My name is Steve, and I work at your local movie theater. I love my job on most days. I get to see movies all the time, and my coworkers are great. What's not great however, is some of the attitudes we have to put up with. So I decided to address the problem. Here's what not to do when you go to the movie theater.
1. Don't be rude.
Be kind to the people working. This sounds like it should be obvious but this doesn't mean everyone follows it. On busy days, it might be hard for us to hear what you're saying, especially if you're mumbling. For this reason, we try to read your order back to you, but if we get something wrong or accidentally forget to give you something, there's no reason to be rude about it. We help a lot of guests all at once, which can cause chaos and sometimes confusion.
2. Know what you want to order, it only helps you in the long run.
Know what you want before you come up to the counter. This isn't as important on slow days when there's really no line but when there is a line, and you wait at the register to figure out what you want, this makes other guests to wait longer. Why not spend your time figuring out what you want in the line? That's one of the reasons it's there.
3. Please stop complaining about prices we don't set.
If you're going to get something from the concession stand, don't complain about the prices. We know they're expensive. There's nothing we can do about it. We don't really make much off of ticket sales. All of our revenue comes in from what we make in concessions. So unless you'd like to see us close our doors, we can't really lower our prices.
4. We know you want fresh popcorn, which is why it's fresh.
If you want popcorn, don't demand the freshest of the fresh popcorn. I don't know about all movie theaters, but we make ours fresh. We mix it all up after the fresh stuff is made. This, and the stuff that comes right out of the popper is ridiculously hot. None of us like burning our skin, so why subjugate us to that fate? Just order the size that comes with free refills and come back if you don't like the popcorn you were given. We want to keep you pleased without hurting ourselves.
This world is a crazy place and the golden rules should always be followed. Clean up after yourself and remember being rude doesn't help you get what you want any faster.
