California’s Glendale Galleria is blasted for replacing its mall hours sign with a QR CODE

A Southern California mall has replaced traditional signs listing mall hours with ones that direct shoppers to scan a QR code to bring up those mall hours on its website.

The switch, which appears to have been recently implemented at Glendale Galleria, is being met with derision on social media.

Angry Twitter users argue that requiring shoppers to scan a QR code makes a simple process unnecessarily harder, and renders it inaccessible to people who don’t have smartphones. 

A photo of the sign was shared on March 14 by comedian Grant O’Brien, who complained: ‘No. You simply have to put the mall hours on this sign. You simply have to.’

The sign is labeled ‘Mall Hours,’ but instead of listing hours, most of the sign is taken up by a giant QR code with the directions: ‘Scan to view mall hours. Aim your camera here.’

A photo of the sign was shared on March 14 by comedian Grant O’Brien, who complained: ‘No. You simply have to put the mall hours on this sign. You simply have to’

The tweet has quickly gone viral, with over 300,000 likes from irate and confounded Twitter users. 

‘I cannot imagine a world where this is a better option than just putting the hours on the sign wtf,’ wrote one commenter.

‘What if I’m going to the mall to get my phone fixed????’ asked another.

‘I thought maybe it was one of those magic eye illusions and if you stare at it long enough you’ll start to see the mall hours,’ tweeted a third.

‘People who are not technically savvy will hate this because it is an annoying new technology. People who are technically savvy will hate this because it is a terrible and invasive new technology,’ wrote a fourth.

Several commenters pointed out that this is not only inefficient, but it also makes accessing mall hours difficult for people who don’t own smartphones or who aren’t particularly adept at using them.

The sign is labeled ‘Mall Hours,’ but instead of listing hours, most of the sign is taken up by a giant QR code with the directions: ‘Scan to view mall hours. Aim your camera here’

The mall hours are available online and are listed not just by day of the week but by date

‘This uses far more ink than a conventional message and is useless to anybody over 50; i.e. people who still use malls,’ tweeted one.

‘Reminder that many people don’t have a smart phone or don’t know how to easily use one. Expecting every member of the public to access content vital to an experience (i.e., visiting a mall, ordering from a restaurant) is classist, stupid, and unnecessary,’ said another.

‘I hate to break it to people who run this mall, but not everyone can afford fancy camera/cell phones. This sign smacks of elitism and privilege. Just saying,’ yet another chimed in. 

‘They’re trying to tell paying customers when the mall is open, without tipping off the homeless people who might use the mall as temporary shelter,’ suggested one more.  

Angry Twitter users argue that requiring shoppers to scan a QR code makes a simple process unnecessarily harder, and renders it inaccessible to people who don’t have smartphones

One commenter noted that the QR code is a particularly complex one because the URL it directs to is so long with tracking mechanisms.

‘Cool, the QR blocks are so tiny because it’s a really long URL including metadata like ‘campaign=holiday-season’ and ‘medium=print’ and ‘source=signage’ so they can track useless nonsense about who is trying to scan for their hours, all while lowering the odds that scanning works,’ they said.

Some people also helpfully posted screenshots of the mall hours, proving how much easier it is to have them immediately available. 

DailyMail.com had reached out to Glendale Galleria for comment.