This is an open letter to the management of Festival Mall. To be fair, I will publish your reply if you ask. Just email me at redgate77@gmail.com. Let me first explain the problem from my personal experience.

I went to the Savemore supermarket at Festival Mall in Alabang. When I drove to the exit after shopping, the security guard told me I had to obtain a QR code in order to get out. There were no signs or flyers to explain the procedure, which could have simplified the process and saved customers time.

The guard gave me directions to the booth where I could get a QR code. He told me to move my car to the side so the other cars with QR codes could pass. There was no place to make a U-turn but a single lane. There were five cars behind me with QR codes, so I had to wait for about 10 minutes for all five to exit before I could back up, turn around, and go to the QR booth.

Under the noon heat, I parked my car far from the QR booth as the space was full with many other drivers in the same predicament. You have to park twice — first to shop and then to get the QR code. It was a long hot walk to the QR booth that was inside the mall. There was a long line at the booth and it took me another 10 minutes to get my QR ticket.

It took me 10 short minutes in the supermarket to buy the single item that I needed, but 35 minutes to get the QR ticket and exit. This extreme inconvenience to mall customers must be addressed by the management. During rush hour, there may be a crowd at the QR booth, which could lengthen the processing time to about an hour or so per driver.

My unsolicited advice to management is to put up signs and give out flyers explaining the procedure to customers at the entrance, so they would not experience what  I experienced. Also, increase the number of QR booths, especially at rush hour.

My question is: Does it really matter that much to have a QR code? If the answer is yes, what can I say except streamline the procedure for greater efficiency. If not, can you possibly abandon the QR protocol altogether? After all, QR code stands for Quick Response code. What I went through was anything but.