Can food not purchased in cinema be taken from a child?

rmelly said:
Any comparison to a restaurant/coffee shop/pub is invalid - supplying alcohol or food is their core business. This is not the case for a cinema.
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That's the thing...I would dispute what you're saying. Food and drink ARE there core business in terms of revenue.
 
John - this may vary from cinema to cinema. I cannot believe that Storm willingly and openly let people in with externally purchased food if it was their core business in terms of revenue. There has to be a distinction and that would be obvious if you walked into ANY restaurant and ate your own food....each and every one would send you packing, not the case with cinemas.

Take the food element away from a cinema and the business can continue....take the food element away from a restaurant and you're left with a building.

John Rambo said:
That's the thing...I would dispute what you're saying. Food and drink ARE there core business in terms of revenue.
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John Rambo said:
That's the thing...I would dispute what you're saying. Food and drink ARE there core business in terms of revenue.
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Strange - when I visit the UCI website, there's only one obvious mention of food (2 sentences on the About Us page). Hardly the coverage I'd expect for a core business.
 
Interesting subject and I would have been livid as well. The cinemas increased their ticket prices and ask for a small bag of popocorn € 6,00. ridiculous! Anyway if it would have happened to me, I would have requested to see their policies (the legal one on paper) and I have the sneaky suspicion that they wouldn't be able to present it to you, highlighting that food brought from home, is not permitted. It's certainly a good case to ask the Consumer Agency.
 
Take the food element away from a cinema and the business can continue....take the food element away from a restaurant and you're left with a building.[/quote]


So are we back to bringing our own wine:)
 
if you don't accept the smoking analogy, then i don't accept the 'bring your own wine' one...
 
I think most people would accept that food and wine go hand in hand and complement each other, despite the fact that not everyone drinks wine (or beer). I don't see my cinema experience being devalued if I don't get my popcorn and drink....I watch more films/TV without food and drink than I do with.

Anyway, I guess my original question is still unanswered, do the cinemas have a legal right to stop you eating your own food in the cinema?

Thanks.

yob said:
Take the food element away from a cinema and the business can continue....take the food element away from a restaurant and you're left with a building.
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So are we back to bringing our own wine:)[/quote]
 
didnt khans balti house in donnybrook used to have a bring your own wine policy? Many restaurants in new zealand have similar byo policies. Might be the way to go what with the recession and all!
 
I'd imagine that the cinema would have to make sure the 'no outside food' rule is highlighted before any booking is made, even when booking online for the rule to be in any way effective.
 
As someone with a medical condition that requires food of the fruit, vegetable, general health variety I have had occasion to remove
it from my back and eat it as similar options were not avaialble for purchase in wherever I was, a cinema being an example.

I was once on an airline when I got told I couldnt eat my own food (for reasons I will never understand as there is no such laws as far as Im aware ..) I explained (calmly and without aggression) the situation and the only option was to eat my own food and then proceeded to eat. it

In reality there isnt really anything they can do, aside from grabbing the food from your hands, so if you dont make a fuss about it and just do it, I cant really see any problem.
Adding to someone else's comments if the cinema is dark I cant really understand how they would even notice.
 
rmelly said:
Strange - when I visit the UCI website, there's only one obvious mention of food (2 sentences on the About Us page). Hardly the coverage I'd expect for a core business.
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If you'd bothered to read through the thread instead of deliberately being obtuse you'd understand the point I am making. Yes it's a cinema and their core business is showing movies. However, when a customer goes to Dundrum today and buys a ticket to see Hancock for €9.60, Colombia Pictures get 70% and Movies at Dundrum get 30%. That's €2.38 for the cinema, which would hardly get you a Cornetto. The majority of their revenue comes from the food sales, and they're entitled to protect that. Either buy the food from them, don't have any food, or don't go at all. Confiscating food temporarily sounds entirely reasonable.
 
I have made numerous posts in the thread, so have been following. The point is I don't accept that it is a core part of the business. Fair enough €2.38 might only buy a cornetto, but there's generally more than one person viewing a film, so this is not particularly relevant.

If you had read all of the posts you'd also realise that there isn't a consistent policy applied by all cinemas - most don't have any notices despite having them for non-smoking, mobile phone usage, prohibition on recording the film, noise etc.

Some posters have stated they have gone to certain cinemas with the food openly visible without being stopped.

The cinemas inability to run its business profitably purely from box office takings and advertising, premium seating, phone/online booking charges is not my problem - until I am explicitly told not to bring my own food and drink I will continue to do so.
 
rmelly said:
I have made numerous posts in the thread, so have been following. The point is I don't accept that it is a core part of the business. Fair enough €2.38 might only buy a cornetto, but there's generally more than one person viewing a film, so this is not particularly relevant
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How is it not relevant? If I go to the cinema today they will make €2.38 from my ticket purchase. I also buy a large combo Coke and popcorn for €8.50 and a Ben & Jerrys Caramel Chew Chew for €3.50. It's pretty obvious what they're main source of revenue is. The point of the thread is whether you think a policy such as this is reasonable...I think it is. People such as yourself are claiming the food side of the business is somehow incidental and that comparisons with cafes or bars are erroneous. When you look at the figures involved you can clearly see the comparisons are fair. By all means continue to bring food into the cinema but respect the cinema's right to tell you you can't do so.
 
Is this food contributing to breaking even and making a normal profit, or 'super profits'?

If it is to make super profits then this argument is not valid - are any of the cinemas public companies whereby we could see their accounts to see how profitable they are?

If the inclusion of food is only allowing them to breakeven, then even if they took 100% of the ticket price with no food sales then they would still not be doing much better, so I suspect they are doing much better than breaking even with food included.

You seem to think they should have a licence to print money, that they can charge whatever they want on the food because they know they have a largely captive market.

but respect the cinema's right to tell you you can't do so
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I don't accept they have this right, unless they explicitly notify patrons of it before they purchase their tickets.
 
I doubt the cinemas could survive on the revenue from ticket sales alone based on a figure of €2.38 per ticket. I would conceed though that for a family on a budget it's an expensive day out. There is another alternative though...don't go.
 
Unfortunately that's the attitude that encourages piracy.

Without any financial details beyond the ticket price breakdown, discussions on breakeven points etc is pure supposition.
 
Cost is not the problem for me - the selection is. I want Evian water, Tayto crisps (especially Bistro) or Burts, nachos with Philadelphia cheese, peanuts, mini Cadburys bars etc. None of these are stocked by either of my local cinemas.
 
OK...so how would you feel about a cinema charging "corkage"? As for the "break even point" it's not rocket science to see that taking away the revenue from food and drink sales would make the business unviable.
 
I can't agree. As I said above we don't have enough information.
 
Your 'assuming' they can't break even without huge markup on food & drink just encourages overpricing.
 
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