Publix Food Stores Now Selling AMC Popcorn! Yes, AMC is hurting big time...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yep, AMC had another huge loss for 2025 and had to secure bonds to stay afloat.
Plus, now the are selling AMC Popcorn at many Publix Grocery stores. This week as a 2 for 1 BOGO.. No, I did not buy any,
and apparently neither is anyone else since it's in the Blow Out flyer...
I don't think AMC is going to last much longer.
BTW: Publix food stores is named after Publix Theater Corp. A 1920s -30's very classy Movie Theater Chain.

[Jim Cassedy]

I thought I remember reading some time ago that AMC branded popcorn was available
someplace other than at their multiplexes. But I could be wrong. Yes, the Paramount/Publix
theater chain (they merged) did operate some of the great, "Class-A" movie houses. The
Paramount in San Francisco was torn down decades ago, but the one across the Bay in
Oakland, CA still survives and has been fully restored, right down to the theater organ. It's
mostly used for live stage shows now, but they still occasionally do classic films, ON FILM,
when possible. One thing about the Oakland Paramount is that even if the movie you go to
see is lousy, the amazing auditorium and lobby decor are a show in themselves and are
worth the price of admission. (to me, anyway) If you're ever in the SF/Oakland area, they
give tours one or two times a month which are also a treat!

[Ryan Gallagher]

I would guess the just licensed the branding to some existing consumer popcorn company?

although this dovetails nicely with the other thread discussing take-out/zdelivery popcorn. Hah.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Does AMC have one single popcorn supplier across all their locations?

And like Ryan indicated, this is most likely just some run-off-the-mill existing brand of microwave popcorn with the AMC name slapped onto it. You'll never get the same experience from microwave popcorn as from properly freshly popped popcorn, so this feels more like a desperate sellout. Maybe Razr or whoever owns THX nowadays can offer some THX-certified popcorn...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Does AMC have one single popcorn supplier across all their locations?

And like Ryan indicated, this is most likely just some run-off-the-mill existing brand of microwave popcorn with the AMC name slapped onto it. You'll never get the same experience from microwave popcorn as from properly freshly popped popcorn, so this feels more like a desperate sellout. Maybe Razr or whoever owns THX nowadays can offer some THX-certified popcorn...

No Idea if AMC has one supplier... I sort of doubt it. That's a heck of a lot of corn. My guess is a vendor that specialuzes in custom package doesthat along with the flavoring, if that's provided...

[Randy Stankey]

I used to work in a food processing plant that made "Screamin' Sicilian" pizzas, Kellogg's "Breakfast Bagel" sandwiches and Tyson chicken tenders. It was all made in the same plant, just on different lines. I worked on each of those lines, all the way from the head of the line to stacking cartons on skids. It was a shit job!

There IS NO "Screamin' Sicilian." It's just a name that somebody slapped on a box. We even got the boxes delivered, pre-printed. All we did was slap the pizzas together and stuff them into boxes. The same goes for everything else. Some assholes in some office building in New York City or some other city sign contracts and pay money to some other assholes in some other office building in some other God-forsaken city. Work orders get sent. Pizzas get made. Some poor schmuck, driving a forklift, loads them onto the back of a refrigerated semi-truck. Off they go to some warehouse, then to the stores.

AMC branded popcorn is no different. Some assholes sign contracts. Some other assholes make the shit and load it onto the backs of trucks. There is nothing "AMC" about it but for the ink on the package.

I wouldn't buy the stuff, no matter how good or bad it is. (It's probably pretty bad!) It's NOT AMC! It's just ink on a label.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I used to work in a food processing plant that made "Screamin' Sicilian" pizzas, Kellogg's "Breakfast Bagel" sandwiches and Tyson chicken tenders. It was all made in the same plant, just on different lines. I worked on each of those lines, all the way from the head of the line to stacking cartons on skids. It was a shit job!


AMC branded popcorn is no different. Some assholes sign contracts. Some other assholes make the shit and load it onto the backs of trucks. There is nothing "AMC" about it but for the ink on the package.

I wouldn't buy the stuff, no matter how good or bad it is. (It's probably pretty bad!) It's NOT AMC! It'en just ink on a label.

I agree Randy, but they make money on selling the name, even as bad a reputation as the chain has.

[Marcel Birgelen]

You'd say that a company like Coca Cola would guard something like the taste of their original drinks like their life depends on it... It's their core identity after all... The zillion-years old secret formula "only we know", in a big vault in Atlanta.

But then just recently, I had a "Coke" from one of those dreaded Freestyle machines, without knowing, because I was in a hurry and went through a drive-thru. I guess that stuff alone is the perfect example how even a company like Coca Cola has stopped giving a damn...

I never was a Pepsi guy, but I never had any real troubles drinking the stuff. I recently tried a "standard" Pepsi in a 0.5l bottle as part of a meal... I almost had to puke... I re-checked the bottle like 5 times, it was "ordinary pepsi", I went back to the counter, complained, got a new one, same issue. Looks like REGULAR Pepsi, at least around here, now contains both sugar AND artificial sweeteners...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

You'd say that a company like Coca Cola would guard something like the taste of their original drinks like their life depends on it... It's their core identity after all... The zillion-years old secret formula "only we know", in a big vault in Atlanta.

But then just recently, I had a "Coke" from one of those dreaded Freestyle machines, without knowing, because I was in a hurry and went through a drive-thru. I guess that stuff alone is the perfect example how even a company like Coca Cola has stopped giving a damn...

I never was a Pepsi guy, but I never had any real troubles drinking the stuff. I recently tried a "standard" Pepsi in a 0.5l bottle as part of a meal... I almost had to puke... I re-checked the bottle like 5 times, it was "ordinary pepsi", I went back to the counter, complained, got a new one, same issue. Looks like REGULAR Pepsi, at least around here, now contains both sugar AND artificial sweeteners...

Marcel.... They sell Coca Cola here in the States that comes from Mexico and IS made with real sugar. The stuff tastes great, and honestly doesn't cost very much more than the stuff made in the States.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'm aware of the concept of "Mexican Coke". Apparently, coke in Mexico is largely made with HFC, the sugar-cane based export product is purely something made for U.S. markets.

But, Coca Cola has been made with REAL sugar around here forever and is still being made with real sugar to this very day, no need to buy some exclusive Mexican import. (If you want something really Mexican, you can buy Jarritos at twice the price of a Coke, it also tastes like it contains twice the sugar...) The same USED to be true for Pepsi, but apparently, the "classic" Pepsi product now contains artificial sweeteners in many countries around here. The EU has been pressuring companies to reduce the amount of sugars in their product, apparently. Pepsi gave in the wrong way and the result is a HORRIBLE product.

I'm not sure what the deal is with this Coca Cola Freestyle product but I guess it's also artificial sweeteners. Yes, I keep ranting about it, but I don't understand why consumers are up in arms about those things. The "coke" that abomination is pushing out is just horrible and tastes worse than the cheapest imitation cola soda product you'll find at the local discount store.

BTW: Did you know that Mexicans are the biggest consumers of Coca Cola per capita in the world? They're so hooked on the stuff, you literally could build a pipeline from Atlanta to the bottling plants in Mexico... despite all the shit going on between the U.S. and Mexico...

[Randy Stankey]

Freestyle has nothing to do with the product. It's a data collection point. Every touch of the screen gets recorded, collated and sent back to the Mother Ship. They just sucker people in with pretty pictures and flashing lights.

I, once, wrote in (by e-mail) that I didn't like it when users had to scroll through two or three menus in order to get to "regular" Coke. I said that I wanted a "Just give me a Coke" button. Lo, and behold! About a year later, it appeared!

I'm not saying that I'm the one responsible for the "Gimme' a Coke" button but it highlights the idea that they ARE watching the marketing data. I must not have been the only one who said the same thing.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, it was already clear to me that this was a big data gathering experiment... and you know, as long as they don't profile my DNA, I'm not even completely against it... Offer me more choice and a better product due to better insight in what customers want, I guess that's big data done right?

Still, if data gathering is your only purpose and you seemingly don't care that your signature product tastes like shit out of those contraptions, then you suck. And I can't honestly understand why it is so difficult to make Coke just taste like coke out of those machines. I mean, coke from postmix is just water + co2 + syrup and that's perfectly fine. Why not put EXACTLY the same stuff into that machine?

[Mike Blakesley]

I mean, coke from postmix is just water + co2 + syrup and that's perfectly fine. Why not put EXACTLY the same stuff into that machine?

That'd be a space issue. Coke postmix is not the same as the stuff in the machine. They have a generic sugar water "base" into which whatever flavor you want is injected. The sugar base is combined with carbonated water first and then the flavors are added right when it comes out of the spigot.

[Jim Cassedy]

I saw this at my local Grocery Outlet store here in San Francisco. I wonder
if it's marketed by the same Cretors company who makes the corn poppers?
CretorsPoppedCorn.jpg
I think the Cretors popcorn machines are made somewhere near Chicago. Next time I'm
at the store, I'll have to takalook at the back of the bag to see where this stuff comes from.