This screams marketing and engineering not being able to clearly communicate the problem statement. The problem statement was given to engineering as "How do we get a QR code inside of this handle thing?", when I am guessing their actual question was something like "How do we get the shopper to engage with our digital marketing efforts?"

I for sure know there are times when marketing has a clear thing of what they want, and you are not allowed to brainstorm the pro's and con's; but the con's seem to far outweigh the pro's in this specific strategy.

You're telling me that the shopper would have to contort their phone an unnaturally specific angle just to scan a QR code. Now the problem statement is back to the marketing team of "How do I tell the shopper to contort their phone at this angle?". I doubt that the marketing folks will like this being back on their lap.