Do guests pay for candy in your theater? (1 Viewer)

The reason I ask this is because I have some relatives who want everything for free.
My Grandmother purchased 10 $1 boxes of candy from The Dollar Tree.
These are huge boxes of candy.
Basically, she paid $10 for the candy.
She says people are going to have to pay $1 for the candy.
I told her some people (relatives especially) will not like that.
One cousin, will say, "Put it on my tab".
If you charge for candy in your theater, how do you handle cheapskates?
My Grandmother also says that if people don't want to pay, she will have to
put empty boxes in the candy counter.
I thought that would make people complain even more if the boxes are empty.
Granny is thinking this way, "They are getting a free movie, popcorn, hot dogs and soda".
She said, "They don't mind paying for a rental from Blockbuster".
I can't wait to see what one particular cousin will say about paying $1 for the candy.

My theater brunch is Sunday.
We do have some free candy.
This is just peppermints and red hot balls.
My Grandmother also says, "I paid for it. I'll just tell them it's mine. If they want any it's $1."

Personally, I know my wife would never let me charge for anything in the theater.

However, it sounds like your grandmother is using the candy as a display, rather than for actually eating. In that case, I think it's perfectly reasonable to say, "The candy isn't for eating, it's a decoration. It's been sitting there for months. If you really want to eat it, I'll have to charge you a buck or two so that I can go buy another display."

Frankly, if my grandmother told me that I couldn't have something or would have to pay for it, I'd glady do it for her. But maybe that's just me.

CW

You know what, I completely forgot.
She wants to use the candy for display purposes and/or use empty boxes.

Charge theatre prices... $6.00 for a box of nibs.

... Or better yet, get a vending machine... no ticky, no laundry.

What bothers me about owning a theater isn't so much the food consumption, but the food disposal. People treat my theater like it's a real theater and leave their cups and what not behind, every time I clean the place I feel like I work at a damn theater for real.

This is a funny thread.. but the sad thing is, I too know people like this..

jim

I think it's kinda rude to insist your guests pay for something. I mean if someone comes over all the time & is just a big mooch than maybe. But in my house when I have friends or family over I tell them to make themselves at home. If you wont a snack or drink or something have at it, just have enough respect not to hoard it all to yourself, & leave a mess afterward.

Catch 22

I think I would feel quite awkward if I had to ask any guests to pay for anything. I'm sure they would feel even more awkward.

I have a few friends who always come over and watch hockey. They always have at least a few beers each but I would never think of asking them to pay for any of it. It would be the same if I had candy in my home theater.

I would just recommend limiting the amount that is displayed. Or maybe buy the mini-size Halloween type chocolate bars.

I hope that helps.

Bobby Bala

Clean-up and overhead go hand/hand with entertaining. Just eat the costs and hope that your friends reciprocate...

I told Granny to buy the mini type candy boxes.
Oh well.
Will let you guys know what happens.

This is Granny's answer.

"You have to know this one set of relatives. They take, take and take. They have more kids than any other family members. They don't want to pay for anything. My thoughts about the candy is, each child would want a different kind of candy and they would open all of the boxes. In the process, the candy would get stale. I have two candy jars filled up with free candy. The candy in the jars are individually wrapped. I put these on the bottom shelf of the concession stand. I also decorated the candy window. So thanks very much for the remarks.
What's a Grandmother to do!"
:frowning:

I told her that I let her know what other messages come from this thread.

Also, I wish I could take a picture of my recently finished bar/concession stand, but my digital camera is broken.

As I said before, she's well within her rights to say, "This candy is off-limits! It's for decoration only, so don't eat it!" Especially true since she says that she has two candy jars that they CAN take candy from.

I don't think she should sell the candy, I just don't think she should let ANYONE eat the candy, money or no money. That way there's no hard feelings.

CW

ChristW,

The info given from my Grandmother is just a rebuttal from what users have said on the www.avsforum.com
I just copied the same info here.

I've been reading this over at AVS, too.... Some funny responses. If I understand you correctly, one of the main reasons is that she wants to keep the stand stocked (for decoration).

I was also worried about this; in addition (probably more importantly), I don't want the candy to go stale. So, I buy 6-8 boxes of candy each time I have a party, then I tell people to save the boxes after they eat the candy. I plan on stacking the empty boxes on the bottom (or toward the back) and only keep 3-4 fresh/full boxes of each type in the front/on top. I think I'll even hot-glue a bunch of empty ones together, so that they stay put.

After a couple parties, you'll have enough empties to stock the counter to make it look full, but only need to keep a dozen or so fresh boxes at any one time.

Whenever we have a movie night at my house, my friends and I usually make a snack run beforehand, or if I'm lucky, they will even bring stuff so I don't have to. Between whoever comes, its usually not too hard to get a few bottles of pop and some chips or popcorn. And likewise when I go over to someone else's place to watch the game or play poker, etc. I try to bring something, that way the host shouldn't have to provide everything.

Glenise-
Why not just tell your relatives to each bring something? Someone bring, soda, someone bring popcorn and someone bring candy. That's the price of admission. People who don't bring what they are assigned stop getting invited. They will get the point soon enough.

Why does your grandmother have any say in this at all? It's only $10 worth. I'd just go out and buy my own candy...problem solved.

Chris Chang,

I respect my Grandmother a lot and she is the only living grandparent that I have left.
Sometimes I just go with the flow so she wont start getting upset.
I dont want her blood pressure to go up.
I didn't have time to look for some mini candy boxes that I wanted.
I'll have to go out and locate some and put those in the concession stand.

I think that as a host you should not charge for anything-- hopefully people will reciprocate, as others have said; perhaps they will have you over in return, or they will bring some snacks/liquor/etc. instead. There will always be relatives/friends who will not, but perhaps you can just invite them less in the future

If your grandmother is really worried about it, you could just remove the candy for the event. I think it would be much better to have nothing to offer than to charge even a little for something at an event you are hosting.

Eric