Open Tables

Recent bits of time-wasting made me think of dining in the 21st century. A visit to a certain (anonymous) restaurant that didnt accept reservations of any sort was a particularly curious event. Typical waits ranged from 1-2 hours and there were groups of people just milling around. And, this was just one of many such "waits" experienced at restaurants in RVA. Now, forgoing discussions on time utilization, the (social) value of time, putative laziness and other factors, I think at a fundamental level, the "Smith, party of 4" paradigm is one that can be disposed of, or at least minimized these days.

A perusal of Opentable showed only 20 or so restaurants (a dozen of them are chains) in Richmond that are part of it. This is quite surprising. When practically every restaurant worth visiting (across all price ranges) in most cities are part of some sort of online reservation system, why is Richmond so far behind? And this is hardly a new phenomenon. OT, for example, has been around for > 10 years.
There may be certain economic constraints but I wonder if I am incorrect that the financial incentive generated from enabling a customer convenience or even employee scheduling should justify the capital expense. Isnt there a critical mass of people who would rather make a quick online reservation/ check availability online than call or worse yet, show up and be told that there is a long wait ?! Or is it related to a sort of buzz factor (clearly RVA diner centric)?
Dining points (as on OT) help as well !!