Local coffee, popular restaurant and Generic business topic

I think it is best to have a good clarification between a Local coffee shop, Popular restaurant and Generic business(This might cause some uproar).

What exactly would clarify a Generic business? Is it a generic, chained coffee shop? A generic eating service?
I have read the Generic/Non-Generic Businesses and I found this part is a bit not fullfilled?

If my area have 10 Local coffee shop(different name) within 1 kilometers, each of them can be a good social hub(Where people invited other people to drink) or exceptional menu or have high review. Are they:

Good place to be a wayspot due to socialization/exploration?
OR
A generic business that just sell coffee?

As for the restaurant, what would clarify as between “This restaurant as a wayspot” and “This restaurant as a Business”?

Is it high review on google map? How many amount? 100?200?
Does restaurant must have newspaper about how popular it is?
Award-winning restaurant? Must have culture impact?

Sorry for long writing, I just want some good clarify between the difference of Generic and Local.

Recent threads have led me to thinking that cafes are suitable submissions. I haven’t yet submitted any chain cafes/coffee shops, but local independent ones are now on my radar. Cafes definitely qualify for Social criteria, even chain ones, more so than restaurants do.

I’d personally draw the line between cafes/restaurants (accepting that that line is a little blurred), because otherwise urban high streets would be gaining non-stop wayspots. If nothing else, that would annoy the rural players a little.

Restaurants in general shouldn’t pass, but ones that have a unique characteristic (or in sparse locations
) are more suitable.

Personally I always go to a quote i read on here (and have repeated several times) of would you pass a couple of similar places to get to this one.

In regards to chain cafes / restaurants my thought is would I pass a couple of McDonalds to go to a specific branch and I thing for the majority the answer is No. Unless they have something specific I would normally reject.

In regards to “local”, they don’t have other branches so the question has to be “would you pass a couple of local cafes to go to this one”. This is down to the submitter to show evidence why (top reviews / awards, unique menu, runs events etc).

If the submitter makes a good argument for this I will Accept, otherwise I would normally skip. Maybe someone more local will know the place and will make a more informed decision.

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If I would arrange to meet someone there, then I consider it decent enough to submit, since I would choose to socialise there.

If it offers something unique in the area, or has cool artwork then it may be a good place to explore.

It’s pretty simple in my view that generic business should apply to businesses where I’m not convinced they meet any criteria

I also don’t think PoI density is relevant for criteria. If there’s a super cool row of restaurants and cafes in a village centre and all of them became PoIs, that’s great! I can look at my game and see there’s cool stuff over thst direction and head there at lunchtime :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Yo, thank you for a lot of feedback, I think I have a bit of respond

I mean, the criteria did say “Popular restaurant” , where people can share a meal or drink. If the restaurant is popular, they would be the place you would recommend a new person to visit, or to call your friend and eat in there, that would be socialize.

I mean, is it matter if this “local” coffee is more worth to visit than that “local” coffee, because they are still the place for social hub. Instead of 100 people grouping into the coffee shop, you have 30,40, and they would be a great place to socialize.

I would like to think this is stated like
normal chained market and chained coffee/restaurant? Or metal shop, or candy shop, or medical shop,
etc, you know the meaning? I don’t know.

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I’m saying any business could meet criteria potentially, in certain cases. Although hard for a supermarket or car sales place to do so, maybe some would!

So to me,a generic business rejection is just for businesses where I don’t think they meet any criteria at all. That could be a chain restaurant, but if someone convinced me that the chain restaurant was a great place to be social in their area, I would vote positively for it

A coffee shop is also a restaurant, a local restaurant can also be a popular restaurant.

You have misunderstood what you are reading.

If you look at the link you provided, Generic Business and Restaurants are two separate categories.

Generic Business are businesses you don’t typically think would fall under the “A great place for exploration” “A great place to exercise” or “A great place to be social with others” (for example a hardware store or car dealership) But that doesn’t meant they are automatic rejections. Niantic does allow their eligibility if you can provide a cultural context (ie the hardware store might also be a major fundraiser for local charities or the car dealership has a mural inside)

Regarding restaurants, “Local” doesn’t actually matter.

As you can see, both “Local” and “Chain” restaurants can validate their “great”-ness using reviews.

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The more of the type there are, the more unique it shall be. Burgers, pizza, coffee shop are like gravel stones on gravel roads. You will find a special stone, even there, but the vast majority “are just there”.

Not always - in areas with very good restaurants or coffee shops, there’s competition to be the best or offer something unique to stand out, so actually the opposite can sometimes happen!

We probably should replace “local” with “Independent”.

I wouldn’t say its just “if this “Independent” coffee is more worth to visit than that “Independent” coffee”.

They may both have reasons to be Acceptable. 1 has won awards for it’s coffee blends, another might host “games evenings”. Both could pass on the Sociable criteria.

If you just nip to the one that is on route to work because it’s convenient this is not a reason to accept.

I am unsure, if we misunderstand each other. If all restaurants are unique or offer a good place to meet, all qualify.

All can be eligible for consideration.

The separate question then is around is this nomination acceptable. Does it meet the standards around a great place to socialise, is it distinctive enough? Has the nomination made the case.

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Well. All that need to be judged by local reviewer. So it will be up to submitter on how to present the nomination as attractive as possible.