To the Editor:
Many social media accounts sprang up opining on dining options in the Wildwoods. These are bad for business for three reasons.
First, financial conflicts of interest and personal relationships with the reviewed restaurant are not disclosed. Second, the reviewers have no formal training to know good food from bad. They just open a social media account, call themselves a “foodie,” and away they go. Third, the reviewers lack perspective or even empathy for what it takes to run a small business.
As an example, a Wildwood food blogger recently took to Instagram. In this case, the blogger favorably reviewed a restaurant well off the beach and serving a meal one could easily cook at home. The meal used several shortcuts, including precut frozen french fries. It was served on a paper placemat that doubled as a menu. The reviewer failed to disclose there was the very cheap gag of “no free refills” on fountain soda.
Later on in the blog, an oceanfront restaurant in business for nearly 40 years was negatively reviewed for cost. The New Jersey strawberries shown in the blogger’s picture were hand-cut and perfectly farm fresh. The whipped cream was real and not some imitation product in a can. The potatoes were the more expensive red bliss variety and hand cut on a mandolin. The meal was served on a table with a laundered and folded white tablecloth.
In my opinion, the reviewer’s negative opinion of cost is unfounded, as the cost for the higher quality service at an oceanfront restaurant is justified. Pointing these shortcomings out to the blogger was met with a response saltier than a tall, frosty glass of seawater.
There is a cost associated with a higher-end service. Hand-cut produce requires an employee to inspect, wash, and cut it. A laundry service is paid to wash the tablecloths. Plus, paying employees legally and in accordance with New Jersey law adds a minimum of 30% to the bill for wage taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment, compared to under-the-table employment. The latter deprives workers of a living wage and protection from an on-the-job injury.
It’s not that the restaurant is “too expensive.” It is that many bloggers are too young to afford higher-end service like the grown-ups who worked hard to earn money to afford to be taken care of in a nice restaurant.
Bloggers who fail to understand the above points injure family-run businesses and do nothing more than hurt the children of business owners and their employees. For a family business, a negative review could be the difference in affording that special Christmas present or tickets for a Walt Disney World visit.
Restaurants clearly post their menu for guests waiting in line. New Jersey law requires prices to be disclosed upfront. At these oceanfront restaurants, the menu is professionally printed and handed to the blogger by a server. The cost is clearly disclosed. The blogger knows the cost, orders the food, eats the food, pays the bill, and complains even though they knew the cost was higher before he/she even sat down.
Bloggers without empathy, objectivity and a dedication to fairness are bad for the local economy. In my opinion, these bloggers need to put down their phones and get a job working for a small business owner. Then, and only then, should a blogger ever be allowed to rant or “throw shade” on a fellow local shore resident and business owner.
– Brian McBride, Linwood
