Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

If you're closed...sell that popcorn, if you can

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • If you're closed...sell that popcorn, if you can

    When the Coronapocalypse first hit, I was literally scared to death of not being able to pay our bills. Then a theater in a town a couple of hours from here decided to do "drive-up" popcorn sales, and a friend of mine suggested we do the same thing here. So on Saturday the 21st of March, I put an announcement on our Facebook page that we would deliver popcorn to cars....just drive to the theatre and call us, and we'd do the rest.

    I put the announcement up at 6pm, and we planned to be open from 7pm to 8pm for the deliveries. With the short notice, I figured we'd have a half-dozen orders at best. Instead, we were completely slammed, and the biggest problem turned out to be that we have only one phone line. The phone literally rang nonstop for the whole hour we were open.

    So, in the ensuing weeks we've refined the program. That first night, there was only me, my wife and one of our employees working, and we were run ragged. We settled on a schedule of Friday-Saturday-Sunday from 7 to 8pm, and we now bring in three employees. (One to be on the phones, one to punch orders into the computer, one to make popcorn and stage orders, and two to run deliveries to cars.)

    Every weekend since has grown in sales. Then we started getting messages from out-of-town people.... would we consider an afternoon popcorn sale too, since people would like to come get popcorn but not have to drive in the dark on the way home. So we opened this past Saturday from 3 to 4, in addition to the evening hours, and even in the middle of a blizzard, we were still busy filling orders.

    We had one guy last weekend who ordered an extra-large popcorn, extra large soda, and "one of everything" in the candy counter.

    To help deal with the "one phone line" problem, I put up a sign telling people to "try again in a minute" if they can't get through, and if that doesn't work, turn on their hazard flashers and we'll come out and take their order in person.

    The fact that our popcorn is quite beloved among our customers has certainly helped, but it kind of dawned on me..... on a normal Saturday night, we might have 80 or 100 or more people in the theatre, but there are several THOUSAND people in our vicinity, and they're all bored out of their minds, and they're all watching TV and movies, and they all like popcorn. So we've gained a lot of new customers who are now singing the praises of our popcorn to the Facebookverse. We have had people come from up to 60 miles away to get our popcorn!

    It's not just popcorn, either... we're selling our entire concession menu. I actually had to order in more supplies, we've been that busy. We ordered some of those "shake-n-share" lids for the popcorn buckets (it doubles as a pass-around bowl) and also some tiny cups with lids so we can give everyone a serving of Flavocol with their corn.

    After doing it for 4 weeks, it has not slowed down. So the lesson is, if doing something like this is at all possible for you, and if your locality allows restaurants to offer take-out service, you should definitely think about it. The best part for me is, it gives me a reason to be in the theatre from time to time and kept virus-related depression at bay. And most satisfyingly, it's keeping the bills paid.

  • #2

    Comment


    • #3
      Good for you Mike! You've given me some ideas if we're able to open the drive-in but can't have anyone in the lobby. Sadly, we're a little out of the way for selling anything now. Take-out from restaurants is operating here, but sounds like all but "essential" things are still ordered shut for at least another month in Ontario, Canada.

      Comment


      • #4
        We are in a very small community in Upstate NY. 5000 in the town, 25000 in the county. We started selling only buckets of popcorn on Friday March 20th, which blossomed into large drinks, candy and now even girl scout cookies. As of this evening, we have sold our 1000th bucket of popcorn and it is still going strong. The diplomat will not keep up with demand and our community has really supported us, for which we are extremely thankful.We are only open from 6-8 on Friday and Saturday. If anyone is thinking about it, I say go for it!!
        Lance

        Comment


        • #5
          This reminds me of the "Popcorn button" idea we floated a few years back while designing an on-demand streaming box. The idea was that popcorn button would allow you to order popcorn from a local participating theater.

          I don't know if this idea would ever fly in a "normal" situation, but it's great to see how you're keeping at least part of your business afloat by selling your concessions to Netflixers instead of your own patrons.

          Comment


          • #6
            Mike

            so how is the "concession to go" biz going after a couple of weeks?

            Thanks
            Last edited by Bob Ezra; 04-29-2020, 06:53 PM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Yeah, would be interesting to know. Obviously, every novelty wears off, but it would be nice to see if you can get a somewhat sustainable business out of it or if it's just a one-time thing.

              Comment


              • #8
                We have kept the concessions open since the first week of the shutdown. Last weekend was our best weekend so far. The sales are not dropping off as I feared but are increasing.

                Comment


                • #9
                  so how is the "concession to go" biz going after a couple of weeks?
                  Sorry just noticed this.

                  It's slowing down a little now.... we just did weekend number 7. But, we can't expect a home run every weekend either. The big worry I have right now is, the bar next door to us just opened yesterday and they always take up our parking spots, so we're going to be running popcorn all over creation. But it'll be good for the teenage employees to put on a little mileage.

                  UPDATE: I just got a call from our public health department that theaters will be allowed to open starting tomorrow. So, we'll probably wait until next week the 15th and go with classic movies for a little while, and we'll keep delivering that popcorn.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks for the update, Mark and Mike.
                    I'd say that a little slowdown is to be expected, but it's nice to see it's still a thing.

                    Do any of you consider continuing the service even after you're more or less back to normal operations, are you afraid you're cannibalizing your primary movie theater business or is it simply too much overhead to do both?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      When I managed a little single screen neighborhood theatre, we had several regular popcorn customers that came in and bought the corn to go with their evening at home. This was easy for us as the concession was in the lobby across from the ticket booth and before the entrance to the auditorium. Those folks were never buying tickets as they had "cable".

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Marcel Birgelen View Post
                        Thanks for the update, Mark and Mike.
                        I'd say that a little slowdown is to be expected, but it's nice to see it's still a thing.

                        Do any of you consider continuing the service even after you're more or less back to normal operations, are you afraid you're cannibalizing your primary movie theater business or is it simply too much overhead to do both?
                        We have "outside" sales every week. People come in either before the movie starts or while the movie is playing to get popcorn to take home. I hope once we start showing movies again, this will increase. Now that people have gotten use to having movie theater popcorn at home, I hope they will continue coming in for some to-go popcorn.

                        Last week was our busiest week so far. We get a lot of regulars coming in saying they did not know the concessions where open, as the word spreads, business picks up.

                        Some of the things we have done to help pay the bills is serve a Dash and Dine. We went to a highly rated restaurant in the area and made a deal for 80 to 100 meals, then brought them back to the theater and gave them out for a donation and turned a small profit. A full meal with sides, and dessert made fresh that day in a microwaveable container for $5.00. All the meals are the same, like a modern tv dinner. We do this every other Tuesday and last Tuesday sold 88 meals in 15 minutes. It helps the restaurant that is struggling to stay open, and makes us a little money. We where turned in for selling popcorn because someong thought popcorn was not important enough, we passed because popcorn is food.. then we where reported for the Dash and Dine but after making a few adjustments, the state gave us the go-ahead.

                        We also had an Ice Cream Anti-Social to raise money for our young employees that don't quality for unemployment. We sold ice cream bars for five cents but tips when to the kids that ran the ice cream the bars. They averaged about $1.50 per bar.

                        We are doing other things to stay active in the community but those things don't directly make us money but I think those things help encourage people to support us during this time. I don't like being told what I can and can not do. I didn't like being told I had to shut down so I found ways to stay open while following the letter of the governor's orders.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          The Holiday Twin Drive-In in Fort Collins, CO is now allowing people to come by at 9:30 PM on weekends just to purchase popcorn (the shows start at 8:30 or so, so the concession stand is largely idle by an hour in.):

                          You've been asking so we are providing! If you DO NOT want to see a movie....and you JUST WANT POPCORN, you can come by the box office Saturday or Sunday at 9:30pm with $6 exact change and we will get you a JUMBO POPCORN to take home! (You can get as many as you like just bring exact change).

                          Provide security at the box office the secret code :JUMBO POPCORN ONLY
                          I know Harkins and Marcus theaters have also been doing this:

                          Screen Shot 2020-05-12 at 1.51.27 AM.png
                          Last edited by William Kucharski; 05-12-2020, 02:56 AM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Not everyone's popcorn is as good as yours is Mike!

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X