I'm a concessionist. That means that I work in a movie theater and I sell popcorn, drinks, candy, and many other assorted items. Just a few: Icees $3.50, hot dogs $3.50, Nachos $4.50, Water $3.50, Pepsi Blue $3.50, Frappachino $3.50, Pretzel Bites, Movie Bites, then the candy: Starbusts, Skittles, M&M Plain, M&M Peanut, Reeses Pieces, Raisenets, Goobers, Milk Duds, Sour Jacks, Nerds Rope with price from $2 to $3.50.
All very fattening. Especially since you can get vegetable-oil-like butter and cheese on all food items. The food is so fattening and the people pay these rediculous prices for them. They're also willing to wait hours in line to receive them.
Being a foreigner in another country, I feel that I have the right to be liberal and talk "smack" about the natives of this country. I'm not saying that I dislike the country or that I want to leave or that this isn't a great place or even that I support places that hate this country or its people. I'm just listing a few observations. I'd do the same if I were residing in my home country or some place else. I can't just complete the same tireless repeated action over and over without trying to learn anything from it. Just a disclaimer to prevent me from being deported. Let's get started.
64% of Americans area overweight. 80%, 4 out of 5, American teenagers are obese. As a person that currently serves food to the American public, I have been thinking of the effects of what I serve to the consumers and the economical implications. I've also noticed a few things that frustrate me as a worker. Besides, these are just pet-peeves.
Indecisiveness. The people walk up, they stand 5 feet from the register, and they stare up at the menu for 5 minutes. Quite an annoyance since I have to wait for them. I don't really mind save for the fact that I'm a laborer there and have to stand for hours and wait. It gets a bit frustrating.
They come to the wrong registers. Sometimes when the concession stand isn't busy and there's hardly anyone walking around, someone might walk up and order something and there I stand at my register and they go to the one two registers down and expect me to serve them there. I can't do that, I'd have to log out, get the manager to check out my money on the register I'm on, go to another register and count it down, and then open on that register. A laborious process.
They ask if we have some sort of combo. We don't have a combo and don't advertise it. I suppose they get the idea from another theater or from 5 years ago when the theater had a combo but doesn't another. The frequency of being asked for this combo is about 1 per 10 customers.
Rediculous prices, as listed above. It would be cheaper than going to an expensive restaurant and paying $300 for a plate of cut up tomatoes and onions with a tiny parsely on the side, but the food the theater serves is still pretty expensive and I do get complaints about the prices all the time. About 3 every shift. Concessionists are required to upsell and suggestive sell, meaning that if you order nachos and a medium Pepsi, I have to ask if you want the large Pepsi for a quarter more. Not everyone goes for it. I've noticed that more people on Fridays and Sundays go for it than people on Saturdays. If there's only a quarter dollar's price difference between the large and the medium drink $3.50-$3.75, then why waste that much money getting the small or medium when the large is only $0.25-$0.50 more? It would be more value for the money. But I've listened to their replies and have concluded that these people have little self control. Somewhere in your mind there should be something that could tell you that you're not thirsty anymore and that you could stop drinking or that you're full and don't need to eat anything else. But I look at their round stomachs and think otherwise.
When suggestive selling, I might ask if they want candy or nachos with their order. Mostly, they give the replies,"No thanks, I just ate," or, "We just came from dinner." Then I look at their order and I see that they've ordered so many high-caloric food items and wonder why they're eating again after they've just eaten. This could be another cause for why America is so overweight.
A couple walks up and stares at the prices and speaks inaudibly to each other for about 5 minutes, then decides to order with that same inaudible voice. There's music, there's the sound of the preview, there's the chit chatter of the customers behind, and there's the noise from the other people on register. I can't decipher a whisper from a room of loud noise without having some sort of bionic ear. I'm no superman. Sometimes couples walk up and they're hunch over on each other and they're making love right there in front of me. I like love. I enjoy seeing people show affection for each other. But some of those couples really should find a room - they take it too far and make love right there in front of everyone.
The customer may spend 10 minutes rummaging through their pockets for change after they make their order and walk off. I wonder why that is - since they've already paid. It takes up time from the people that are behind them.
I long for the day when they stop using paper for money transactions. Money has to be among the dirtiest objects in the world. I handle their money and I serve them their food with the same unwashed hands. There's nothing I can do to control that; I can't go and wash my hands between each transaction. Debit cards are a wonderful idea (overlooking the fact that if someone steals it they may wipe out your account or there could be worser consequences), but after the customer purchases something they must sign a receipt. Still, more paper. Though it is a more cleanly transaction, there could be mroe efficient methods of exchange. It takes 2-3 minutes to verify the card and print out the receipt, time I could take to complete 1 and a half transactions. Fingerprinting, iris scans, anything.
The customer makes an order and stops mid-sentence for about 2 minutes, then continues. Meaningwhile I'm trying to think back to what they said 2 minutes ago to piece their order together.
They order 12 different things. Then they tell their children to order something. Usually when I see obese parents, their obese children are not too far away. They pass their poor nutritional habits along to their children. This saddens me, just to think that they're going to grow older and repeat the same mistake - feeling discontent with themselves because they don't know why they're obese and don't know where they went wrong.
Smelly customers that smell of B.O. I usually wouldn't mind because I'm around people like that at school and I get along with them just fine and don't notice it. But some of them come up with a smell that is so toxic that I can't even smell the popcorn that I sell. It's like radiation and it's difficult to stand smile when you smell something similar to a skunk. Fortunately, the frequency of the smell customer is only once in a month. Americans don't smell half as bad. ...*wink*
Now, it would be quite hypocritical of me and quite out of character to list errors and complaints without listing improvements, ideas, or changes. Here are ways that I believe would improve the theater and increase business.
Equip the bathrooms with deodorant dispensing machines for those smelly customers. Possibly showers.
Add traction to the floors themselves. The floors get slippery when we're making drinks or filling the ice holes and ice falls on the ground. They were thinking about providing concession with a nice slip-resistant shoe, but I think it would be easier to make the floor slip resistant. Besides, the shoe would probably be expensive anyway.
Equip registers with silent alarms and possibly tasers. I just think it would be nice to handle a taser. I have empathy for all of God's people and believe that there's good in everyone. But not everyone is good. There's someone out there that would see an opportunity and be tempted and I just want to make it safe for myself and my dear co-workers.
Candy prices on the candy shelves. I have to tell them frequently how much it costs. Then they'd see for themselves and transactions would be quicker, giving the theater more money.
Actual carrying trays. They ask for trays that allow them to carry their drinks and popcorn into the theater. The best we have is the booster seats, which double as trays but aren't formally carrying trays. They aren't good for it, either. The mold to them doesn't allow you to carry many things without them falling over.
A complaint box so that the customers don't bite my head off when they see their total.
One day things will be better.
posted by: Amy (reply)
post date: 09.06.03 (2:14 pm)
This is just about one of the best damn articles I've read.
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 09.08.03 (2:18 pm)
Why, thank you.
posted by: savagecorp (reply)
post date: 10.12.03 (7:09 am)
this is some funny shit! totally true. crazy fat ammericans. i've been in asia now for a yar, and you can always tell an american because thier 200lbs bigger than everybody else. " i eat mcdonalds 5 times a week. i can't seem to lose weight"
