Restaurants reward phone manners
by Leon Gettler
The smart phone is the bane for some café and restaurant owners.
Some would say there is nothing worse than watching customers sitting there, hardly eating anything, and spending all their time on the phone.
But some have started to do something about it. Rather than trying to ban it, they’re being creative and rewarding good behaviour.
One fast food franchisee in the United States for example is offering free ice-creams to families that keep their phones in their pockets or bags for the entire meal.
The idea was introduced at a Chick-fil-A outlet in Atlanta, Georgia, to great effect.
To do that, the franchisee Brad Williams uses a small cardboard box, or what he calls a phone coop. It’s a simple idea really: put your phone into the box at the start of the meal. No hassle if you want to take it out. But you and your family just won’t get the free ice cream if you succumb,
Williams calls it the "family challenge" because he wants to children and parents to socialise.
It’s different for Mellbourne cafes and restaurants where the food is photogenic and people use their phones to take pictures of what’s on their dish to post it on social media. For the restaurants and cafes, it’s free advertising. So they promote it. Some cafes even keep a selfie stick to encourage people to post pics of their food on Instagram and Facebook.
Still private clubs at the big end of town are very much in favour or phone etiquette.
Guests are not allowed to use phones in the dining rooms at the Melbourne Club, the Athenaeum, and the Savage Club. That’s the rule.
And the Kelvin Club has a rule for everyone: answer or use your phone during a meal and you’ll have to a buy a round of port for everyone.
18th March 2016
