I expect higher prices when I'm trying to shop local. I know they can't compete on price. I'm willing to pay the premium specifically to support small business.

Sure, restricted hours kind of suck, but like...I'm not going to hold wanting to find work/life balance against them.

Customer service is hit or miss anywhere. Really, I think the idea of customer service has mostly gone out the window everywhere. It sucks because HS kids (and anyone else working these jobs) aren't being taught these skills. With a small business, at least I can have a nice little conversation with the owner even if they're socially awkward. People skills are hard. Obviously there is a line in there somewhere that goes into shitty service or bad attitude.

I do plenty of shopping at chains, but it's important to me to throw money at small businesses. I've watched my city grow a lot in the last 30 years and the only thing keeping it interesting are the local businesses.

They never built a clip art data center in my backyard.

Plus you still had to creative use the clip art. So there was human assembly there. Plus a human most definitely created the clip art in the first place.

So overall, not really the same

If they generate AI slop, they're supporting the big corporations.

Edit: damn, that's a lot of AI bros trying to make themselves feel better with "nuance" and "lesser evil" arguments down in the comments. I guess if you don't see your money directly go to OpenAI, it helps you sleep at night better. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

The best pizza I ever had was from a hole-in-the-wall place in Montreal with a layer of grease in the windows, thick cobwebs covered in dead flies, and an air-conditioner black with mold.

If anyone cares, or remembers, it was Rock And Roll Pizza on Bleury, where the Spectrum used to be. In front of the NYKS.

It was a Persian guy running the place. One day I convinced a Persian co-worker to eat there. I guess he gave shit to the owner because the next day the place was a lot cleaner.

Basically they made some kind of shawarma pizza that was out of this world.

Oh and the business next door sold sex dolls, there was a fully inflated transexual doll in that window.

I miss that Montreal. I don't like the crappy generic condo abomination that's there now.

So anyways, if greasy windows and dead spiders didn't turn me off, what does it say that seeing some generic gross AI art turns me off?

(I just remembered another MTL pizza place with greasy windows and dead flies that was so amazing a guy drove from the South Shore just to eat there.)

employees justifiably hate their employers

Trypophobia? Went to a restaurant that had ai menu pictures that looked like everything was made of bugs. They looked absolutely disgusting. At that point it wasn't even about not liking ai, i simply lost my apetite looking at it.

If you're a regular there, I think it's reasonable to contact them and say that you go there often and are bothered by the AI. "I started coming here regularly because it felt authentic". "You guys don't feel authentic anymore, and I'm disappointed" or more strongly "and I'm thinking of taking my business someplace that cares enough about their customers to put in the effort." "I wish you'd go back to the way you used to do things." Etc.

Assuming we're really talking about a small business, it's very possible someone will listen.

I reach out to small businesses all the time working on OpenStreetMap, and (obviously with selection bias for the ones who respond) they're usually just pretty nice-seeming people trying their best with what they have.

Edit: One thing I think I should've emphasized isn't just to say "please stop using AI" but that specifically "I liked it better the way you used to do it." or outright, with no comparison, "I liked the way you used to do it". "It made you unique." That is, give them a concrete alternative. For a lot of people, AI, like plagiarism (because it is), is a tool used when someone thinks their voice isn't good enough. It helps to try to convince them that it is enough and that they not only don't need AI but that it's harming the unique identity you enjoyed by making them blend in with everyone else.

Edit 2: I didn't think to include this before, but like obviously, be honest. If it won't upend your business there, don't say that it will; consider real effects it'll have, like "I don't know that I want to recommend this to friends anymore." If you've only been there five times, don't be afraid to say that; "I've shopped/eaten/whatever at your establishment several times, and [...]". If you're asking somebody to be authentic, you not only owe it to them to do the same, but it's probably a more effective strategy. They'll probably be more moved by Bobby Jones (43) who likes to come in for a burger every couple months after work and just doesn't like the vibe anymore than their biggest fan they've never seen, the oilman in from Dallas who spends $20,000/month at their establishment and is so simply appalled that they cannot in good conscience return until the Burger Shack de-lobotomizes their mascot design.

What's an AI photobooth? I'm just imagining a booth where you have your photo taken and it prints a totally unrelated AI-generated photo. Like, you go for a passport photo and get a picture of Marie Curie and the Hulk windsurfing on the Moon.

It’s AI poster or no poster at all. You may prefer no poster

I'm also on team 'no poster'.

I'm far more likely to buy fruit from that place with a handwritten sign on a piece of paper than I am from someplace with a shitty AI slop picture of what a robot thinks fruit looks like. If you're going to have pictures of your product, it had better be actual pictures of the product I'm actually buying. I don't want to see some AI idealized picture of it -- I want to see what it actually looks like. And, no, you don't need to hire a local artist for that. You've got product to sell? You've got a phone in your pocket? Take a fucking photo of it. Put that photo on your poster. Done. No money spent on artists.