False equivalence. The minibar in a hotel room is not anywhere close to being its primary profit center. Despite the high prices, many hotels consider them a loss leader and are getting rid of them. Comparing hotel room minibars with cinema snack bars is not anywhere close to reality.
This is like a tipping thread, right?
You might consider the obvious third option: Don’t eat in the theater.
It’s an important factor. There’s no implied agreement between the theater and I that requires me to eat there. It’s not a restaurant. They’re selling me a seat in their building so I can watch a movie. All I’m obligated to them for is the price of my movie ticket.
If they can’t cover their costs by selling me a ticket to a movie, then they have a bad business plan. That’s on them. I’m under no moral obligation to subsidize their unsound business. The entire basis of free market capitalism is allowing unsound businesses to suffer the consequences of their bad decisions. Not to introduce socialist-style subsidies to isolate them from those consequences.
Well that isn’t the question. I simply don’t, by definition, consider it theft. I don’t do it.
However, since I never eat while watching a movie and only openly take in a can of Pepsi Max I don’t have to worry about the whole “smuggling” thing. But I do appreciate the willingness of other people to pay an extortionate premium to watch a movie while eating, thus keeping ticket prices down. Although I get discount tickets anyway, so even that point is moot.
You need to reread my first option again. Focus on the part where I said “if you find yourself letting temptation get the better of you”. I was very careful in my wording of that post because I didn’t want to give people the impression I think they’re are under an obligation to buy food there.
Their only obligation one has is to not smuggle shit in. Ya’ see, theater owners know that a good portion of folks simply aren’t going to be able to resist and fork over the extra cash for some popcorn.
That’s their business model, that’s how they stay afloat.
Just because you don’t like their business model doesn’t entitle you to break the rules.
And your suggestion that they change their model is a laughable one when you consider it’s a model that’s worked for decades.
I’ve always openly taken outside food into the cinema. In fact, I think an episode of Seinfeld was the first time I ever heard of this being a bad thing. It was just something everyone always did, and the cinema didn’t seem to care. Granted, the one I most frequently go to is in a large shopping centre, so it’s probably expected people will be walking around with things they bought elsewhere.
As for Baker’s point:
I don’t think this is a good comparison. A bar’s primary role is to serve alcohol. A cinemas is to show you a movie. Walking into a cinema without paying and watching a different movie on your laptop is the equivalent of going to a bar and drinking your own booze.
Taking outside food into the movies is more like going to a bar which also has games room, buying a beer and doing some online gambling on your phone.
We never bring in food. I usually have a flask of whiskey, and the Wife has a RumRunner of wine.
No, Baker’s analogy is sound (though, I’ll improve upon it in a moment).
Your primary purpose for going to a movie theater is to watch a movie. The theater’s primary purpose is to make money. The way that they make money is by selling concessions. The movie is just how they attract patrons.
To improve upon Baker’s analogy:
It’s like when a bar has a cover charge because there is a band playing and you pay the cover because you want to see the band. Once you pay your cover charge, you are under no obligation to purchase booze from the bar*, but you can not bring in your own booze.
The bar’s (theater’s) primary purpose is to make money. The way that they make money is by selling booze (concessions). The live music (movie) is just how they attract patrons.
*Some bars that offer entertainment also impose a “1 (or 2) drink minimum”. For the purposes of this analogy, I’m talking about the ones that don’t.
Look, I don’t think sneaking in snacks/drinks is the greatest evil in the world.
I usually take in a bottle of water because I can’t sit for two hours without my mouth getting dry- if I could, I would not take in the bottle of water and not buy concessions.
Still, I know that it’s wrong. I really don’t get all the people bending over backwards to suggest that it’s not wrong. If you come onto my property, I have every right to expect you to abide by my rules. If you don’t like my rules, you can leave. A theater owner, a bar owner, a gym owner …they have a right to set rules for anyone who wishes to enter the establishment. At a movie theater, one of the rules is that you can’t bring in outside drinks or snacks- and there’s a very good reason for that rule. That rule is in effect to preserve their very business model.
All this “Why should I subsidize their terrible business model?” is ridiculous. If you go to movie theaters, you clearly want movie theaters to exist. If you get your wish that these establishments with these terrible business models go out of business, the result is you no longer have something that you wanted!
I haven’t eaten at a theater in decades. For one thing, the same amount of money would buy much better food elsewhere - we go to dinner before or after. Yeah, they’ve upped the hit food options, but then the issue is the staff don’t tend to inspire confidence in their culinary skills.
My wife and I have been going out to breakfast and then to an early movie on the weekends. Most of the local theaters have early shows at about 10.00am or so. We usually will buy sodas, but we rarely eat anything while watching a movie.
Where does one find these rules? Sure they want you to buy their food and drink…and lots of it. Maybe you are breaking a rule if you don’t buy enough?
Seriously… I don’t go to alot of movies but I don’t recall a sign posted or anything on the ticket about bringing food in.
I say, break any rule you want to as long as you are willing to face the consequences. One of those consequences is contributing to the downfall of society as a whole…I don’t think this issue rises to that level myself.
Really? We’re going to play “slippery slope” here?
“But, if I give in to the small evil of purchasing a soda, the greater evil of being forced to buy popcorn and candy will be brutally imposed upon me! The only justice is in resistance, my brothers and sisters!”
There is a “No Outside Food or Beverages” sign posted at the entrance of every movie theater that has ever been attended by anyone who is going to participate in an honest conversation about the matter. The only people who “didn’t see” the sign are people who know the sign is there so they make a point of not looking at it so they can say they didn’t know that the theater had rules against bringing in outside food and beverages.
Are you sure about that? I’ve certainly never seen such a sign nor been made aware of such restrictions.
In fact, looking at my local cinema chain it seems like they have no problem as long as it isn’t hot food or alcohol.
So there’s at least one major nationwide chain that still turns a profit on such a business model.
“No Outside Food or Drink” is part of the standard business model for theaters in the U.S.
The OP’s discussion about “sneaking in” food and drink seemed to me to presume the U.S. model for the purpose of discussion in this Thread. Looking over the Thread, it seems you’re not the only one to post about non-U.S. experiences so perhaps I should word my comments more locally rather than put them so broadly.
Even in the U.S., there are many many local independent theaters and any one of them could have their own non-traditional policies about outside food and drink. Still, pointing to any of the possible rare exceptions would still be a disingenuous point of argument for anyone discussing U.S. theaters as I would not believe for a second that the person making that argument had indeed only ever in his/her entire life gone to only this one local independent theater that allows outside food and drink thus being completely unaware that the industry standard is to prohibit outside food and drink.
I must have popcorm when I go to the show. Sometime I’ll bring a bottle of water, other times I’ll buy a pop there. Depends on my mood. but nothing beats movie popcorm.
Nowadays, I rarely bother going out to see a movie. If I do, it’s because I really want to see that film in a theater. Not surf the 'net or have supper while watching. (That’s what the couch at home is for!)
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas sound interesting, with food & drink served during the film. But the only ones in Houston are located out in Darkest Suburbia.
Sundance Cinema downtown has pretty good food plus cocktails, beer & wine. Still, I’d generally eat before the show–& maybe take in a drink…
My local theater charges less than any first-run theater I’ve been to in decades ($6.50 for evening shows!) AND has popcorn that’s way better than average, so I don’t bring anything in from outside. Especially since this theater carries the greatest stigma possible, and could use the support (they rebuilt it and it always has a police presence).
I would have thought the shootings are the reason they charge so little for admission, but according to Yelp they were low-priced before 2012.
I disagree with Shakes that taking your own candy in constitutes theft. I think that’s a dumb argument.
But your argument here is also very problematic.
You support your claim by appealing to the “basis of free market capitalism” and a reference to “socialist-style subsidies.” This is WAY off the mark. A socialist-style subsidy would be something compelled by some external actor, such as the state. If the government were forcing you to buy candy from the movie theater, you’d have a point, but it’s not, so you don’t.
One of the concepts most fundamental to free-market capitalism is the idea of contract. Contract is precisely the opposite of “socialist-style subsidies.” It involves two (or more) free actors coming together and making an agreement that is binding on all parties. And that’s pretty much what a movie ticket is: a contract between you and the theater.
Buying the ticket constitutes an acceptance of the terms offered by the theater, and an agreement to abide by its rules. If one of those rules is that you not bring in outside food or drink, then there’s nothing about this that constitutes “socialist-style subsidies,” and nothing about it that violates the principles of free-market capitalism. You are, after all, free to take your business elsewhere, to a theater that allows outside food and drink.
But this is also where Shakes get it wrong, because violating a contract like this is not a criminal act. It is not theft.
I’ve never quite understood the need to eat just because you are watching a movie. If we’re hungry we go to dinner before or after the movie.
I’d never take something in with me, but, then again, I never buy any stuff there anyway. Mostly because: I just ate/am not hungry, there is nothing human sized I could possibly hope to consume/ there are no appealing options, it’s too expensive, like silly over priced!
So, if I never buy popcorn or drinks or candy, am I stealing from them too?