Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Winters Theatre Cleaning

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Topic: Winters Theatre Cleaning

Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 07-02-2002 07:43 PM

Since they are a national chain that cleans hundreds of theatres, I figure someone out there in film-tech land must contract them to clean their location(s).

I did a quick search here and found nothing.

Anyone have any good/bad opinions of this company? I am a bit skittish about having a national (as opposed to local) company clean my theatres, but they seem to have a good program and competitive pricing. Any comments would help me out a lot!

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-02-2002 10:49 PM

Ugh, don't get me started...
I've had so many quarrels with Winters, it goes beyond belief. During the holiday rush, Winters' cleaners managed to leave all the trash from the auditoriums in the exit hallways of the auditoriums which are in plain sight of patrons. They would leave trolleys of trash uncompacted, not mop the tile or vaccum the carpeting when asked to, leave their closet doors open and leave our chemical storage rooms in total disarray.

There were bad times, but overall they did a fair job for the rest of the time. Better than most of my former 16 year old ushers could do.

This was at my old theater, and I haven't heard any bad stories yet from my new place...

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Sean M. Grimes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 247
From: Lunenburg, MA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 07-03-2002 01:59 AM

One of the first things that I did when I started as an assistant at my old theater was to fire those lazy, poorly trained folks. It could of been that they did not have any other "theater" business in my area, but there version of cleaning involved taking a leaf blower and blowing all of the crap behind the screen and spot mopping. When they would wax, they would never ever stip the floors first - my next cleaning company had about thirty coats of wax to remove. They definitely would not be my recomendation.

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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 07-03-2002 04:53 PM

Thats it!???? They clean (according to their literature) 13% of theatres domestically! There must be more comments out there...help

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-03-2002 09:48 PM

They do a fine job for me here in Vegas. Better than Cincom did in Florida.

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"Running through life at 24 frames per second"

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 07-03-2002 09:59 PM

This may sound obvious, but won't it mostly depend on how well-trained the particular crew working your theater is and how well they're supervised? Maybe you can interview the crew leader(s) and get a reading of their professionalism, ask them questions like is there always a qualified supervisor present, stuff like that. Janitorial companies in general seem to have very high staff turnover, so the most important thing is probably stability at the supervisor level (i.e. they're paying supervisors well enough that they stay with the company and know their clients).

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-03-2002 10:08 PM

Having been through three different Winter's crews I can agree with David. One crew seemed to have one guy running the whole operation, telling all of the others what to do, but I'm sure they forgot cause the most they did was the leaf blower job that Sean mentioned.

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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-04-2002 02:08 PM

Winters... Ahhh the name...
Lesseee... From what I know, they have area superviosrs who work with and translate for the immigrant/non American laborers they employ. While I no firsthand of theatres where they do a fine job, I have heard as many stories about them doing a not so fine job. All in all, regardless of WHO you have cleaning, it's a matter of theatre level management checking and rechecking the work they do. If the work isn't being done to standards chances are the facility manager isn't activley involved in day to day oversight of the cleanliness of the theatre. **One thing I am aware of... when there is a problem, they are good to have it corrected quickly...**

My janitorial service has worked for us for 17 years and I have to stay on top of them just as I have to stay on top of the hourly employees....

The theatre, it's not just a job.. it's an adventure...

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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-04-2002 02:55 PM

When we got the theatre 2.5 years ago, we inherited Felipe and Estilita who cleaned the theatre for the other operators. They were being paid $300 per week to clean the theatre. As we didn't know anybody else, we kept them on.

Here's what we know:

Felipe doesn't speak English very well.
They have never missed a day of cleaning the theatre. That's about 1,000 straight days without missing a shift.
They come in between 3:00 AM and 7:00 AM.
They do a credible job, but leave the deep cleaning to us.
Seeing as we pay about $12 per hour for two people who have never missed a shift, I think perhaps we should give them a raise.

I'm not asking, I don't want to know.

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-05-2002 01:41 AM

We saw Spanish and eastern european staff at my old location. Not that either of them did any better or any worse than the others. Jason is right, it's a responsibility of management to see that everything gets done. Managers should also be training staff to check all auditoria before opening the lobby doors in the morning. This way, any overnight cleaning problems can be quickly addressed and swept under the seats

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