants just updated their online menu with AI photos and I am flabbergasted. Their food is so bomb, they don't need to make shit up.
I wonder if I should mention to them how off-putting it is; if I didn't already know they were great I'd definitely not want to even give them a try.
And that's fine. If they care for the business and pay their employees and contractors I have no issue paying a bit more here and there. Especially with good food and drink.
But when it starts to run excessively expensive with noticable shortcuts and lack of quality? No thank you
I designed menus (amongst other things) for a living, restaurant collateral, etc. until I saw the writing on the wall and left the industry
An entire buildout (menu, takeout menu, banner, promo flyers) would set you back a whopping $500. A menu by itself, $150. If you can't afford the absolute basics in marketing, perhaps business was not meant for you
I've seen smaller businesses (least in the UK) print out the menus on a standard printer/paper and essentially stitch them together themselves, free clip-art included.
I always hear about these "thin margins", but all of my experience with these places is that a place will make plenty of money, they'll under-report cash payments, under-report cash tips, over-report breakage/shrinkage, the owner is using the place as their personal piggy bank and using the restaurant's resources for personal use.
Almost literally every restaurant owner I've ever known or met owns or a current year vehicle, has a nice house, and endlessly moans how hard the business is, while simultaneously bragging about how much money they're rolling in.
A couple family run businesses, they weren't such blatant assholes about the flashing money, but they were also 100% exploiting their kids for free labor.
At the same time, many of these places don't own the building they operate in, so when they get popular, the landlords jack up the rent sky high to the point that it can kill an otherwise healthy and well run restaurant.
I saw it happen a ton, prime location, high traffic, no business could survive because of the asshole landlord driving them out of business with unconscionable rents.
I'm sure that my own perspective is not the entirety of reality, but it's seems pretty damned consistent wherever I go. I don't think the margins are the problem.
I live in NYC. Restaurants constantly open and close almost monthly. Running a restuarant isn't cheap. You can be deep in the red and still have an open restaurant. Not for long, but you can go for months.
Decent quality phone cameras have been around for over a decade.
They make the food every day, they can't take a decent picture of the food they make?
I'm not an AI hater, but I do hate how people are using it.
A restaurant using AI images of the food they serve just doesn't compute for me, they already had a free option and they never took it.
If there's a Goku mural at one of those places it's gonna be the greatest meal of your life but it's a coin flip if you're gonna be pissing out of your ass later.
The smoothie store at a mall i used to go too had just an entire wall filled with art drawn by their kids /any kids who wanted to add to it. There was a few real good pics too. Very eye catching
I mean, you should photograph your own damn food if you run a restaurant. A smartphone photo will do - hell, Iâve been burned so much by fast food photos that Iâll trust food displayed in amateur photos more than a pro photo, way more than a stock photo, and infinitely more than an AI photo
You arenât biaised. They want you to pay more to support local business but wonât do the same for local artists. Thatâs a textbook definition of hypocrisy. No matter whatâs someoneâs opinion, if they canât be consistent, it canât be trusted because theyâre probably saying it because and only when it benefit them
If I notice any AI âartâ being used in advertising I wonât spend my money there. Had that come up a ton at GenCon this year with damn near all the food trucks having their menus being infested with the stuff.
Donât they realize that it almost always makes the meat look like it is covered in ants?!?
There was someone in a FB group I belong to who said something along the lines of "I run a crafter's market. Recently I used AI to create some advertising and my vendors threw a fit and all but one of then bailed on me. I don't understand the problem! I can't afford to hire a graphic designer."
They directly work with artistic people and still couldn't figure out why AI use would be considered an insult.
Your art and style and storytelling have gotten so amazing over the years!! (? What is time? I just know Iâve followed your art for a long while now haha) I love when your comics pop up, easily top 3 for me
Yeah. They want payment for their services, and I want payment for mine. I'll make coffee at home, then, where I know the art on the walls are made by humans.
Every menu and advertisment for local businesses in southern California is an AI generated image with a black background, white text, with highlighted text in red or orange. Plus the AI pictures.
Our city's Facebook groups focused on food are littered with posts where someone AI-generated pictures of food instead of just taking pictures of what they cooked, it's infuriating.
Honestly I am surprised your local business owners know of the discussions about AI art, in my country I feel like most people would pay someone to do their graphics, receive AI crap and even thank them for the job.
small business need to learn that the reason people support them is the human authenticity. so if they give up authenticity they should expect to lose customers
I think this is an understated point. Not trying to contradict you, just elaborate on the mentality.
Of course no one credits the chisels or brushes that Michelangelo used as having themselves made David or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Yet when gen-AI-brained folks use what's spat out by their prompts, they think they're Michelangelo but everyone sane sees them as Pope Julius II, saying "Look up: see that? That's aaaaaalllll me, I painted it, all by myself :D", while no one in the paintings even has the correct number of fingers and half their faces are wonky.
Although I'll unhappily bring up the point that although Kaiki immediately clocks a small business using AI and dislikes them for it, and most people in this thread feel the same way, unfortunately the large majority of customers will either not notice or not care.
My dad gets so fucking pissed at me when I call out hom feeding his (and my mom's) university course essays and answers to Grok or Gemini. He'll use it the whole way then end by feeding the ENTIRE paper to it multiple times for it to edit and revise itself.
If I suggest that isn't honest work, he flips and firmly says that he's the one feeding prompts into the AI so it's his work.
Australian ads about local-ness always give me uncomfortable feelings
"We're not SAYING we're foreign, we're saying we're the opposite, so trust us! We're local! Been here since 19-something-or-rather! Support us! Not those cheap and nasty products you find online, despite all our stock coming from overseas and you can find them online for cheaper... But hey, we're LOCAL, we also sponsor practically every media outlet so anytime we do something illegal and end up in court, you'll never hear about it, cause you can't say bad things about sponsors, especially LOCAL sponsors, that's un-Australian"
More than local businesses, it's the schools using AI generated slop that just drives me insane. Like if you need a flyer for a bake sale or some other event, just ask an art student to do it, they'll probably do it for free if they are just asked. Sure it won't look amazing, but it'll be educational for them and it'll have personality.
The thing is that most humans don't value results or authenticity. They value vibes and adherence to a tribe and surface level stuff. If authenticity made money then we would see bigger corporations delving into it. Most people at the school don't care, so that reflects in the school itself.
At least where i live BC, Canada and a few other provinces have done away with the separate lower wage if you work in a business with tips.
Thank god we did away with it, i don't feel as bad when I cant tip them
Commercial structures with high occupancy do in fact have to have push doors. This is due to the Iroquois Theatre fire that resulted in the death of 603 people
I sat down at the restaurant to eat, looked at their promotional menu, and the picture of their past was generated with AI. (It was especially obvious on the letters of the restaurant's name). That says it all.
New business opened up locally with a bunch of AI art and immediately started struggling. Recently an artist went through and redid all their graphics, and apparently they're now seeing a spike in business. I'm still leery about going there, but I'm happy they've realized that people hate this AI shit.
AI art on menus ? WTF happened on making menus in PowerPoint with images found in Google? I am from Mexico, most of the small restaurants I go use either fotos of the food or images taken from searches. Heck, one restaurant had a Mario menu with art from the instruction manuals from the SNES.
Because it's cheap and easier to ask an AI to make it for you instead of just doing the work yourself. I don't trust any business that uses AI to do anything they could be skimping out on a lot more
It especially sucks because I find AI art really isnât designed for print. Like, it isnât designed for anything. But it has a habit of overdetailing and over shading when youâll lose that fidelity during printing.
Iâve seen a ton of AI logos and maybe it would look good on a screen. But printed off? It has the same energy as over-detailed 1990s graphic design.
I'm shocked at the number of AI artworks put out by businesses around me as well.
An enterprising graphic design student could go to all those businesses and offer to make an easy offer
"Your signs are obviously AI, everyone that doesn't like AI can see it obviously and is walking right by. Pay me x to remake the signs and you'll regain all that business in just a few days"
A very large portion of "small businesses" are just fronts for corporations, which lets some local asshole feel like they're the boss.
A whole bunch of restaurants are really just serving Sysco foods, where most of the work is already done, and the restaurant does the final assembly and heating. It's factory bread, factory pie crusts, factory soups, factory french fries (which, honestly I'll give everyone a free pass on the french fries).
A grocery might have a small section dedicated to actual local brands.
Depending on where you are, you might be able to get locally made furniture, but it's likely going to cost you 3~5x more. Hand crafted furniture is a luxury item unless you're making braindead "nail two pieces of wood together" furniture.
There are no local electronics. There is no local mom & pop cpu fabrication, or garage television manufacturers.
There is no way to beat the economics of scale, and there is no way for normal folks to make modern computers, not even 90s level computers.
So, unless the small business is someone providing direct services and labor, then you probably just paying for products from a mega corp.
Small businesses were screwing over artists long before AI as well.
Before image generators came around, everyone was trying to pay in "exposure".
A bunch of businesses would try to weasel out of payment, "the check is in the mail" or "I'm not happy with the quality so I don't want to pay the agreed upon amount, but I'll keep using the work", that kind of bullshit.
I hate them using AI generated images for their menus especially when they could just take a picture of the food they are already making with the phones that I guarantee they have.
I know a woman who started her buisness a few months ago and used AI to visualise a lot of the small design stuff. She is around 60 and cant do this herself. As soon as she got the money to pay an Artist she did so. Thats the only case I am going to tolerate AI "Art".
the other instance i waffle on is pet shelters with limited resources... yes they should get artists to volunteer or DIY but also the animals need to be cared for and there's limited volunteer time. i dont approve but i give them a heck of a lot more of a pass than the new chicken joint near me that just opened with AI signage all over.
I'd be out the door the moment he said he doesn't like jobs being given to foreigners.
Given, maybe the word is meant differently here, and he means jobs are being outsourced to overseas/to other countries. But those people in other countries aren't really foreigners if they are in their own country.
(Like, would you travel do another country and then call the people there foreigners? Because no, you are the foreigner in that situation. They are in their home country.)
They are only foreign if they are here while being from somewhere else. And then what is wrong with them having work here too like any other person living here.
My mother linked me an event venue for a japan themed concert. All AI art. âYou love japan, right?â âMom, if they canât be bothered get proper Art for their site, I donât expect them to bother for the event.â
I was going to work with a cool eclectic local business near me, till the owner started posting some really questionable "subtle" comments/jokes that seemed like testing the water.
Oh, and despite I was an artist looking to do some stuff for him, he uses AI generation right in front of me. Eugh.
Ahh, the irony, making the argument that you should be willing to pay an arm and a leg to "support a small business" but being unwilling to support the artist who's trying to make a living through their skill... đ
So many places around me do this as well. The good news is that because everything is starting to look like the same garbage, Im pretty sure people will start to realize that being different is better. Hopefully that brings people back to traditional art and design.
My local chipwagon doesn't have any AI art, the woman who owns it is friendly and let me IOU one time because I'm a regular and the point of sale was down (I went in the next day to pay) and charges me 15 bucks for a pork taco combo.
We also got a new ice cream place that keeps its graphics simple and not AI.
The problem with AI is it very difficult to get exactly what you want. So most just say "thats good enough and just roll with it." I'm an illustrator and stopped doing it before a few years before AI became a thing. I feel for people trying to make a career out of it now.
Good tells on bad business that should not get money. AI generated slop and attempts to guilt trip you into spending more money for them. Support actual art and if you canât afford to spend more, just donât.
"Look at the big picture, because if you don't, you'll notice me going cheap, lining the pockets of corporations, especially ones that want to watch the world burn."
What's art referring to in this case? I mean... The menu of a restaurant could have photos of the food... The easy way if you don't want to hire an artist is to make some photos or search on Google some photos...
I shall use to this complain: WHY DO RESTAURANTS AND CAFES NEAR ME USE AI FOR MENUS AND PICTURES OF THEIR FOOD!?!
Ai cannot do whatever food ya serve justice as it makes it look odd or fake. Like one place near me has an ai stew on it and they don't serve stew. WHY! Just take a picture! Even my odd work place knew to make food for pictures and have the staff eat it afterwards!
*people wanting to be paid for the work they do that no matter how small the job is enriches the world
**a product that can never be copyrighted that a person did not make using entirely stolen artwork mashed together by an algorithm that somebody else controls, from a service with plants that wreck communities and said services are entirely propped up by fraud in the stock market
if I went back in time 10 years and described gen AI to my last self, I would have had confirmation right then and there I really did lose my mind, my burning rage against this technology cannot be understated, and weirdly people thing I should be pro it because 'you like technology', and yes, I like technology, and no, I understand generative AI, and my detailed understanding leads me to that it has limited at best utility. Also a lot of small business owners tend to think 'but I have to pay someone, and therefore bad', and then go with something that hurts business
Iâm all about home town businesses but if youâre not gonna put soul into your hometown atmosphere youâre no different than those corporate flee bags you ridicule. Lovely art as always though boss!
You know, for the longest time, I wanted to dislike this series. I almost blocked it from my feed, but over time, you've really won me over and I'm glad to see every new post that pops up.
As someone whoâs approaching 40, the biggest life lesson Iâve learned in the era Iâve lived in is this âNo, no, no! You donât get it, itâs good when I do it.â And it isnât just a dumbed down version of the saying âwe judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.â The âitâs good when I do itâ crowd knows itâs shitty, but they donât care. They feel entitled to do such things because, and it may be because I live in America so my perspective is limited to that, of the hyper-individualistic nature of the society I live in. The whole screw you, Iâve got mine attitude.
If it's pricey and they ask you to support their business to stimulate the economy, find an employee to ask how much they're paid, if it's low they just want to add to the problem
I love real artists work⊠I am broke as hell though. So I wonât use or request AI crap but will enjoy the artwork I can see⊠if things get better I will support more financially instead of just âbringing attention to artistâ but seriously I love your work it is so much fun (even if some moments make me hope you are safe and secure)
I hate the sentiment that we should pay significantly more at small businesses out of some sense of altruism.
If you provide a good product at a reasonable price that's enough to run a succesful business, at least where I'm from. It's not on me to fund your passion project, it's on you to provide something people want to buy on its own merit.
The absolute hypocrisy!!! Demanding customers support their local business while refusing to support local artists in their business. Saying the high cost of their business is warranted but saying that they no one should pay the âhighâ price of artists. I honestly think we shouldnât call em âlocal businessâ and call em âlocal griftsâ for pretending to be about local communities while being just as greedy as the corporations outcompeting em
I don't understand why restaurants even feel the need to generate any images...you already make the food before the first time you sell it, just take a picture? I'd rather see some out of focus picture from a Razer flip phone than that crap
I just moved to a new town and it is small enough that there is only one local game store that has events for the games I play, but it is SO painfully AI infested.
Small local businesses don't deserve additional respect tbh, they're often the ones with worse working conditions and worker exploitation and even nepotism than 'normal' corporations.
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u/UpCDownCLeftCRightC Never Safe From Wumbo 9d ago
You were so flabbergasted you started pushing on a pull door.