A Chick-fil-A location in Towson Place, Maryland, is offering customers a sweet treat if they eat their entire meal without looking at their phones.
The branch is introducing a Cell Phone Coop Challenge, where winners will be awarded with a free ice cream cone if they store their mobile device in a white box, referred to as the “cell phone coop,” for the duration of their dining experience.
To participate, as noted in a recent Facebook post from the restaurant, customers should dine in the restaurant and ask a team member for the coop to place their phone.
Guests are advised to let a team member know when they finish their meal, and everyone at the table will get a vanilla soft-serve Chick-fil-A Icedream cone.
“Grab a coop and take the challenge,” a sign from the restaurant on its Facebook reads.
A representative for Chick-fil-A told The Independent that the Cell Phone Coop Challenge isn’t a nationwide initiative. The company notes that all restaurants are independently owned and operated, so they may offer events and initiatives specific to their locations.
Chick-fil-A’s Cell Phone Coop Challenge isn’t a new concept. The cell phone coop was created by Brad Williams, an owner of two Chick-fil-A restaurants in Georgia, back in 2016. At the time, he had put one of these coops at every table in his two restaurants, with customers being rewarded with ice cream if they kept their phones in there for their entire meal.
“It just got me thinking how to get people to disconnect in order to connect and to take a technology timeout,” he told ABC News in 2016. “Be present where your feet are.”
“We’re trying to slowly create rituals that create disciplines and will slowly create habits,” he added. “It’s almost like we’re starting to create a no-cellphone zone.
He also spoke about the success of his creation, explaining: “There’s more conversation and chatter. It’s hard to sit with your family and not do the challenge now.”
Previous research has revealed how the presence of mobile phones during social situations can make the interactions less enjoyable. For a 2018 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, participants eating dinner at a cafe in Vancouver, in groups of two or four, were asked to keep their phones on the table while they ate. However, the other group of participants had to keep their phones out of sight.
Once the meal was over, everyone was given a questionnaire to rate their enjoyment of the experience.
Those who dined with their phones present rated enjoyment levels 0.36 points less than those without. Participants with a phone during dinner also reported higher levels of boredom by 0.28 points and rated distraction levels higher by 0.46 points.