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Your movie theater may be shortchanging your drinks, a lawsuit alleges

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  • Your movie theater may be shortchanging your drinks, a lawsuit alleges

    Cinemark is being sued for over charging of drinks. Are any.of you theater operators on this site doing the ​​same...?
    The movie theater chain's 20 ounce cup allegedly represents a better deal than the 24 ounce container.

  • #2
    I just sell bottles now but when I sold Pepsi premix I had three sizes of cup: Small, Medium and Large.

    Nothing indicated a particular number of ounces in the cup; if someone said "What are the sizes?" I would just show them the cups.

    They were supposed to be 12 16 and 24 oz but I never actually measured them so who really knows...

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    • #3
      Frank... That's what all my customers did. There may have been a few exceptions, but I never noticed. Luckily, Regal sells my favorite Cold Tea in bottles. So the number of ounces printed on the label is correct...
      If you go through a McDonalds, or Five guys they are experts at filling cups right to the top. Then the snap on lid (usually) keeps the contents in. However, McDonalds cups have been shrinking little by little, so next time I get a large drink at one, I'll keep the cup and see how Manny ounces it is.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Frank Cox View Post
        I had three sizes of cup: Small, Medium and Large. . . .
        if someone said "What are the sizes?" I would just show them the cups.
        - - and then, as you know, some customers would look at the three sized cups
        all lined up on display and ask something like "Which one is the medium?" That always
        cracked me up when I'd overhear that conversation. The concession person would
        would shoot me a look and roll his/her eyes, and I usually had to stifle a laugh.

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        • #5
          Size seems to be the only thing you can sue them. Practices I learnt despite lowering syrup and carbon dioxide to a minimum, "when greater numbers of patrons start to complain", were the use of "reengineered Pepsi" syrup sold through Pepsi vending systems. And we learnt about an enhanced profit. To sue on that, would require difficult and expensive laboratory analyzing.

          By simply showing the cup sizes without stating actual fluid content? Aren't there legislations that force a seler to state the price per base unit (floz, liter)?

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          • #6
            When I'm bored and customers ask what size we have I tell them "Large, Larger, and Largest." Given that the sizes are 12, 16, and 22 it causes a reaction.

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            • #7
              Your largest size is 22 oz?! That's our Medium. Large is 32 oz which to me is the perfect size for watching a movie, if you put enough ice in it. It's our most popular size by far, we sell at least 3x as many of them as the 22 oz.

              We used to have a 46 ounce too, but it was a slower seller and kids kept dropping them because they were too big around. We discontinued it quietly a couple years ago and most people didn't notice.

              To the original question -- I wonder if the Cinemark could be dealing with out-of-date signage. Drink cups have changed in size --- our 22oz used to be a 24. Maybe they have a 24 oz sign and are serving 22 oz cups, or something.

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              • #8
                I recall a similar suit, years back, where the merchant was getting around putting the advertised ounces in a cup by adding ice.
                ​I recall a similar suit, years back, where the merchant was getting around putting the advertised ounces in a cup by adding ice.


                Aren't there legislations that force a seler to state the price per base unit (floz, liter)?
                Grocery retailers have to, but as far as I know, theatres don't... unless there's a miscellaneous state law here and there.

                I've seen the soft drink companies trot out medium cups that stand taller than the next size up by volume. If you py attention, they're not hard to spot, because they're obviously thinner around then their counterparts.

                Oh... and $8.80 for a 24 ounce (large) drink? At vended retail, that would be $9.62 in our town. Damn! And I was worried about my prices.

                Wasn't there a similar suit, years back, where the merchant was accused of shorting the advertised ounces in a cup by adding ice?


                I do have a problem with the article though, claiming we pay out half of our boxoffice for the movies but keep all the concession money. Last time I checked, our suppliers weren't dropping off our concession products at the doorstep for free. And do we lay all the other costs of running our theatres at the feet of the boxoffice, or do we invite the snack bar to participate a bit?

                Guess there's a reason why some people run businesses and others throw rocks from the safety of their remote-located keyboards.

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                • #9
                  Your largest size is 22 oz?!​
                  We have a very old audience;>

                  Going through old ads of the beginning days of soda served from fountains, the "normal" size seems to have been 6oz. Try serving that these days.

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                  • #10
                    You don't want to serve big drinks to elderly crowds or else you might end up cleaning your seats every night!

                    You don't have to ask me how I know this.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Martin McCaffery View Post
                      We have a very old audience;>

                      Going through old ads of the beginning days of soda served from fountains, the "normal" size seems to have been 6oz. Try serving that these days.
                      I used to have a 1960s Coke machine that dispensed 6.5 oz bottles for ten cents... The bottle probably weighed more than the contents. I put that machine in the break room of the radio station I worked at in the early 1970s. Had a really big Coke truck come by every couple weeks and leave us a flat or two (wooden case) of bottles and pick up the empties.

                      Harold

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Mike Blakesley View Post
                        Your largest size is 22 oz?! That's our Medium. Large is 32 oz which to me is the perfect size for watching a movie, if you put enough ice in it. It's our most popular size by far, we sell at least 3x as many of them as the 22 oz.

                        We used to have a 46 ounce too, but it was a slower seller and kids kept dropping them because they were too big around. We discontinued it quietly a couple years ago and most people didn't notice.
                        People are pretty bad at judging sizes, especially when correlating those to their hunger and/or thirst. Like Jim indicated, if you keep tallies on your specific sales, you'll probably see that 70% of your customers will gravitate towards "Medium" if you let them choose among the traditional three sizes. If someone orders the small, it's usually for their kids or it's probably an elderly person.

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                        • #13
                          We discontinued our "small" popcorn size (32 oz) because it wasn't a hot seller. But we didn't rename the Medium to "Small," we left it as Medium. So now we have Medium (46), Large (85), Extra Large (130) and Jumbo (170). The Large is our best seller because it's included in some combos, but the Jumbo is second best. We added Jumbo during the pandemic because so many people were getting to-go orders.

                          Medium is the lowest seller. What happens a lot is, a person will order a Medium, and as they see us filling it, they'll say "Oh, I want more than that...let's change it to the Large." Or quite often they go to the XL or the Jumbo.

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