I am looking at anything that you've done to make your customers happier, to make your theatre more profitable, to increase attendance/per caps, decrease waste, better presentation, ect...

Things that I have done:

Increase per caps- I increased the lighting in my concession stand and drastically improved my per cap. Locate hot dogs and special items where people can see them readily available.

Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated even if you think they may not apply to my specific theatre. They could be of value to someone on the forum.

Thanks in advance for any help you may have.

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I'm not sure what the laws are in New Zealand, but in the United States that IS illegal. Why? You are not paying the ENTIRE costs of advertising. Or in other words, you are not paying the costs of materials for those people with faxes to replace their paper and ink (if applicable) every time you send them an unsolicited fax. Do not do this. You will get people very, very mad at you very, very quick! Spamming like this is also on par with the kind of scum who intentionally oversalts their popcorn so people will buy more drinks.

Now for those of you who routinely get this sort of spam in your fax machine and want to see a stop put to it (because let's be honest here, that "call this number to be removed from the list" is ALWAYS a disconnected number, even though that itself is illegal), the best solution I've found is to call up the advertiser and act super excited about their ad. Speak to the manager and tell them you are opening up a new business (make something up that is lame) and are DYING to know who you can contact to get YOUR company promoted with this fabulous service. They will feel honored and all gushy inside and then spill the beans with all of the contact info for that damned fax advertising company.

At this point you now have the evil fax spammer's phone number and you can make it a ritual to call them up EVERY DAMN DAY FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT to remind them about the various charges you have experienced as a direct result of them faxing you without your request. Make sure to add in not only paper and ink cartridges, but the AC power to run the fax machine, the cost of the telephone line and let's not forget YOUR valuable time to go to the office supply store to purchase and reload new paper into the machine. The lower and more pathetic the amount of money you complain about the more effective it is. This works exceedingly well and you will never get another spam fax from that company again.

Our remedy... we would copy a 10-15 page document from the web, convert it to a 72 pt. font size, and fax it back to them directly from our computer. Since the fax program on the computer acts as a printer, the recieving fax machine would usually try to print several hundred pages before running out of paper or toner. At the beginning and end of the message, we'd always add the line.... "Please do not send us any more unsolicited faxes and waste our office products."

Worked every time!

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There are also fax-back places that will fax out manuals and information if you put in a fax number when you call them. By putting in the fax number of your persecutor, you can have them faxed a hundred page manual and not have it traced back to you.

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The customer's impression begins in the parking lot. Keep it clean. Keep outside windows and doors clean. Wherever your boxoffice is, keep it clean looking. The lobby and concessions need to be clean. Your staff needs to look clean, by that I mean not look like they've been wearing the same greasy outfit for 3 months. Have I used the word clean enough yet? No: Auditoriums need to be cleaned after every show.

Make sure all lighting is working, whether it's neon or incandescent or whatever. The place needs to look as inviting and "warm" as you can possibly make it. Like you said, having those hot dogs turning on a roller-warmer where customers can see them will probably sell more for you. Serve the popcorn right out of the popper if you can instead of those "holding bins" or whatever you call them. Have the cup and bag sizes prominently on display so customers can see what they look like. If you have candy on display, put prices on everything if you can.

[Fax-spammers should be, uh, I want to say shot, but how about just tarred and feathered?]

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- dave
Look at this! His chin strap has been cut!

But it doesn't end there.

The moviegoing experience should be ENJOYABLE and SPECIAL in every way.