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Author Topic: Pop Corn Question ! Rene Ferron Film Handler Posts: 52 From: New Brunswick, Canada Registered: Feb 2008 posted 03-23-2008 11:31 AM                     Here goes: At the end of the night should the staff at the concession stand do: A) Trash all the left over Pop corn. b) Leave the left over pop corn in the machine to be mixed with a new batch the next day. I would really like to have your input on this question with a bit of explanation to your answers. Thank very much.  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 03-23-2008 11:47 AM                        I've worked at theaters who've done both. I personally think mixing day old popcorn with a fresh batch in the morning is DISGUSTING. Most people enjoy movie-going because of the popcorn, just because it's the first set of the day doesn't mean those customers have to suffer and eat a mix of hot and cold/stale/gross popcorn. My advice is try to not over due it when poping corn for the last set, and pitch the rest.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 03-23-2008 12:11 PM                    As Allison stated above: The goal here is to lose as little of the popcorn at the end of the night that you can. Don't keep it for the next day. Just make sure that your not over popping at the end of the night. When I worked for Loews back in the late 80's early 90's they had us take a day in the week and pop up large quantities of popcorn and bag them up. Then use the bagged up popcorn through out the weekend. It was the worst practice I had ever seen. Popcorn never tasted fresh and the customers always complained it was stale and it looked bad on you when you brought those big bags out and dumped it in the warmers. There was no popcorn popper in the stand. It was off in another room some where. No fresh smell of popcorn in the air just the stale smell from where it popped earlier in the week. That is one of the many reasons why when Cinemark came to town business went to shit and eventually Loews left the state of Kentucky.  |  IP: Logged Rene Ferron Film Handler Posts: 52 From: New Brunswick, Canada Registered: Feb 2008 posted 03-23-2008 12:25 PM                     It's just that where i work now they are keeping the pop corn for the next day... and the Supervisor Lady was told that you can keep a batch of Pop Corn for up to 5 days, YAK ! In my mind i would just trash the left overs and clean the machine and make a new batch the next day. I will try to talk with the head manager to see if something can be done. We have 2 machines and they haul the Pop Corn that are left over from one machine to the other, but come to think of it if they never completely empty the machines some pop corn in there could be weeks old !!! YAK !!! OMG ! Anyways i don't think that pop corn is that expensive to begin with. If anyone has more feedback it would help me with management as i will probably print this post and show them what people in the business think of this. Event the management in here are new to the theater business so a little advice would help. Thx  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 03-23-2008 12:43 PM                    Definitely keep the popcorn popper clean. All it takes is 10 or 20 minutes, depending on the type of popper, to clean it.  |  IP: Logged Jim Bedford Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 597 From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-23-2008 12:53 PM                        Here in our low-humidity atmosphere at 8750', I can feed you hour old and day old warmed popcorn and you can't tell the difference. I can't either. We don't even have to bag it to keep it tasting like it was just popped, just leave it in the warmer. This will not work in high humidity locals. Now this doesn't obviate cleaning the popcorn machine and kettle daily. Birds love old popcorn, dry or soggy.  |  IP: Logged Rene Ferron Film Handler Posts: 52 From: New Brunswick, Canada Registered: Feb 2008 posted 03-23-2008 12:59 PM                     Here where i live the Humidity is around 80% right now. So i guess that keeping the old Popcorn is not a good idea.  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 03-23-2008 01:10 PM                        No matter what the humidity, there's a big difference between hour old popcorn and day old!  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-23-2008 01:17 PM                     Don't forget: c) Put it in a large garbage bag and offer it to customers leaving the last show. I'm only half-joking here. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Joe Elliott Master Film Handler Posts: 497 From: Port Orange, Fl USA Registered: Oct 2006 posted 03-23-2008 01:52 PM                     The first theatre I started at (an indoor) used to pop popcorn on Thursday nights for the whole weekend. We did have a warmer in the concession stand however. If it was kept warm and dry, then we tended to have more complaints that it was stale when it was freshly popped than when it was 4 days old! When I managed a drive-in however, I would only have them pop up as much as was needed for that night. We would still get complaints that it was stale when it was comming straight out of the popper. Must be something in the water in Kansas City. Difference being, that at the Drive-in, we had a large gas popper that only took a few minutes to warm up. At the indoor when I was an usher, the electric popper there took a long time to get that first batch going, and each batch was slooooowwww. There was no way they could have kept up with a busy Saturday nights demand, so they had to pop ahead. If you can keep up with demand, pop fresh. If not, keep it warm and dry.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 03-23-2008 02:50 PM                     quote: No matter what the humidity, there's a big difference between hour old popcorn and day old! We've been bagging our left over corn for over 15 years and I have yet to have a customer that could tell the difference between the fresh popped & 1-3 day old stuff. I have had customers that have requested the fresh popped as they saw it coming out of the popper and then told me that it didn't taste right, because guess what, it still has moisture from being popped and is "chewy" until it has had a chance to dry out in the warmer! The key as Jim has said is to keep the popped corn from absorbing moisture out of the air during storage. We use the yellow "popcorn" storage bags for ours. Of course the goal is to have as little left over corn by days end, but sometimes we end up with more because we were anticipating heavier crowds. We have a single 20oz free standing Cretors popper in our concession stand, so popping up a few extra bags as backups is usually a necessity. Think about how long the popcorn in those decorative tins at the store have been in storage at a warehouse until it hits the store shelves.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 03-23-2008 03:11 PM                     The trick with day old (or older) popcorn is the warmer. If that warmer is not adequate, the popcorn will taste stale. UA was a firm believer in warmers as they would order these from Stien (Stein?) Industries in Amityville New York.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 03-23-2008 03:29 PM                     quote: I have had customers that have requested the fresh popped as they saw it coming out of the popper and then told me that it didn't taste right, because guess what, it still has moisture from being popped and is "chewy" until it has had a chance to dry out in the warmer! Perhaps a better idea is when people ask for the fresh stuff, you dump it out when it's done, let the stuff dry a few seconds, then fill their bag from that. Heck, most of the time the stuff was dried by the time I had finished filling their bag anyway. Now filling directly from the popper as it shoots out the corn obviously gets the complaints that the stuff tastes funny.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 03-23-2008 03:41 PM                    quote: Chris Slycord Now filling directly from the popper as it shoots out the corn obviously gets the complaints that the stuff tastes funny. That's the way I like it. quote: Jeremy Weigel Think about how long the popcorn in those decorative tins at the store have been in storage at a warehouse until it hits the store shelves. ....and it tastes like cardboard too.  |  IP: Logged Rene Ferron Film Handler Posts: 52 From: New Brunswick, Canada Registered: Feb 2008 posted 03-23-2008 03:53 PM                     The problem is that they close the warmer at night, would that affect the taste ? I prefer fresh popcorn, the same way Mr. Spicer does, from the popper as it taste much better,  |  IP: Logged

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