Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Open Concessions During Day?

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Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-10-2009, 07:36 PM:

I was reading the Boxoffice Special Report: “Before The Show” in the August edition and was impressed to read about the report on the Riverview Theatre in Minneapolis in the “Eating Smart” section. I am hoping to do what they are doing with their concessions. The strip mall where I hope to build has a Mexican restaurant and a McDonald’s. But I believe I can open during the day and sell popcorn (with real butter), hot dogs, ice cream, pretzels, and of course candy. Do any of you owners or managers open during the day. If so, how does it do?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-10-2009, 07:43 PM:

We open during the day, but we show movies as well. If you are trying to compete with McD's and other food vendors, theater prices are WAAAY too high. I can't think of anyone who would go to the theater just to buy concessions. That is why the projection booth and auditoriums are the most important places in the theater by leaps and bounds.

Though it would be interesting to see a theater which featured a McDonald's (or whatever) as the concession stand itself. They could even offer McCorn.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-11-2009, 12:32 AM:

As a projectionist most of my career Joe I agree with you regarding the booth. (To bad the corporate big boys haven't figured that out.) At the day concessions I would sell what those two restaurants don't and, like the Riverview Theatre, I would reduce prices.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-11-2009, 06:24 AM:

Like Joe, we open during the day to show movies. We do have a very small number of people who will come to the theatre just to buy popcorn of pretzels. In the case of popcorn, it's usually an office worker with a craving or for a home movie night. With the pretzels it's because we are the only business in town that sells the Bavarian Brother's pretzels. We do occasionally have people who come in just to buy a soda or an icee, but it's very uncommon. Overall, food sales to non-movie goers probably accounts for 0.5% of all of our food sales.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-11-2009, 06:55 AM:

I worked in one place that did this. It was (is) located in an historic district with heavy foot traffic during the day. They had a concession cart that they rolled out to the entrance during the day, from which they sold popcorn, candy, soda, etc. Prices were regular theatre prices (this was an independent single-screen house, so they were not quite as insane as most multiplex prices).

I don't believe that the business was huge, but it did well enough to make it worthwhile to pay an employee to sell the food.

This did have the side effect of upsetting the landlord. There were other food establishments in the same row of shops, but the theatre lease did not specifically prohibit selling food during the day, so there was not much that he could do.

[ 08-11-2009, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: Scott Norwood ]

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-11-2009, 09:25 AM:

Edwards had a mall theater in Mission Viejo CA where one side of the concession stand fronted the mall, so they could sell popcorn and such to passersby.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-11-2009, 11:13 AM:

In line with what David said, the old Eastland Mall theatre in Columbus had a concession stand that faced out onto the mall. It was very easy for people to walk by and drop in for some snacks, and they occasionally had signs inviting people in. I don't think they offered any discount pricing, though, so most people just went other places in the mall for popcorn and snacks. I think the Woolworth store had a popcorn machine.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-11-2009, 01:27 PM:

There is a bar next door to our theatre. Occasionally one of their patrons will come in and get a bucket of popcorn. This always leads to about a half-dozen MORE patrons coming over to get corn.

If we're having a slow night but have a lot of corn popped, I'll take a bucket over there to sort of prime the pump.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-12-2009, 10:17 AM:

We're considering doing something along these lines. Our theatre is in an area with trendy restaurants and there is no place within blocks where one can get a cheap sandwich and drink.

Our thought is to open from 11-14, selling pre-packaged sandwiches and salads, etc.; perhaps a lunch-size popcorn at a special price. We may run something in the auditorium -- the day's news from Democracy Now or something similar -- but we'll probably leave it closed off from the lobby. This is mostly for people who work in the area and are tired of brown-bagging it and can't afford a $15 lunch every day.

David

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 08-12-2009, 11:53 AM:

When I was with Century we tried opening one of the theatres at 6am to sell coffee and pastries etc. The theatre was built in the center of an isolated office complex and was prohibited from showing movies until a certain time so the thought was perhaps we could get the office staffs to buy from us instead of stopping for a Starbucks on the way in.

I think the ultimate downfall was that we insisted on charging theatre prices. I think if you're trying to attract the everyday customer/passerby you need to be flexible and have dual pricing. Normal prices in the morning, theatre prices at night when the theatre was open. Had we had a more flexible inventory/POS program we might've been able to consider it, but as things were corporately it didn't work. I'm sure had it been an independently run operation it could have been mildly successful.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-12-2009, 02:18 PM:

I'm with Scott. I don't think you could do "regular" markups on the items sold for lunch business.

Posted by Michael McGovern (Member # 4807) on 08-12-2009, 08:07 PM:

In the Northeast here, National Amusements has a full sit down bar and restaurant in their fancier "Cinema De Lux" locations, and I believe it also features a Nathans Hot Dog fast food restaurant as well in addition to their concession stand. I have no clue how well these extra amenities do, but I know the two "Cinema De Lux" in Manchester, CT is the busiest theater here in Connecticut, and the one down in Milford, CT isn't far behind.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 08-12-2009, 09:57 PM:

We get a lot of foot traffic through our lobby, as on one side we have an upscale strip mall (or whatever it's PC to call it these days) and on the other side is the mall's parking lot. We do run movies during the day, but I know the mall wants us to open as early as we can, to keep the foot traffic happy (so they don't have to walk ALL the way around - which, really isn't that far, but ... whatever). We sell a reasonable number of concession items to those walking through, but I don't know if it'd be enough to open for just that reason.