Dude man, it’s like you’re Hannibal Lecter and I’ Clarice Startling. Such keen intellect.
Imma go rethink my life over a bottle of whiskey.
/Sarcasm
IMO, a big ol’ monster burrito from Freebirds or Chipotle is the best food to smuggle in to a theater. They’re wrapped up tightly in foil, so they’re easy to sneak in and easy to peel and eat while you watch. I’ve never much cared for popcorn, and the typical hot dogs and nachos they serve are the lowest of the low in foodstuffs.
However, these days I don’t go to theaters more than a few times a year and when I do I don’t eat or drink anything at all during the movie. If they offered a better selection of food at reasonable prices, I’d likely buy some of it. I might even go to the movies more often. So their current business model is a deterrent to my patronage.
Movie theaters are obviously only for the wealthy. Or poors who salivate while watching the wealthy eat their $100 candy, while their poor moms and dads explain why they can’t afford to spend the weekly grocery budget on snacks.
That said, I personally don’t eat at movies. But my wife and kids do. Since (see above) it costs 100 bucks or whatever it is for my family 4 to go to the movies, and I am not wealthy, I mostly just don’t. Sometimes when I have a really good month I might pay for my wife to take each of the kids to a movie, while I hang out at home or at the park or something with the other one.
You really should learn the difference between morals and ethics if you want to use either one in an argument. Morals have no place in this discussion. Law is not a moral issue, it’s an ethical issue. All laws are rules, not all rules are laws. Laws and rules both pertain to ethics. They are objective. They can only be perceived as moral or immoral from a personal, subjective point of view.
I don’t claim to be a perfectly ethical being. I just downloaded a torrent of the last episode of House of Lies (Showtime original content). Why? I don’t even even have a cable TV package anymore. It would probably cost me $80-100 a month to get that show. I don’t want to pay that, and I don’t want to wait until I can buy the season. It’s unethical behavior. I know this. It’s not theft, but it’s unethical. Here’s what I don’t do:
All of that is pretty much how I feel, but it’s not a valid justification for my ethical transgression of doing what I want because the system sucks and I don’t like the rules.
That’s pretty much where I stand, too. There’s no question that my behavior is ethically wrong, but I don’t like the rules, so fuck it! I don’t download movie torrents because I get all the content I want from paid services by Netflix (USPS delivery) and Amazon Prime Video (streaming). If the cable content providers want to pull their heads out of their asses, they can have some of my money too.
In the meantime, I’m acting selfishly and unethically. I know this and accept it. Feel free to justify your actions to yourself, but don’t try to present those justifications as a reasonable argument when someone calls you on your bullshit.
The theater I generally patronize is located at the far end of a local mall. Directly next to it is a store that sells gourmet caramel corn and jelly beans. The two entities have a symbiotic relationship and each has prospered for years because of the other. Whether either business likes being a part of this functional relationship is open for discussion. I would suspect the popcorn store is happier about it than the movie theater, but who knows what behind-the-scenes negotiations the two businesses may have made.
In any case, I enjoy having the option of bringing in some caramel corn or jelly beans on occasion, and no one in the theater seems to be overly concerned when you do.
I think one difference between movie snacks and torrents is that the moviegoer has an established contractual relationship with the theater. That relationship provides for certain actions, and remedies, that are agreed to.
The theater can say “per our agreement, you are not allowed to bring in a snack, please dispose of it or leave the theater.” Showtime does not have the ability to contact you about your downloaded torrent, and cannot obtain an appropriate remedy.
If there’s a sign that says “No shirt, no shoes, no service” and when I sit down I take my shoes off (they’re pinching), am I doing something unethical? I’m violating a house rule, and may be subject to ejection, but is it unethical? Is it more unethical if I try to hide my feet so nobody notices?
I have to say that even I can go 2 hours without eating. I feel no obligation to buy their lousy food or their skimpy selection of soda. In very rare cases I might sneak in a bottle of water, just to avoid wrecking everyone else’s enjoyment by my coughing.
snacks … i am love in it …