Popcorn tubs

[Darin Steffl]

Myself and customer prefer tubs but we've avoided them due to cost.

I'm going to start getting quotes from manufacturers through Alibaba as well and see what we can get 85 and 130 oz tubs for. We also want to get the kid combo trays that hold popcorn, candy slot, and soda slot for cheaper. Ideally we can order a combination of those items to meet the 10k unit minimum.

We all want tubs because I hate sticking our hand in the bag to open it and it's hard to butter it without kids spilling on the outside of the bag. Tubs will be easier. Then we'll try to train customers to dump out their popcorn in the garbage and stack the buckets to help keep garbage less full. We're thinking of a small opening on top garbage that won't fit a tub so people learn to dump first, then stack.

[Jill Mobley]

I have several quotes for 85 and 130. I am just ordering 2,400 that were in stock for .30 each. This price includes shipping. It is supposed to take 30-45 days to arrive. They are the typical yellow tub with the popcorn around the bottom.

I am also getting quotes for the red/white flat sided boxes that ship flat.

Most places are happy to quote for 5,000 pieces.

[Darin Steffl]

I've never used Alibaba before. Is it pretty easy to communicate with sales people in China?

Did prices get cheaper if you ordered 5-10k?

[Randy Stankey]

... Then we'll try to train customers to dump out their popcorn in the garbage and stack the buckets to help keep garbage less full. ...

People should put their empty candy wrappers inside their popcorn tub along with their empty Coke cup then leave them in a neat stack underneath their chairs.

Ushers are supposed to sweep and mop the floors between every show, anyhow. It's not much more work to pick up the empties if it's all stacked. They can just grab a roll of trash bags when they go to the broom closet and bring it with them. They're going to have to empty the trash cans, anyhow.

At Cinemark, all the theaters had housekeeping carts with a broom, a mop, a trash can and a roll of trash bags.

While I certainly appreciate it when people police their own empties but, for the money they pay, I don't think it's too much to ask for an usher to do it as long as people aren't leaving junk all over the place.

Like I said, just leave a nice, little stack under the chair and I'm good with that.

When I was a kid, going to the movies at the local Warner Theater with my parents, that's what I was told you were supposed to do. It was normal.

[Marcel Birgelen]

As so many things, it's a cultural thing, but something that can move over time. Over here, nowadays, you can't just throw stuff just in the trash: you have to divide it over 3 to 500 bins, according to classification. Also, if it concerns recyclable plastic bottles: They come with a deposit, so if you just throw them away, you just wasted 15 eurocents...

I remember eating at a fast food establishment in the U.A.E. I took my own tablet and trash to the trash bin, like I was used to do... I noticed a worker speeding towards me. He had an offended look on his face when I dumped into the dumpster in front of his eyes... I guess he wasn't happy I was taking his work away...

[Darin Steffl]

In Minnesota, it's expected that you throw your own trash away. Every theater I've been to, mine included, has pre-show messages asking you to throw away your stuff. The majority of people do and a few leave their stuff behind or forget.

I do judge the people who leave garbage behind because I was either taught or learned that throwing my garbage in the bin is kind or right thing to do.

I also cannot believe the number of people who spill popcorn, soda, slushie, and candy on the floor. What are they doing during the movie to cause that ha? I've never spilled a drink in a theater. Popcorn bag once, maybe dropped a couple pieces of candy.

[Jill Mobley]

Darin. Easy to communicate. I just received a quote .27 5000 130 ounce popcorn tubs

This quote requires me to pick up in Memphis which about 100 miles.

They will send samples; you pay the freight.

Because they are not critical components, I think I can purchase from a picture.

If I understand correctly, Alibaba can keep the payment in escrow until the delivery is accepted.

I am happy to share the quotes I have with you. (I have several)

[Darin Steffl]

That would be great! Can you private message me the quotes or share them here if you're fine with that so others can see. Thank you

[Randy Stankey]

In Minnesota, it's expected that you throw your own trash away. ...

It's funny because people who run theaters expect it but, in reality, a sizeable portion of the customer base doesn't.
The evidence to support that is the trash left all over the floor. No amount of PSAs on the screen will change it. I've seen "Pick up your trash" PSAs on movie screens since the 70s and little to nothing has changed except the sense of entitlement on both sides of the issue. Each thinks the other is lazy.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't think that it's okay to leave trash lay. That's rude!
Yes, I would get bent out of shape to find a mess on the floor, even if it wasn't "my" theater. And, beer cans?! That downright pi$$es me off!

My father was a malignant alcoholic. (Refer to the bar stories in another message thread.)
He would take us kids to the movies on Saturday and, before we got out of the car, he made me stuff my coat pockets with beer. He could easily down a six pack within the span of a two hour movie. Y'know what? There wasn't a single beer can left on the floor!

My father made me squash the cans flat and put them back in my pocket and take them with us.

The other rule was to stack your popcorn cup and your soda cup and leave them under the seat.

We could have thrown the empty beers in the trash.
We could have taken the empty popcorn cups to the trash, too.
Hey! I was walking out with pockets full of empty beer cans! It would all have been a horse apiece. Right?

It was done that way because that's what people were "supposed" to do.

Frankly, little has changed since the 70s. People still leave trash on the floors and ushers still whine about it. The only thing that has changed is that customers think it is their "right" to leave trash on the floor and ushers have become lazy whiners.

I think the solution is to hit the middle ground. Not necessarily to make things go back to the "old ways" but to find an arrangement that's suitable for both parties.

Ushers have to clean the floors, anyway. As long as there isn't stuff strewn all over the place, picking up the popcorn cups shouldn't be a big deal as long as your ushers aren't a bunch of crybabies.

Customers pay a lot for movies. They deserve a little bit of extra customer service for what they pay when they could watch the same, damn thing at home. As long as they don't act like a bunch of pigs.

So, on one side, we've got a bunch of pigs watching movies and a bunch of crybaby ushers on the other. In the middle we have managers putting "Pick Pick Up Your Trash" PSAs on the screen which only serve to piss off everybody.

Why not just say, "Welcome to the movies! We hope you enjoy the show. Don't worry about the empties. Just stack them up and leave them under your seat. We've got people who will take care of that. We hope to see you again, soon!"

Remember this! People don't go to theaters to watch movies. They can see the same thing at home. They don't come to the movies for the popcorn. They can buy the same thing at Walmart and pop it in the microwave.

People come to the movies and pay money for the privilege because they want to have a nice time. That is what you are in business for!

You remember what it was like in your grade school cafeteria, don't you?
All the kids had to take their empty lunch trays to the dish room and stand in line while the teacher inspected them to be sure kids weren't wasting food before they were allowed to put the trays on the conveyor belt.

I used to clean theaters, every day, between shows for almost two decades, all the while running the movies, upstairs. If I went to a theater where people whined because they had to pick up empties, I wouldn't come back.

Theater managers who run their business like a grade school cafeteria then wonder why they don't have any customers deserve what they get.

[Darin Steffl]

I've picked up and thrown my trash since I was a kid. I've only owned my theater for 2 years and I'm 31. So from the time I could walk to 29 years old when I didn't own a theater, I still threw away my trash because it's the right and respectful thing to do, in my opinion.

My views didn't change when I bought a theater. I think the same thing now as I did when I attended movies. I have never had the entitles attitude that just because I pay a lot for a ticket and concessions that I can leave a mess on purpose. That type of attitude is toxic and really what's wrong with some people. Those same people likely are selfish and entitled in their daily lives everywhere they go. Their attitude likely reflects their actions too.

I was raised to be respectful and not be entitled. No one is my servant. I say please and thank you to anyone who helps me when I'm a customer somewhere. I do my best not to make their job harder.

[Frank Cox]

I don't have any problem with picking up trash after a show.

Some of my customers (maybe about 60% or so) bring their popcorn containers out and stack them in or around the garbage bin after the show; the other 40% just leave it on the floor in the auditorium.

No problem either way as far as I'm concerned.

I do a run-though on the auditorium and pick up the containers, bottles and any "big stuff" first, then go over it again and sweep up the popcorn and the little bits before doing any required mopping and then vacuuming the rug.

It's my nightly routine and it's part of the whole "running a movie theatre" thing. Anyone who works in a theatre and objects to that kind of stuff may be in the wrong business.

I don't imagine you expect the customers to pick up every dropped popcorn kernel. It takes maybe ten seconds to sweep up some spilled popcorn versus two or three seconds that it takes to pick up a popcorn container..... again, I don't see the problem here.

There is one thing that does bug me, though. Tobacco juice. Some people spit that crap into a cup and then leave the cup on the floor after the show. This is also fine since I can just pick it up and carry it out but that cup occasionally gets kicked over by someone on their way out and that does make one unnecessary mess that I'd really prefer to avoid. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to happen very often any more. Maybe there are less tobacco chewers around or less of them come to the movie now. Either way, it's not a common issue but on the (rare) occasions when it is an issue, blech!

[Mike Blakesley]

This debate about trash and such reminds me of a small bit of "Disney magic" I experienced in Disney World last fall.

We were eating in an outdoor restaurant that had trash cans nearby. After we were done I headed to the can to dump our trash. My tray was literally halfway into the mouth of the can and ready to dump when out of the corner of my eye I could see someone behind me, so I glanced around and it was a Disney cast member with a fresh bag. It turned out she was intending to put that bag into the can I was about to use. She was going to let me dump all my crap in there without saying a word. Most places, the worker would have said "Hey hey hey, wait a second there's no bag in that can!" But this person made no motion to that effect, she was just waiting patiently behind me and said nothing. So I stepped aside and said "go ahead," and she said "Thank you, sir" and put the bag in the can. (I assume she had run out of bags and had to go get some, or something like that...normally you would never find a can with no bag in it.)

Anyway, it was a small thing but it just seemed very Disney-ish of that worker to behave that way. I have heard that the seemingly awful jobs at Disney like trash bag replacement are actually popular with the workers because it gives them more chances to interact with the guests than other workers tend to get.

Back on topic, I looked at Webstaurantstore and they are basically out of all the most popular sizes of everything. I'm not sure why there's such a shortage of this stuff all of a sudden but hopefully as summer wears on it'll ease. We get all our stuff out of Mountain States Concessions in Salt Lake City, and out of the last order we did, all we got was the largest size (170 ounce) bucket.

[Darin Steffl]

I'm not saying I expect customers to clean up popcorn, candy, and drink spills. Just trash like bags, cups, Napkins, and wrappers. Basically any non-food garbage. We can handle the rest but it does take longer to clean the theater when we have to gather and throw away trash.

[Jill Mobley]

We have wonderful customers. Many carry their trash out. We opened our theater after AMC left town and it was boarded up a few years. Most of our customers are happy to have a theater in our town. They do not complain about the concession prices and most do not leave a mess.

The closest theater to our town is 35 miles. It is a lovely new-ish theater with 8 screens. It is nice that folks have somewhat of an option as we only have one screen.

[Mike Blakesley]

The looks of our auditorium after the typical movie is dependent on these factors:

1. The age of the crowd
2. How good the movie is
3. The appropriateness of the crowd to the movie

I've found that if there are a lot of kids, but the movie is boring to them, OR if it's an adult movie that has drawn a lot of kids for whatever reason, the theater will be sloppier than it would otherwise.

Two recent examples: Top Gun: Maverick, which in general attracted mostly adults and seniors. The place was nearly spotless after most shows, with all the trash in the cans. And Jurassic World: Dominion, which is a movie that really isn't FOR kids, but is attracting a lot OF kids, and therefore the kids are bored out of their minds whenever there aren't dinosaurs on the screen. And some of those dinos are awful scary, so that makes the kids jump and squirm. Result: The place has been a big mess almost every show so far. It is downright amazing the amount of popcorn that human beings can slop all over the chair they are sitting in. I don't understand it.

A kid movie isn't always a mess. When we had The Bad Guys, the place was pretty clean most nights, because the kids were riveted through that movie. I expect the same will happen with Lightyear, that is if we ever get around to playing it.