Covering an empty shelf

[Frank Cox]

I cut down on the variety of candy that I sell so I ended up with an empty shelf in my candy counter.

I figure this makes it more interesting than empty space:

20250722_214906.jpg

[Randy Stankey]

Absolutely! It cuts down on visual clutter and it gives you a place to keep backstock, too.

[Ryan Gallagher]

If you were into model trains, a nice N scale set and landscape with a drive in theatre operating would also be fun. Give the kiddos something to be entertained with while in line. ;-)

Your solution was a lot less work!

[Harold Hallikainen]

Are those something like Blue Ray, DVD, or VHS cases? Shouldn't they be DCP hard drives?

[Frank Cox]

They're movie posters printed from scans of the originals.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Very nice!

[Randy Stankey]

Is it wise to leave the cats and the dogs in the same place, next to each other?

[Frank Cox]

One of my customers tonight asked me if I've seen all of those movies. I said of course and they're all good; that's why I picked them.

The 1982 remake of Cat People is one of my all-time favourite movies, actually. The David Bowie song that also made its appearance in Atomic Blonde (Putting Out Fire) is fantastic on a theatre sound system!

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm surprised you don't have Milk Duds in the mix somewhere - that's our Film-Tech Forums selling candy by far, has been for many years.

[Frank Cox]

Milk Duds don't seem to exist around here. In fact, I've never seen them.

I have this:
malty2.jpg
They're pretty much the same thing as Milk Duds or Whoppers.

My best selling candies are peanut M&Ms and the red Skittles.

[Carsten Kurz]

I know there are general sales statistics on candy. Always wondered wether cinema concession sales matches them. Most of our sales are sweet popcorn. Then crisps. We had Maltesers for a while, but it seems people lost interest in them. The most selling sweets are jelly bears, M&Ms peanut, some chocolate bars (better during the colder season). And, of course, ice cream.

[Jim Cassedy]

I know there are general sales statistics on candy.
Always wondered wether cinema concession sales matches them. .

I had a friend who frequently traveled between the USA and Japan to visit family there.
He once sent me pictures of some really strange candies sold at movie theaters there.
(Or, more accurately, 'strange' to people outside of Japan.) He even brought back
some samples for me a couple of times.

The Japanese seem to have an obsession with various flavored Kt-Kat bars, which are
available in about a dozen varieties, including Wasabi and Horseradish. The same goes
for Doritos, which can be had in several unique flavors, such as chicken, seaweed and
saki, and shrimp. He once brought me back a bag of Pepsi Cola flavored Cheetos, which
I think I posted a picture of here on FT some years ago.
> To me, they tasted like neither Pepsi or Doritos. Maybe I should have tried them while
watching a Japanese movie or something.

Internet Photo Of A Variety Of Japanese KitKat Candies)
JapaneseKitKats.jpg

Tastes LIke Chicken?
JapaneseDoritos.jpg

[Carsten Kurz]

Back in the 90s, our cinema was part of a campaign and we had a photographer in to take pictures. A while ago I found one of these again and scanned it, as it was showing our concession stand. When I zoomed in on it, I was quite puzzled to notice that what we are selling today is 99% of what we sold 30 years ago. Very little change - most products simply because they vanished from the market.

[Mike Blakesley]

For fun (and because I was curious), I ran reports on RTS for the most recent five years, compared to the first five years we used RTS (2003-2008) to see if there have been any big changes in what's selling for candy.

Here is the top ten list from 2020-2025:

1. Milk Duds
2. Sour Punch Straws Blue Raspberry
3. Cookie Dough Bites
4. Mike & Ike (original)
5. Hot Tamales
6. Banner / Costco Milk Chocolate Covered Almonds
7. Red Vines
8. M&M Peanut
9. M&M Peanut Butter
10. Sour Punch Straws Strawberry

And here is the top ten list from 2004 - 2008:

1. Milk Duds
2. Brite Crawlers
3. Cookie Dough Bites
4. Raisinets
5. Dots (original)
6. Swedish Fish
7. Mike & Ike (original)
8. Junior Mints
9. M&M Peanut
10. Reese's Pieces

Junior Mints might be higher on the newer list, but we just put them back into our mix last year. We had taken them out because we got tired of scrubbing them off of our cloth-covered seats. Now that our seats are "leather" covered they wipe off easier.

Some chocolate items, like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Hershey's candy bars, might be higher on the list but we don't order them during the summer as the chocolate tends to get too soft and gets smeared all over the place.

The newer list contains two "sour" entries - - I don't think the sour stuff really existed in the early 2000s. Or at least wasn't as popular as today.

#6: For many years we sold Banner's Milk Chocolate Almonds, but they became impossible to get during the pandemic supply shortages, so we switched over to a Costco product. The placement on the list is a combination of sales of both.