Adding Insult To Injury At The Box Office

[LarryG]

So yesterday we finally find time to go see "Casino Royale" (great movie, BTW), and when I walk up to buy tickets at the local Carmike-owned multiplex, there are homemade signs taped to the windows: "EXACT CHANGE OR DEBIT CARDS ONLY." Inside at the concession counter, same thing.

WTF? As much as it costs to see a movie these days -- I can sorta-kinda understand the high ticket prices, but they sure stick a gun in your face for popcorn and Cokes -- and they can't even be bothered to make change?!?

Anyone else seeing this same thing in your little corner of the world?

[cgallery]

That seems strange. It would certainly cut into concession sales, where the theatre makes their money. I wonder if they had been having trouble w/ counterfeit bills or something?

[final_t]

That seems strange. It would certainly cut into concession sales, where the theatre makes their money. I wonder if they had been having trouble w/ counterfeit bills or something?

The irony of paying $5 for a box of Milk Duds with a phony bill just makes me giggle.

[dlminehart]

Hey, to make change you have to be able to add and subtract, unless their computerized cash register handles it. Perhaps the computer was down? Hard to expect math skills at minimum wage these days.

[cgallery]

Hey, to make change you have to be able to add and subtract, unless their computerized cash register handles it. Perhaps the computer was down? Hard to expect math skills at minimum wage these days.

But then why would debit cards be working?

[LarryG]

I don't think it was a computer problem. I described the signs as "homemade" ... I didn't mean they were handwritten scrawls; they looked like they'd been printed in Word or whatever, and looked a little dog-eared, like they'd been taped to the windows for a while. The ones over the concession counter were hanging from strings that went up to the ceiling.

I only go to "special" movies in the theatre these days, haven't been since the last Star Wars came out (or maybe it was Firefly ... either way, it's been a while), so it was my first experience with this new "policy." But that's what the evidence suggested it was: the theatre's policy. I now dimly recall someone else (here, in town) saying something about this at least a month or two ago, but I didn't get the details and didn't understand what they were saying.

There was a couple in front of me who tried to pay for their two tickets, a total of $10.50, with $11 in cash. The cashier couldn't or wouldn't give them 50 cents back. The guy behind them in line, apparently a stranger, took two quarters out of his own pocket and gave them to the cashier, just to speed things along.

If the goal was/is to speed up the ticket line, it's backfiring because it took waaaay longer to process my debit card than it would have to count out change in cash. And if they're having problems with the til being short because people can't count, hey, that's their problem, not mine and my fellow movie-goers.

[jziegler]

I wonder if the people in front of you show why they are doing it. If they don't give change, maybe they are trying to get you to overpay. Not a nice way to do business, but sometimes I wonder.

Just like some of the toll prices that I've seen. $0.40 in Illinois? A quarter, a nickel, and a dime, or just throw in 2 quarters and be done with it since it's easy? Set stuff up so people overpay, can't get change, and laugh your way to the bank with the extra.

I hope it's not the case, but you never know.

Jim

[JR]

There was a couple in front of me who tried to pay for their two tickets, a total of $10.50...

$10.50 for TWO tickets!? Was that half-price night or something?

JR

[Stormbringer]

There was a couple in front of me who tried to pay for their two tickets, a total of $10.50.

Now that's the real shocker to this story! Where can you get two movie tickets for that price. They're at least $10 each by me. Factor in the $9 for the 55 gallon drum of popcorn and a soda mega combo they push on you plus another $4 for a small diet for her and yor lucky to get outta there for $35, $40 if she wants the M&M's. Remember when movies were "the cheap date"?

Best,
Greg

[Warren]

I suspect the signs are result of a bit of "slippage." Less in the till at the end of the day than what the tape calls for.

[MilDoc]

Haven't been to a movie theater in many years. Too many people on cell phones. Too many interruptions. And too high prices for everything. NetFlix serves me very well.

[dlminehart]

I agree, Paul. I'd add, too many teenagers using the theater as their place to hang out together, bored with the mall and wanting a place of their "own".

[WoodButcher26]

Kind of along the same lines. One of the chain gas stations in town has decided that all transactions with cash are pre-pay only. Okay, understand that one. However, all "change" is given via a gift card--redeemable only at that chain. Last time I will EVER buy gas there, can tell you that. Guessing that a lot of folks are doing the same thing, noticing less folks there now.


Kim

[LarryG]

$10.50 for TWO tickets!? Was that half-price night or something?

Sunday afternoon matinee ($5.75/person), with a 50 cent senior discount off each ticket. I think the regular, full rate is either $7.25 or $7.75, not sure.

[scorrpio]

They don't take credit cards either? Then I could only surmise they don't trust their own employees. All cash goes directly into a slot on a locked box. Probably got a camera there, too.
And I guess last thing they want is get liable for CC fraud when their cashier 'saves' a number to order something online. With debit, you usually have to punch in a PIN they don't see.

Me? I Fandango for the tickets and have a bottle of water with me. Won't go within a mile of their stands.

And for tolls, I got E-ZPass. If toll is 37cents, that is what I'm paying. Not 40, not 50. Which makes me wonder. Every time I drive up to a toll booth, there are lines of cars at the 'cash' lanes, sometimes quite long ones. Barely moving. I would really love to know what they all think when they watch me - and other tag holders - just cruise though the EZPass-only lines - sometimes at full speed if there are express lanes. I mean, the tags themselves are free - and many places even got discounts. (i.e. Lincoln tunnel is $6 cash, EZPass is $5 peak, $4 off-peak)