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When the Coronapocalypse first hit, I was literally scared to death of not being able to pay our bills. Then a theater in a town a couple of hours from here decided to do "drive-up" popcorn sales, and a friend of mine suggested we do the same thing here. So on Saturday the 21st of March, I put an announcement on our Facebook page that we would deliver popcorn to cars....just drive to the theatre and call us, and we'd do the rest.
I put the announcement up at 6pm, and we planned to be open from 7pm to 8pm for the deliveries. With the short notice, I figured we'd have a half-dozen orders at best. Instead, we were completely slammed, and the biggest problem turned out to be that we have only one phone line. The phone literally rang nonstop for the whole hour we were open.
So, in the ensuing weeks we've refined the program. That first night, there was only me, my wife and one of our employees working, and we were run ragged. We settled on a schedule of Friday-Saturday-Sunday from 7 to 8pm, and we now bring in three employees. (One to be on the phones, one to punch orders into the computer, one to make popcorn and stage orders, and two to run deliveries to cars.)
Every weekend since has grown in sales. Then we started getting messages from out-of-town people.... would we consider an afternoon popcorn sale too, since people would like to come get popcorn but not have to drive in the dark on the way home. So we opened this past Saturday from 3 to 4, in addition to the evening hours, and even in the middle of a blizzard, we were still busy filling orders.
We had one guy last weekend who ordered an extra-large popcorn, extra large soda, and "one of everything" in the candy counter.
To help deal with the "one phone line" problem, I put up a sign telling people to "try again in a minute" if they can't get through, and if that doesn't work, turn on their hazard flashers and we'll come out and take their order in person.
The fact that our popcorn is quite beloved among our customers has certainly helped, but it kind of dawned on me..... on a normal Saturday night, we might have 80 or 100 or more people in the theatre, but there are several THOUSAND people in our vicinity, and they're all bored out of their minds, and they're all watching TV and movies, and they all like popcorn. So we've gained a lot of new customers who are now singing the praises of our popcorn to the Facebookverse. We have had people come from up to 60 miles away to get our popcorn!
It's not just popcorn, either... we're selling our entire concession menu. I actually had to order in more supplies, we've been that busy. We ordered some of those "shake-n-share" lids for the popcorn buckets (it doubles as a pass-around bowl) and also some tiny cups with lids so we can give everyone a serving of Flavocol with their corn.
After doing it for 4 weeks, it has not slowed down. So the lesson is, if doing something like this is at all possible for you, and if your locality allows restaurants to offer take-out service, you should definitely think about it. The best part for me is, it gives me a reason to be in the theatre from time to time and kept virus-related depression at bay. And most satisfyingly, it's keeping the bills paid.
I put the announcement up at 6pm, and we planned to be open from 7pm to 8pm for the deliveries. With the short notice, I figured we'd have a half-dozen orders at best. Instead, we were completely slammed, and the biggest problem turned out to be that we have only one phone line. The phone literally rang nonstop for the whole hour we were open.
So, in the ensuing weeks we've refined the program. That first night, there was only me, my wife and one of our employees working, and we were run ragged. We settled on a schedule of Friday-Saturday-Sunday from 7 to 8pm, and we now bring in three employees. (One to be on the phones, one to punch orders into the computer, one to make popcorn and stage orders, and two to run deliveries to cars.)
Every weekend since has grown in sales. Then we started getting messages from out-of-town people.... would we consider an afternoon popcorn sale too, since people would like to come get popcorn but not have to drive in the dark on the way home. So we opened this past Saturday from 3 to 4, in addition to the evening hours, and even in the middle of a blizzard, we were still busy filling orders.
We had one guy last weekend who ordered an extra-large popcorn, extra large soda, and "one of everything" in the candy counter.
To help deal with the "one phone line" problem, I put up a sign telling people to "try again in a minute" if they can't get through, and if that doesn't work, turn on their hazard flashers and we'll come out and take their order in person.
The fact that our popcorn is quite beloved among our customers has certainly helped, but it kind of dawned on me..... on a normal Saturday night, we might have 80 or 100 or more people in the theatre, but there are several THOUSAND people in our vicinity, and they're all bored out of their minds, and they're all watching TV and movies, and they all like popcorn. So we've gained a lot of new customers who are now singing the praises of our popcorn to the Facebookverse. We have had people come from up to 60 miles away to get our popcorn!
It's not just popcorn, either... we're selling our entire concession menu. I actually had to order in more supplies, we've been that busy. We ordered some of those "shake-n-share" lids for the popcorn buckets (it doubles as a pass-around bowl) and also some tiny cups with lids so we can give everyone a serving of Flavocol with their corn.
After doing it for 4 weeks, it has not slowed down. So the lesson is, if doing something like this is at all possible for you, and if your locality allows restaurants to offer take-out service, you should definitely think about it. The best part for me is, it gives me a reason to be in the theatre from time to time and kept virus-related depression at bay. And most satisfyingly, it's keeping the bills paid.
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