If You Don't Use Your Phone While At This Restaurant, You Get Free Ice Cream

A Chick-fil-A customer can get free ice cream, but only if he or she goes an entire meal without looking at his or her phone.

According to TODAY, Brad Williams began the challenge in January at the two Chick-fil-A locations he runs in Atlanta.

He wanted to send the message restaurants are meant for customers to enjoy each other's company, not their phones.

Williams 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.

Now, almost 200 locations across the US reportedly contain boxes for the challenge, or "cell phone coops," set on top of tables.

Customers are instructed to drop their phones into the boxes before they sit down.

In a statement, Williams said,

We really want our restaurant to provide a sense of community for our customers, where family and friends can come together and share quality time with one another. But as we all know, technology increasingly demands more of our time and can be a big distraction, even while we're eating.

He claims approximately 90 percent of customers who take the challenge find success.

Several families, however, failed to complete the challenge their first times, prompting them to return to the restaurant shortly after for second tries, Daily Mail reports.

Williams added some customers even requested to take the boxes home in apparent bids to get their loved ones to finally talk to each other at dinners.

Citations: ChickfilAs cell phone coop other eateries encourage diners to unplug (TODAY), ChickFilA promises free ice cream to families who leave their cell phones behind and enjoy their meal distraction free (Daily Mail)