The Bean Blog

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Dec 27, 2009 In my humble opinion

Yesterday, coming off of our Christmas high, we decided to head to the movie theater for a little Sherlock Holmes.

There are two main movie theaters in town. The one clear across town that is only a couple years old and yet still have the games in the game room don’t work. The theater seats are not all that comfortable. And the popcorn is terrible…unless you enjoy chewing on cardboard that will leave you sitting on the toilet for hours later in the day. [There's a visual for ya. You're welcome.]

We prefer the theater that is not far from our house. It’s older but well taken care of. The seats are nice. The popcorn is yummy. And it’s not usually as crowded.

So we headed over to our favorite theater where my mom and grandma met us. We got out tickets and headed in to the lobby. There are concession stands on both sides of the lobby. But I have never, ever seen both sides open at the same time. Even when it’s busy (like, say, the day after Christmas) they still only have side open. It’s always irritated me, but I’d still rather stand in line for a few extra minutes then have to eat stale popcorn at the other theater.

Yesterday was a particularly busy day. They, of course, only had one side open. But they also only had two people working the concessions. TWO people. Seriously?!? The day after Christmas? The TWO lines weaved through the video games until the people in the back of the line could literally sit on the counter of the concessions on the other side of the lobby. Nice.

We ended up standing in that line for THIRTY minutes. THIRTY MINUTES! For popcorn. But we were willing to do it because a movie just isn’t the same without popcorn and syrupy soda. Plus we brought our buckets.

Our theater had this promotion a year ago where you could buy an Indiana Jones bucket and then every time you brought it back they would refill it for $0.50. About six months after that they had another promotion where you could buy a Jonas Bros bucket and refill it for $1. The Indiana Jones bucket expired in May, but the Jonas Bros buckets are still in use. We have one Indiana Jones bucket and two Jonas Bros buckets. We usually bring all three buckets and then just pay for a large popcorn that they put in to the Indiana Jones bucket. That way we all have a noise-free bucket to eat out off and there’s no fighting.

By the time we finally got up to the stand Lee put all three buckets down. The girl behind the counter said, “This one’s expired.” To which Lee replied, “Yeah, I know. We want to pay for a large popcorn and just put it in this bucket.”

The girl kind of rolled her eyes. I said, “Wow she’s friendly.”

Lee replied, “Well I think she just doesn’t understand what I’m asking.”

Wait for it….

The girl then said with all the attitude her little teenage self could muster, “No. I understood you. It was the way you said it. You didn’t ask me. You just told me.”

I started laughing and said, “Are you kidding me? For real?”

And my mom exploded, “WE’VE BEEN STANDING IN THIS FUCKING LINE FOR 30 MINUTES…” and several more choice words. I was actually very proud of this teenage girl because she didn’t cry while my mom was berating her. I’ve seen grown woman cry when my mom goes off on them before.

I walked over to the ticket office to ask for the manager and my mom followed me. She chewed out some poor teen named Jimmy who said, “I’m not in charge. Do you want me to get the manager?” Yes, Jimmy. It’s probably best you get the manager.

As the teenage girl was finishing up our order, angrily throwing down cups, tossing lids on the floor, and asking through clenched teeth, “Do you want anything else?” I saw Jimmy and the manager coming our way. “Don’t swear at him,” I warned my mom.

Thankfully mom remained calm as she told the manager what had just happened. He offered to give us a free ticket which she declined. It wasn’t about the money. We’re willing to pay for everything, but I sure as hell will not have some 17-year-old girl talk to me like the world revolves around her.

Not once were we rude to this girl. Granted Lee didn’t ask her if she’d be willing to charge us a large and, instead of putting it in a bag, put the popcorn in our bucket. But he certainly wasn’t being snotty with her. He wasn’t telling her what to do. He was ordering. And we go to movies all the time and often use our expired bucket in this way. Never once have any of the workers had a problem with it. And if this particular girl had an issue with it she could have just said, “I’m not sure I can do that.” And we would have been fine with it. She could have just put it in a bag and we would have poured it in to our bucket ourselves.

What happened to customer service these days? At Thanksgiving we were at a local bar downing some half-priced martinis when we got the rudest waitress I’ve ever experienced. How do these people get jobs? If you aren’t a people person. Fine. I’m not either. But don’t work a job that deals with people if you can’t even fake a smile. Go do data entry or something. But please get out of the service industry before I have to bitch slap you. I’m just sayin.

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Tags: movie, movie theater, popcorn, rude employee, rude waitress, Sherlock Holmes