McDonald's Introduces Smartphone Lockers So People Aren't Distracted During Family Meals

Would you lock up your phone?

October 16, 2017 2 min read

It’s time to put your phone away and spend some quality time with your family. At least, that’s what McDonald’s is preaching.

At one of its restaurants in Singapore, the fast food chain has installed 100 mobile phone lockers and “parking stations” for families to leave their phones as part of its “Phone Off, Fun On” campaign. McDonald's hopes to get both parents and children off their devices and to instead enjoy some good old fashioned family time together.

“As a popular restaurant destination for families, we have observed that the use of mobile devices during meal times may sometimes get in the way of family bonding,” Linda Ming, McDonald’s director of communications and customer care, told Channel News Asia.

A survey conducted last month by McDonald’s Singapore found that 72 percent of children and 69 percent of adults use their phones during meals.

Will people actually get offline to spend more time with their families? So far it looks like the lockers are fairly empty, according to some social media users.

Will you ever see 1 phone in da box? #mcdonalds #familytime #nophonesallowed #iphonephotography #nofilter
A post shared by jerry sim (@shijia82) on Oct 15, 2017 at 10:50am PDT

New initiative from Mcd. Parking all mobile phones here to promote family time without distraction. Tried it with my godkids and their parents. Eeeeeer.. failed within 5mins. ?.. #familyplaydate #phoneofffunon #mcdonaldssg #mcdonalds #familytime #family #kids #sgeats #sgfood #foodie #sgfoodies #sgfoodporn #sgfooddiary #foodsg #foodstagram #foodporn #foodpics #foodlover #instafood #burpple #burpplesg #sgeatout #sgmakandiary #thegrowingbelly #seanfoodtrail #thegoodfatssg
A post shared by Sean Loo (@plutoniumignite) on Oct 15, 2017 at 2:22am PDT