Bits Blog: How Surveillance Changes Behavior: A Restaurant Workers Case Study

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Restaurant Patron’s Behavior Is Panned

“Dreadful service,” she wrote on Twitter, before announcing she had arrived at the agency to complain. “They have no manners.”

What followed, however, caught much of Mexico by surprise. Instead of enjoying the perks of privilege, Ms. Benítez and her father have become the targets of a broad and swift social media campaign — with tens of thousands of Tweets condemning them — that led the president’s office on Monday to announce a formal investigation into allegations of abuse of power.

This kind of response, it must be said, is exceedingly rare in Mexico. Murders are routinely ignored by the authorities here, and increasingly by senior officials who would prefer to discuss other topics. But the food at Maximo Bistrot apparently has the capacity to ignite public rage and government action like little else.

To many of its fans, the restaurant is the Chez Panisse of Mexico City, a gastro-paradise of fresh ingredients delivered with innovation for (relatively) affordable prices, in a simple dining room often populated by stars, from Mexican actors to visiting luminaries like Patti Smith. It is one of many new restaurants here that have sought to reinvent Mexican cuisine, taking advantage of both a booming economy and the fact that food is an economic exception — one of the only industries where Mexico’s monopolistic tendencies do not hold sway.

Many of the restaurant’s regular patrons said the young Ms. Benítez clearly miscalculated by assuming that all the smartphone owners at dinner would let her get away with such behavior.

“It’s such blatant corruption that’s right in our faces,” said Max St. Romain, 42, a filmmaker who saw the inspectors slap an enormous “suspension of activities” sticker on Maximo Bistrot on Friday night. “It’s a connection to the corruption that ruled Mexico for decades — the fact that a child of someone in power can use it just on a whim, on a tantrum.”

Twitter users immediately gave Ms. Benítez a hashtag: #LadyProfeco. Profeco is the abbreviated version of the office that her father directs, and “Lady” referred back to another recent incident labeled #LadiesDePolanco — when some drunken young women in the posh neighborhood of Polanco were caught on video berating police officers for being “salary men.”

As of Sunday evening, Twitter had logged around 42,000 messages referring to #LadyProfeco in every manner of vulgar insult.

Ms. Benítez’s father, Humberto Benítez Treviño, eventually apologized, releasing a statement declaring that his daughter had exaggerated, prompting inspectors to overreact.

The Net vigilantism, nonetheless, has not let up. Few of the Benítezes’ critics seem to expect a real investigation, so they are again turning to digital outrage and humor. One artist even turned Lady Profeco into a satirical comic book heroine.

“Is there a business that’s given you bad service?” she is depicted as saying on the cover. “Talk to me and I’ll tell my daddy to shut it down.”

Lisa Vanderpump Targeted in Sexual Assault Lawsuit Over Villa Blanca Restaurant

Lisa Vanderpump
Targeted In
Sexual Assault Suit

An actress/restaurant server claims she was the victim of sexual assault and battery at Lisa Vanderpump's Beverly Hills Restaurant, Villa Blanca, and she's suing Lisa and the man she claims did the dirty deeds for more than $5 million.

Karina Bustillos -- who has appeared in "The Mexican Conspiracy" and "86'd" -- claims in April, a Villa Blanca manager, Michael Govia, told her to close her eyes.  She says when she eventually opened them, Govia's mouth was open with his tongue sticking out, right by her mouth, in an attempt to kiss her.

Bustillos says she complained and then Govia began retaliating, calling her a "bitch" and a "c**t" and telling other servers he could "get her" -- implying he could sleep with her if he wanted.

She says in August, Govia allegedly approached her and aggressively twisted her wrists.  She says when she asked him to stop, he responded, "I will do whatever I want.  I'm the manager."

Bustillos says she complained to others but no action was taken.  Bustillos also says Lisa Vanderpump gave her the cold shoulder after she complained.

Bustillos, who claims she was forced to quit, is suing Lisa, her husband, Ken Todd, the restaurant and Govia for more than $5 mil.

Lisa Vanderpump tells TMZ, "The waitress had a falling out with a manager.  Of course I take that seriously.  We've looked at all the cameras and there's no sexual harassment."  Lisa adds, "This is just a disgruntled employee."

DealBook: Groupon Moves Into Restaurant Reservations With Savored Deal

Over recent months, Groupon has sought to expand its core business of daily deals with a number of new business propositions, including with ventures like a mobile payment system.

Now, it appears that the online coupon purveyor is moving into restaurant reservations — and a little into OpenTable‘s domain.

Groupon said on Monday that it had bought Savored, an Internet start-up that offers customers ways to reserve tables at restaurants in 10 cities across the country. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Unlike its more established competitor, OpenTable, however, Savored offers discounts for its customers. The business model is a bit like Hotwire.com’s, in that Savored scans for openings at its partner restaurants and offers discounts — up to 40 percent, according to Groupon, though the company’s own site describes the savings as “uncapped” — to customers.

The proposition is that both sides win: restaurants get patrons they otherwise wouldn’t, and customers get both dining reservations and a discount.

Savored is meant to supplement the existing Groupon Now service, which is aimed at giving customers a list of discounts should they decide to indulge in impromptu shopping. The bigger goal is in turning Groupon into more than just a sender of daily deal e-mails: it’s to transform the company into a broad platform for merchants, allowing them to provide discounts, book restaurant reservations and travel packages and track customer spending.

“Savored’s platform nicely complements Groupon’s efforts in yield management, an area we’ve pioneered with Groupon Now,” Dan Roarty, the vice president of Groupon Now, said in a statement. “We look forward to working together to achieve a common goal – making dining out even more fun and affordable for consumers while helping restaurateurs manage inventory and grow their businesses.”

So far, however, investors haven’t really taken the pitch to heart. Shares of Groupon were down 2.3 percent in late afternoon trading on Monday, at $5.15, and have plummeted more than 80 percent since the company began trading last fall.