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Author Topic: Self served drinks Kyle Watkins Expert Film Handler Posts: 185 From: Stuart, FL, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 04-20-2004 09:39 PM                     Does any theater do this or know of any. Kinda curious how well this will work out. If so i have a few questions. I cant see someone buying a small and kept coming out for a refill.Do a lot of people try and bring there own cup in. How much time does it saves at the conc stand. im sure this will have its good and bad points to it, just want to see waht others think of it. Kyle  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-20-2004 10:03 PM                        I wrote this idea into a business plan. In addition to using a lower priced brand of soft drink (RC Cola), self served drinks, along with free refills on the large size only - you are looking at a better per cap (with a lower cost of goods). The whole idea of a free refill is ingenious - because 90% of customers who buy the larger size for the idea of the refill - never get a one....  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-20-2004 10:11 PM                     Century theaters does this. I dont know if they do it at every location, but they do here in Corpus Christi. I dont know how well it works for them. Maybe someone on FT works for Century, they would have more info. Personally, I think it would cause a mess when it comes to people grabbing the wrong lid, and then leaving it on the counter or the floor, or filling a drink, and the changing their mind about the size, and leaving a dirty cup on the counter. Just too much of a clean-up hassle if you ask me.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 04-20-2004 10:16 PM                     Jack Loeks Theatres does this at a number of their locations. Photos of Celebration Cinema - Grand Rapids and Celebration Cinema - Lansing. Here, you get an empty cup when you pay at the snack bar and then walk to the fountains. Century uses cafeteria/drive-in-style stands at their new and remodeled sites. Here, you pick a cup and fill it yourself or tell someone what you want and they do it for you. You pay at the end of the walk-through snack bar. In both instances, as expected, there is a certain level of maintenance that needs to be done to keep things clean. Not much different that your local quickie-mart.  |  IP: Logged Kyle McEachern Expert Film Handler Posts: 165 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 04-20-2004 10:37 PM                 At the Century that I worked at that used the self-serve procedure, they also had a pair of soda towers behind the counter - this allowed for people to fill their own sodas if they chose, but could also order one from a concessions worker. This made it so that neither was ever really overworked, because if people saw a line at the self-serve they'd go to the employee-run station, and if there were too many people in the employee line, they'd go make one for themselves (At the instruction of the concession employee, generally). The maintenance isn't bad, as long as you're paying attention. Every hour or so it's good to just clean up any extra straws/wrappers/lids and make sure everything is still stocked, and then clean up any spills as they happen (Though there generally aren't more than at any other theatre). It works out well, though I'm not sure how 100% self-serve would do.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 04-20-2004 11:07 PM                        We do one free refill on our large popcorn... that's it. About 50% of them come back for a refill at our drive-in... less than that at our indoor. However, we sell large popcorns at least 5-1 over mediums... and 15-1 over smalls. We don't do refills on soft drinks. That policy eliminates any abuse issues altogether. In our case, the local market isn't big on refills anyway, so there's not much pressure around here to give our product away.  |  IP: Logged John Hegel Expert Film Handler Posts: 166 From: Lake Mills, Iowa Registered: Sep 2000 posted 04-21-2004 01:00 AM                        Jack, When the customers come back for the refill of popcorn, do they also tend to buy another item with it, or just the free refill?  |  IP: Logged Daniel Fuentz Expert Film Handler Posts: 230 From: Fresno, CA, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 04-21-2004 03:26 AM                     In this market, the Signature theater has a self-serve drink station in the cafeteria-style snack bar, and they don't offer refills. The Edwards across town has all drink stations behind the snack bar, and they do offer refills on large drinks. You'd think it was the other way around!  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 04-21-2004 04:04 AM                     Some of the local cinemas use/used self service for drinks/popcorn. The Clerk St Odeon (New Victoria) had self service drinks and sweet popcorn with counter service for drinks/hotdogs/natchos and salted popcorn. All payment was done at a seperate counter just before the main entrances to the screens. The UCG (Fountainpark) has self service drinks and self selection popcorn (as in prefilled containers under heat lamps). Payment was done at the hot food stand in the center. (This was badly designed so that customers had to double back on themselves to pay and wait while hot food was served. Some problems that were/are encountered by these systems are: -Theft (Easy at UGC since the cash desk was not in the direct route from the service area to the screens.) Some form of marking paid for goods would be usefull. -Wastage (Customers abandoning half poured drinks) -Stupid customers (If the Pepsi looks like water then the syrup has run out [don't buy it!]) -Hygene (I have never liked the idea of small children [and most adults] being able to scoop their own popcorn from the large containers [although the fact that UGC was closed down for having a rat infestation put me off its food even more]) Provided all the payment is done at the exit to the concessions area (by staff not having to pour drinks etc.) then the self service system works well and can speed up service considrabally.  |  IP: Logged Peter Kerchinsky Master Film Handler Posts: 326 From: Seattle, WA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-21-2004 05:09 AM                     Landmark Theatres here in Seattle offer free refills on both large drinks and large popcorn. Drinks are 44 oz. (whew) and the large corn is the 130 ounce bag. Not sure if this helps per caps as I'm just in the booth and have nothing to do with management. I think self serve on drinks is a stinko idea as it can be abused. AMC Theatres here have self serve on butter, or what they call butter, and I also think that's stinko. What if I like my corn buttered in the middle, then on top. You have to ask the employee to only fill the bag to half, add butter, then bring it back to top it off, then add more butter? That's nuts to me. Too damn time consuming! Are we (theatre people) getting lazy or what? Have the snack bar people serve the corn the way the customer asks. It's just that simple. Damn the 7-11s full speed ahead.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-21-2004 07:56 AM                     Self-serve drinks can be a great time saver, or cost you more time depending on the circumstances. I would be more concerned about kids playing with the soda tower, trying this drink and that, mixing this with the other thing, etc. Also, there's a bunch of indicisive people out there who change their mind just because they can. They'll take a taste of every flavor (but not before filling the WHOLE cup) and then dump it down the drain to try the next. We offer refills on any size popcorn or any size drink for $1.00 and it seems to be quite popular. When customers come back to refill either (or both) 1 out of 4 usually buy something else. But any time you have self-serve anything, soda, butter, straws, lids, napkins... people will make a mess, or take enough paper products for the whole auditorium and jam it in your cupholders. quote: Peter Kerchinsky AMC Theatres here have self serve on butter, or what they call butter, and I also think that's stinko. What if I like my corn buttered in the middle, then on top. You have to ask the employee to only fill the bag to half, add butter, then bring it back to top it off, then add more butter? I actually like the self-serve butter idea. All you really need is a "drizzle" on top and it drips down. Any more than that, and it's leaking through those cheap bags. (Doesn't ANYONE use buckets anymore?) But even as "automated" as the condiments counter is at the local AMC, four people go through it and it's a mess. Personally, I'd get irritated with people who'd ask me not only to layer the butter, but to "Put a little popcorn, then some butter and a dash of salt, then put in more popcorn and shake it, then put a layer on top of that, cover that layer with butter, spin around three times, clap your hands, add more butter..." and then they ask for another bag to share it. *sigh* =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-21-2004 01:08 PM                        We use buckets. Bags = cheaper, quieter. Buckets = look better, fill faster, people like them. Winner: Buckets  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-21-2004 01:12 PM                     We use buckets too. I think we are going off subject here, and I just cant see that happening here on Film-Tech.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 04-21-2004 01:35 PM                        quote: John Hegel Jack, When the customers come back for the refill of popcorn, do they also tend to buy another item with it, or just the free refill? I suppose there's some of that, but the percentages of additional purchases is very high. It's probably more so at the drive-in, where we're creating a second "pre-show" of sorts. The screen's dark, people are relieving themselves of the 32 ounce pops they bought before the first show, and a lot of them stock back up before heading out for the second show. Re: other posts here... We use buckets, too. The "butter" doesn't "drizzle down" as much as you might want to believe. To get topping down to the bottom third, you'd have to ladle a cup or two over the top. That's my major issue with the AMC model of pre-filled popcorn & self-serve butter. Buckets are easy to handle from the bottom lip. You can give the popcorn a good shake with one hand as you put on the topping. That can't be done with a bag that's already full. About the only positives I can come up with for bags are that they're cheaper & take up less space in your dumpster.  |  IP: Logged Peter Kerchinsky Master Film Handler Posts: 326 From: Seattle, WA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-21-2004 04:04 PM                     I believe we dumped the buckets because of the cost difference with bags. Also Jack has a good point about buckets taking up lots more room in dumpsters. I also see lots of customers leaving the theatre with partially eaten bags of corn, can't do that with a bucket. Also I heard years ago some theater chain got sued because a customer tripped on one of those 130 ounce buckets and cracked ribs on a seat standard while walking through the aisle. Now I know we're getting off the topic, but what else is new!  |  IP: Logged

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