Why Restaurants HATE 'Influencers'

are DMs like this the reason why business owners hate influencers this is going viral let's talk about it listen this is a little bit of a scuff up between a ramen restaurant in the UK and a UK influencer but a lot of Americans are commenting on it we got to talk about it this went viral on next shark hundreds and hundreds of comments some people are supporting here some people are supporting over there make sure you like subscribe turnning your notifications and but you know what we are not hiring any influencers to promote small ass sauce uh we got people who like it but we haven't hired any influencers yet anyways it's coming back soon so anyway long story short there's this place called lucky Ramen and sushi in the UK and it looks pretty good I'mma pop up some of the photos here they got a duck tongue katsu some French Japanese Brios brunch toast anyway somebody messages him and uh they blocked out the account he goes um hey sorry I know it's kind of short notice but I'm in Manchester tomorrow and I'm looking for somewhere to brunch with my partner would you open for a collab with me and a post on my story and page but then lucky Ramen and them they reposted this and they aired them out saying really you know we appreciate that you like our food but we appreciate paying customers even more look another DM from a Blue Tick Superstar asking for a free meal oh David we are I never called ourselves food influencers I always consider ourselves content creators and cultural explorers sers comedians whatever I cannot say that this does not relate to to some of what we do because we do go to restaurants sometimes and we've gotten some free food we've paid for most of it but sometimes we get free stuff this London bloke Andrew then said personally I think you're bang out of order how dare you try and expose us like that you don't think people like us don't deserve to eat for free because in case you didn't realize we are helping our best to promote you for free so you do you just a free meal to compensate our time labor effort and positiv energy we are supplying for you so who's laughing now if you want to expose us influencers and then of course Andrew lucky Ramen and Sushi fired back again with another post and then the internet chimed in all over the place so basically David it comes down to a lot of people I feel like most people are taking the restaurant owners lucky Ramen side being like yo we hate influencers are self-entitled blah blah blah and then there's another side that's not necessarily defending the influencer but there are a lot of people who are influencers themselves saying hey I get it you guys hate influencers but I feel like the restaurant owner might have overreacted probably didn't need a call him out cu the message wasn't that bad anyways we're going to give you our thoughts because we're unfortunately in a similar space sometimes so I'll give you our perspective again please hit that like button we'll go through the comment section I really didn't like the influencer's initial message there's no punctuation it's super short from what I can tell lucky Ramen and Sushi is actually really really popular they do 50% % off on Mondays and Tuesdays so that's already like super cheap that's 50% off is a big discount never I never even seen a restaurant in America do that to be honest I was like man how slow are Mondays and Tuesdays but uh the food looks good it looks like they run a complex system with a lot of moving Parts why would you message somebody and it's not like they had 360,000 followers or 3.6 million followers on influ uh on Instagram this person who's asking for the free meal only had 36,000 right and uh I will say this the restaurant owner blocking out the name of the influencer does help and I respect that a little bit more than actually airing out their entire identity right because that would have brought them a ton of negative but it also would have made them look bad too right because the restaurant owner is more attacking influencers in general now instead of this particular influencer by blocking out the face and identity but anyways so you don't like the initial message how bad is it though on a scale of 1 to five five being the worst five being the worst I give it uh 2.5 so it's not the worst message but it defitely could have beened differently because I know that a lot of people will message business owners like this is something that just people do and say like hey I'd love to like film at your spot is there a time to do it but you're right the way it's worded and kind of like they didn't really offer enough value in the beginning it it would did seem a little bit like I'd say that wasn't great right so other people were saying why is this owner of Lucky Sushi and ramen so sassy though too like do you think that they I mean aren't they within their right to pop off though if they feel like they work hard at their business and the influencers are not valuing their work do they have the right to air them out because it brings them more pressed to air them out yeah so so I think there's two plays one the restaurant owner by calling out the influencer kind of get some attention for themselves right like me and you now know what lucky Sushi and ramen in Manchester is and I never was going to know who they are right now but I will say that initial message isn't exactly disrespectful in itself in itself word for word is not disrespectful they didn't say oh well you better give me this or else I'm going to you know never come by or leave a negative review right yeah now the the next message from the influencer in response was super entitled and so therefore I do believe that this influencer is not handling this correctly so anyways basically my whole take is I feel like the restaurant owner might have overreacted a little bit but that initial influencer has shown their their true colors and is an entitled little punk you know why I realized I went on the Instagram page of Lucky Sushin and ramen and they're popping like on certain days they have like a big ass line and uh they're one of the only like modern Pan Asian fusion spots in like all of Manchester which is like one of the you know not London but one of the bigger cities in the UK they're the only people bringing that hyper modern like you know Singapore Hong Kong New York vibe there so aren't they I could see why like they're proud yeah you know what I mean cuz they're probably busting their ass to accomplish this cult Running a Restaurant in a city is not easy all right so here's my take I don't think that people should blanket and hate all influencers but they should hate this type of influencer this self-important self-entitled bad grammar no mini EPK No Electronic press kit they didn't even try to make a pitch because if you value yourself like an advertising firm because that's the you what you believe you're adding to the economy then why don't you make a pitch like an advertis for example I guess what would you have wanted them to say let's edit their message to something that doesn't warrant a reaction like that um hey sorry for the late notice I was wondering if I could come through in exchange for a meal and if you really want to even say that sometimes you just got to leave it up to the restaurant to comp it or give you half off or whatever I can give you this amount of IG stories this amount of static posts I've done had this amount of reach and this much uh amount of impact here's some Analytics okay you justify yourself okay provide the business case for this business transaction then I think you should add on hey by the way if you're super busy you don't want to deal with this that's fine I totally understand I might still come by anyways you know what I mean right like I think as a as a person who wants content out of it or a meal if that's your goal first of all you shouldn't just film at restaurants that you want a free meal at you shouldn't just do it just because hey I need a free meal somewhere and uh I don't want to pay for lunch but if you are going to go into a restaurant you have to be ready to not pay like to me all these spots that we've ever filmed at we go in there sometimes we'll walk in and we'll just be like hey by the way I'm going to order some food but I'm just going to like film a little video on the side is that cool and then they're like oh okay cool and then they're like oh sometimes they're like oh can I bring you out some extra stuff and I'm like that's fine whatever you want to bring I'm going to pay I I'm ready to pay though and let's be honest there may have been some sort of like cty vibe that the lucky Ramen Sushi owner picked up from this influencer I mean just look at their initial message pop it back up Andrew here are some reasons why the internet says that they hate influencers number one self-obsession Reigns Supreme narcissism would you agree I'm not saying all but a lot of influencers are narcissistic spreading mindless consumerism number two I agree number three fake AF Lifestyles trying to make their life look perfect we all know it's really not that good point number four inauthentic relationships they be friends with other influencers to cross-pollinate the user bases but not actually be homies this is exactly why I don't call ourselves influencers I know that we fall within that category I get it I get it but I don't use that term for myself I always correct people exploiting fomo for personal gain turning friendships into transactions the glorification of Hedonism undermining real talent breeding a culture of entitlement and dumbing down our society now the number one job that most middle and high school kids want iner America is to be an influencer because they see it as a talentless way to live a Justin Bieber Taylor Swift Superstar lifestyle without having any of the talent that they have I will never forget this quote it says you call yourself an influencer but what are you influencing people to do let's get into the comments section Andrew somebody said meanwhile Brand's expecting influencers to work for free and exchange for samples restaurants do this too I'm Pro influencer I'm an influencer myself I'm defending influencers that was one of the perspectives that I saw um yeah I could see that I think like I said if you're going to offer the value make the case and then let the business decide whether they want to do the integration or not yeah yeah I I think just trust me even the tone of what you write matters a lot nowadays guys in your DMs if you say hey man uh big fan of your restaurant um I don't know if you guys do this type of thing but I'd love to come by and do a meal and do some posts uh if you could help out with the meal that's great if not that's okay MH and you just humble yourself and say that's okay if you can't do it if you had throw if they had thrown some of that language in there I think it would have softened the message and then that restaurant could have just ignored it or said no but since it just it just didn't it was lacking a little bit of that you got to DM correctly guys well they weren't trying very hard they weren't trying somebody said I work at a trendy restaurant I have to deal with influencers it's a nightmare they're always asking for free stuff throwing a tantrum name dropping not letting the food Runners and servers do their job uh basically clogging up the system because they want to take their food a certain way and get a certain lighting so basically this person was like saying like I'm against them as somebody who works in the restaurant industry of course Andrew there was some debate about how much an impact and influencer has on a restaurant's bottom line okay so the truth is certain Tik toks and Instagrams have gone viral and changed that business for that year or maybe change the course of that business Keith Lee for example when he reviews a lot of businesses in certain cities right yeah just everybody we have a whole bunch of food influencer friends in in New York that some of their things have gone viral and actually and just changed that business to be honest like but but sometimes it's just hot for a moment and then it Fizzles back no I mean and sometimes it doesn't do anything I get it so there is no like the best thing that a restaurant can do is if they have the organization is do like a PR day where they invite influencers to come try and it's just the influencer day so it's like hey we invited you let's get some free food but everybody's got to give us content that's that's a totally fair exchange and that happens all the time but I think when you go in there and you start messing with the system like he said like things are quick and you're like hold on hold on hold on can you move the thing and then you get and then you oh can you make that look better oh can you move my French toast and it's like then you're just like yo chill out like who do you think you are now if you got 10 million viewers and you know like you're like I hate to say it but like you're a celebrity like a Kim K or Bella Hadid maybe you can ask for more things like that but ultimately like just stay out of their way man all right so I have two final thoughts Andrew usually the really big influencers they don't ask for free stuff because it's they're either going to get it for sure or they made enough money influencing they can just do things for free for Content a good point it's always the mid-level people yeah it's just sort of like mid-level famous people almost might be meaner than the hyper famous people yes when it comes to especially mom and pop restaurants just go in with the expectation you're going to pay man just be ready to pay like and sometimes you'll get some free stuff maybe they'll offer you don't have to take it maybe you take it but to ask and like bug them about it and kind of be like well you know I I have followers you know that's like the last thing the restaurant be like yo and everybody's in struggle too I remember one time we drove like maybe $10,000 worth of business to this dim suum Restaurant in Monterey Park I won't name it Atlantic Seafood and dim Su shout out to them though I hope they're still doing good but I remember they gave us a free diet Cod and that was the only thing that they gave us and I was just like oh it's all good you know what I mean but I did go you mean after the video came after he was like oh my God you brought so much business man here's a free diet coke and I was just like yeah cuz I know that still but you know the funny thing is to me because I know that like some of those people from the old school Kanto or just in Chinese in general are so cheap it was like that still meant something to me cuz I know that he doesn't give free Diet Cokes to anybody yeah yeah listen listen certain people are going to to give you a lot of free food some people are maybe not even going to reward you some people will reward you for whatever they attention you they thought you brought just just know that it is not an expectation you're not entitled to it if you go back again and you have to pay for a full meal because the manager doesn't see you they're not there that day or they forgot or they didn't see your story whatever no authorization right it's it is whatever that's that's what it is yeah you do you think though I will say this final point that the fact that n everybody wants to be influencer and the fact that celebrity culture it seems in this late late stage capitalism system that we're in Andrew that's why some influencers I'm not saying all influencers but a portion of influencers that are high-profile the ones that nobody likes they are self-important because all these factors are coming together to allow them to feel self-important over a doctor over a law you know what I mean somebody structural to this Society a policeman I'm saying the the worship of celebrity and the fact that all the kids want to be them theoretically that's what makes them have an inflated self yeah I think one thing that you have to realize too is when you DM them you're like dming somebody who's like in the middle of their day managing the restaurant and then they have to look at their DM and then deal with you and schedule something in the DM you know what's actually better is if you call the restaurant and you try to speak to a manager and you just ask him and you tell the manager on the spot yo this is what it is hey if I could I come in and film blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and then if the manager's like uh sorry no then you that's it that's the answer and there's no controversy about that but when you just like ask you're asking someone to go into their DMS and deal with you while they're trying to serve food it is it is like a whole different thing so for sure and also all these people who are just like the trendy Foodies it's way different than what we did which is like supporting the community and going into like the spots that these people would never even set just tell them if you're going to DM and you want to let a restaurant know you're coming just tell them hey I got a table I'm I'll see you there I'm going to be there tonight I'm very excited and you leave it at that and if they read it and they see your thing and they're like oh that's really cool thanks for coming and then they want to give you a discount great but then you just told them that you're coming so then there's nothing like you're not asking anything but you do you are notifying them so then they can make their own decision you know anyway guys let us know what you think ton of comments both ways obviously mostly supporting the restaurant but not everybody was let us know what you think in the comments section below until next time we The Hop hot boys we out peace