XPost: alt.food.fast-food, alt.society.liberalism, alt.politics.homosexuality   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: fu-liberals@nytimes.com   
      
   Fast food chain Chick-fil-A is encouraging customers to ditch   
   their smartphones during dinner, even placing boxes called "cell   
   phone coops" on the tables at some of its locations.   
      
   The point is to get people to talk to each other instead of   
   texting or scrolling through social media, Brad Williams, who   
   operates two Chick-fil-A locations in the Atlanta area, told   
   TODAY.   
      
   "I've been doing this for 25 years, and it's interesting to walk   
   through the dining room and see the evolution, the change from   
   having a conversation to nowadays, when there's just this   
   disconnect," he said.   
      
   Williams started the initiative in his stores in January, and   
   it's since spread to nearly 200 Chick-fil-A locations across the   
   country.   
      
   "For a lot of our regular guests, it's becoming a habit," he   
   said. "They come in our stores and say, OK, cell phones in the   
   box."   
      
   Customers who leave their phones untouched during the entire   
   meal get a free ice cream. And most do — Williams estimated that   
   about 90 percent of customers who attempt the "cell phone coop   
   challenge" are successful. Of course, not everyone can resist   
   the urge to sneak a peek at their phone.   
      
   "I had one family come up to me, and the dad said, 'We tried the   
   challenge, but unfortunately my son decided he needed to send a   
   text in the middle of dinner, so we're going to go home with no   
   dessert, no ice cream,'" Williams said. "But he said, 'We'll be   
   back next week to try again.'"   
      
   While rewarding customers who unplug might be new to the fast   
   food industry, some restaurants have been doing it for years.   
   Bedivere Eatery & Tavern in Lebanon offers a 10 percent discount   
   to people who check their phones at the door, and before it   
   closed, Los Angeles' Eva Restaurant took 5 percent off the bill   
   of customers who were willing to leave their phone at the host   
   stand during dinner.   
      
   RELATED: Hang up and eat! Restaurants battle distracted dining   
      
   Other restaurants post signs asking diners to turn off or   
   silence their phones before sitting down. And in New York, some   
   chefs have started to ban customers from taking photos of their   
   food in recent years, according to The New York Times.   
      
   RELATED: Waiter serves up list of most annoying restaurant   
   customer behaviors   
      
   As ubiquitous as a cell phone at the dinner table has become,   
   most people frown upon it: only 38 percent of people think using   
   cell phones at restaurants is OK, according to a recent survey   
   from the Pew Research Center.   
      
   http://www.today.com/food/chick-fil-s-cell-phone-coop-other-   
   eateries-encourage-diners-t77226   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)