Yup, it’s true. The scandalous part of the American movie experience is the fact that it’s very difficult to get diet soda that has no caffeine…and the drinks are almost as big as the popcorn. I’d like to get to sleep before 5 am, please.
Hmmm, I’ll hafta try that. 
Yep. That’s how food and drink were accounted for in a deli I worked in, too. We’d count the cups and loaves of bread. In the movie theater I worked in, it was common for the workers to bring in a cup or paper bag from home, and fill up from the soda fountain or popcorn bin before seeing a free movie. The workers got no discount on the concession prices, but most were friendly enough with the other workers that they’d fill each other’s cups and bags for free. The manager used to get pissed off about this on a regular basis.
If you ask for a cup of water from a theater or fast-food place, and get a small cup, smaller than the soda cups, this is why…the smallest cups are not counted as soda sales, and won’t throw the inventory off.
That’s how it is at 7-Eleven and all the other places with serve-yourself coffee. Inventory is by the cups; many places have signs noting this, which is (probably) why they have those paper sleeves for the cups. Keeps people from using a double cup for that hot beverage.
I suspect it is also to discourage people from sneaking soda in the cup since it would stand out if they did.
Albatrosses?
What flavors?
About fifteen years ago, the place I worked was evaluating packing material for shipping their industrial computers. One of the contenders was popcorn. Seriously.
They went with lining the box with plastic sheeting, injecting a glob of instant expanding foam into the box, wrapping the product in more plastic sheeting, plopping it down on the hardening foam to leave an imprint, putting another blob of foam on top, then closing the box real quick. Result: product between two form-fitting plastic-wrapped blocks of foam inside the box.
Albatross-flavoured! What did you expect?
No, no, no. It’s bloody seabird flavor, innit?
ALBATROSS!
Popcorn is actually a great packing material (so long as it’s popped without oil or butter, of course) and it’s kind of fun to open up a package and find it insulated by popcorn instead of those little packing foam thingies.
That may be part of it. But another part is that the packaging costs are actually significant. In general, the cost to the theater for the popcorn or soda is lower than the cost for the cup or bucket they provide it in.
Yep and the really shady concession employees go into the theature after the movies and collect all the used cups and tubs and reuse them selling them to new customers and pocket the money.
True that! My local theatre will not quibble if I bring in diet-caffiene free from “outside” as I have a card with plenty of marks showing that I always buy (and share) a large/jumbo popcorn, and half the time a jumbo diet Pepsi (depend son the time of day).
Sometimes we have 4 of us munching on one Jumbo popcorn, so it’s not so “fat”.
gigi :But the diet soda possibly is more thirst-quenching, and even possibly healthier: as there are some rather disturbing indications about High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Dudes- please don’t “sneak in” outside treats if you like your local theatre and want them to stay in business. They really do stay in business due to that concession profit margin. True as I said above, I do sometimes bring in outside “diet-caffien-free” but I walk right by them and show it to them as I do so. Since I am known there, they understand and accept.
In an archeology class the professor said that unpopped popcorn was the most economical packing material to take in the field since it starts so small and cheap and expands so much.
WTF is in that stuff Buttery Wonder? I noticed that it didn’t actually say what it was or what was in it.
Yes, the tubs are that big, easily cover your hairdo, even if you are from New Jersey.
Please don’t get me started on the medium is small, large is medium, el grande heart attacke is large and the Super Duper Biggie Monster is the largest. I typically say “give me the largest size of X you sell, whatever you may call it.”
The small size is about the size of a large glass of water. No idea how much that is in fluid ounces. 3-4 handfuls.
True, but when you’re talking about a large number of containers times the number of theaters, it can’t add much more than a quarter to the cost of the food, what with economy of scale and all. And some theaters have logos from other companies like Coca-Cola on their containers and I’ve also seen upcoming movies advertised on popcorn bags. The ads have to defray the cost of the container through advertising revenue, since I can’t see movie theaters giving that away for free.
Robin
I always feel a little guilty about this at my neighborhood Mobil. I use an extra cup to pour my hot beverage back and forth to cool it down. They’ve never said anything but I stand willing to pay double!
Don’t forget it doesn’t take that much popcorn to fill a bucket. A bit less than 1/2 cup of kernels, or about 220 calories, will fill my 12 cup mixing bowl bowl (or 96 oz I guess).
It’s the oil & fake butter that brings it up to infinity calories, it’s not the popcorn, but most Americans have no idea how fattening it is.
Popcorn without butter is as pointless as a salad without salad dressing. Popcorn is merely a vehicle for salt & butter.
By the way, in Japan the popcorn servings are smaller, but 75% more efficient.
Just be careful not to buy popcorn that’s made in China. They use cheap plastic parts.