Have a bite, recharge your cell phone

Mike Haasch, the general manager of the Jackson’s on Third restaurant and bar between Chase Field and US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, likes to offer conveniences for his customers. That’s why he has set up a cell phone recharger on the premises.

“We are an event-driven business,” he said. “People will come in here after work and before getting to a game, and the batteries on the cell phones will be going low.... It’s not a money maker, but it is a service we like to provide customers.”

Jackson’s on Third is the first Arizona business to install a Kwik-E-Charge cell phone charger, which allows users to replenish their cell phone batteries if they are out and about without a portable charger.

Richard Service, general manager of Kwik-E-Charge-Az LLC, who has the Arizona distribution rights to the kiosk-type machine, hopes to have 50 units in place around the Valley by the end of this year, with 50 more next year. He is looking to place them in restaurants, golf clubs, conference and entertainment centers, shopping malls — any place with high traffic volumes where people linger for awhile and might take the opportunity to recharge their phones.

Each cell phone-shaped machine contains 18 plug-in cords to accommodate most popular phone brands. Recharging tired batteries takes about 20 minutes for two hours of talking time and costs $2.

The 6-foot tall by 2-foot wide machines are made in China, a country with more than 400 million cell phone users, by Chaliyuan, a Beijing-based company that has installed about 65,000 of the what it calls “cell phone gas stations” around that country.

The U.S. distributions rights are held by Take Charge Marketing LLC, a Tulsa, Okla.-based start-up firm, and Service, a Gilbert businessman, purchased the Arizona distribution rights after he saw the device at a franchise show in January.

“I think someday they’ll be as popular as ATMs,” he said.

Businesses that agree to host a machine need to provide only the space and electricity to operate it, and they get to keep all revenue from the cash box. Service makes his money by selling advertising on the unit, which contains both backlit billboard space and a 17-inch diagonal color monitor, where video ads can be displayed.

Service plans to sell up to 30 video ads per screen, with each 30-second spot replaying every 15 minutes.

“You would need to sit and watch your cell phone, so the advertiser has a captive audience for 20 minutes,” he said.

He plans to target the advertisers based on the location of the unit. Among the possibilities for a downtown Phoenix location would be beer and beverage products, attorneys, maybe the Phoenix Suns or Arizona Diamondbacks, he said.

The machine drew varied reactions from customers at the restaurant.

“I wouldn’t use it. I have a charger in my car,” said Terry Hadley of New River.

Erwin Schubert of Tempe said the kiosk was “a pretty good idea,” and the $2 cost “isn’t bad.” But he added it needs to have a security feature to ensure cell phones aren’t stolen if the customer is distracted for a few minutes.

“I wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t secure,” he said. For more information, go to

www.Kwik-E-Charge-AZ.com.