Allowed to take food and drink into Cineworld cinema

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A few weeks ago I went to see Cloud Atlas at Cineworld with a few friends, we had seen some trailers on the internet and it looked great. Following a recent TV documentary I watched, it had criticised some cinemas and stopping people who had brought their own food and drink in. I'm not entirely aware of most cinema rules but I know they should not disallow you to bring your own food and drink.

Anyway we went to ASDA, bought some chocolate, pop and popcorn before heading to Cineworld. As we showed our tickets to the woman before proceeded to head to our screen before she stopped us saying "I don't think your allowed to take those (indicating our carrier bags) into the cinema." Being the only person who watched the doc in the first place I began to argue with her saying as long as it was in see through bags without alcohol or hot food we were allowed to take them in. After this I demanded to speak to her manager who finally agreed with us and allowed us to take them in - with the other staff saying behind us "We didn't know".

We fought to see one of the greatest movies I have ever seen and we won! :biggrin:

power to the people! :wink:

ha now I can just imagine an angry student with an asda bag arguing with cineworld staf haha :tongue:

its cool what u did though :biggrin:

Reply 21

Runninground

Original post by Gladbags2012

There is a clever ploy/marketing strategy they use at thr pic and mix stand.
They innocently state that its £5 for 100g for example. Now they know that most people havent a clue as to heavy that is without the assistance of scales (which, conveniently for the business, they do not supply for customers to use. Just scales behind the counter for the staff to use when paying) and so most people will go way over the estimate and end up paying a fortune for five jelly snakes for example.

However, just to make sure that thr business maximises sales from the stand, you can observe that typically the paper bags and tongs are low down so your darling kiddies are tempted to fill their bag to the brim with sweets that will cost a fortune at the till! I kid you not.
All those, chocolatly, chewy, jelly, colorfuly sweets...how can kids resist!
The businesses were rubbing their hands when they came up with that ploy!

Yep. The bags are also quite big too, so you fill it up to what you think looks reasonable and you end up having 400g instead of 100g! (100g probably barely covers the bottom of the bag)

Then once you're at the till and you've been told your bag of pick a mix costs £24, you're too embarrassed to walk off without paying or asking if you can put some back ("No, you can't put them back sir, it's against hygiene rules. You'll have to purchase them I'm afraid")

Reply 22

study beats

i stuff all the food inside my jacket and head into the cinema screen, i was never questioned for my sudden decrease in obesity when walking out after finishing the film

Reply 23

SebMurphy

I always try to be at least a little discrete when I smuggle snacks into the cinema. I'm all for avoiding cinema prices for food, but there's no reason to be brazen about it.

Reply 24

H0ls

My boyfriend always questions me on why I always carry an oversized handbag to the cinemas... he soon shuts up when I reveal my own mini feast. To be fair, the cinema by me used to do some good deals. Large popcorn and Large Drink were both refillable, although the original cost was pretty high, haha.

Reply 25

welshmun

Original post by CasualSoul

power to the people! :wink:

ha now I can just imagine an angry student with an asda bag arguing with cineworld staf haha :tongue:

its cool what u did though :biggrin:

Haha stock up on those plastic bags :P

Reply 26

F1's Finest

Original post by Gladbags2012

People surely know how heavy 100g is roughly. Even though 100g is nothing for sweets!

Reply 27

CasualSoul

Original post by welshmun

Haha stock up on those plastic bags :P

totally

Reply 28

Z-6H820

Original post by Gladbags2012

ok people go on about how its expensive to buy food at the cinema, but what you don't realise is that the cinema doesnt make much money/ profit from showing the films and the film itself is costly to buy.

Thus they have to cover costs/ overheads of running such a business (wages, electricity, upkeep, maintenance etc...) by ramping up the prices of tickets, food etc. Popcorn they buy costs peanuts, but in order to make a profit and cover costs of running such an establishment, they sell it at an overinflated price.

Just like when people complain about motorway service stations being expensive, there is a reason for it being so; by law, services have to be open 24/7, thus ramps up the running costs of these establishments (staff, wages, electricity etc...) and the fact they are generally based rurally means transporting costs are pricey too. Also, it covers the price of using their 'free' carparks, loos, showers and so on.

It's a good point, but surely it's better to charge less and people might buy it more often? I remember buying a bag of Minstrels, just the average size I'd expect to pay 75p for or something. £5!! I was too embarrassed to leave it when I realised, but I never bought anything in the cinema ever again. If it had been £2, I'd have gone "jeez that's expensive" but would have probably still bought it the next 10 times I went to the cinema. Though, maybe I'm the odd one out and loads of people buy the food there, I just can't stomach how much I'm being ripped off by :tongue:

Reply 29

deedee123

I've never been stopped before, I do at least try and conceal it though.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 30

Tiger Rag

Original post by Gladbags2012

One of the local cinemas charges up to £9 to see a 2D film. I find it hard to believe that given the prices and the size of the cinema, they don't make that much money.

Reply 31

Etoile

Original post by OU Student

One of the local cinemas charges up to £9 to see a 2D film. I find it hard to believe that given the prices and the size of the cinema, they don't make that much money.

I'm going to see Les Mis tomorrow at my local cinema (Vue). Clearly this has been out for some time so they can't be trying to capitalise on the novelty still and they must have definitely covered costs of buying the film; it costs £9.45 for an adult, £7.55 for a teen and £7.10 for a child (12 or under) or senior. :eek:

It's just ridiculous, how can anyone afford to pay that plus then another £5 or so for popcorn :redface:

Reply 32

Tiger Rag

Original post by Etoile

It's just ridiculous, how can anyone afford to pay that plus then another £5 or so for popcorn :redface:

I was talking about Vue cinema too. If I go to Reel, which is much smaller and the selection of films is generally smaller, I've never paid more than £5.20 for a film. If I watch a 2D film, I pay £3.40 and to watch a 3D film is £4.50. But it depends what day it is and what time of day I go.

Reply 33

consumed by stuff

i ate a whole box of white magnums through lawless.

Reply 34

Etoile

Original post by OU Student

That's pretty cheap :yy:

Our only other cinema is Odeon which for me is £7.25 for a 2D film and £10.25 for a 3D one, but you have to get a special shuttle bus out there because it's not in town and it's a hassle -__-

Reply 35

username963570

only time i ever tried this was at Cineworld when watching inbetweeners movie - sneaked in a KFC :colone:

Reply 36

Linnerzx

Original post by welshmun

A few weeks ago I went to see Cloud Atlas at Cineworld with a few friends...

Hello Everyone, I work at Cineworld. We used to have the policy where nobody was allowed to bring in ANY food or drink that wasn't purchased in the cinema itself, however the managers told us that if it was just sweets/drinks not to push it because we could be turning away a lot of potential customers.

A couple of months ago this policy changed to just hot food, such as McDonalds, Pizzas, etc, because they do smell and it annoys other people (and everyone leaves a total mess afterwards!!) I don't know if this is for all Cineworlds, but definitely the one I work in. But most people should be fine just to bring in their own stuff! Because, yes, we are aware of how god damn expensive it is.

Original post by Runninground

Then once you're at the till and you've been told your bag of pick a mix costs £24, you're too embarrassed to walk off without paying or asking if you can put some back ("No, you can't put them back sir, it's against hygiene rules. You'll have to purchase them I'm afraid")

Any reasonable member of staff would let you take out as much pic'n'mix as you needed at the till point so that we can weigh it for you until it is at a price you are willing to pay. The pic'n'mix that you take out gets put in the waste, we wouldn't force anybody to buy pic'n'mix just because they've touched it :/ Also, I feel everyone is exagerrating the prices of this. It's about £1.40 for 100g, not a fiver, and in order for you to spend £24 that's a hella lot of sweets!!

Also, Cloud Atlas is a great film :smile:

Reply 37

Norton1

Original post by Linnerzx

I spent 8 quid on pick and mix once. I felt quite ill after.

Reply 38

username991125

Vue cinemas also have the rule of no hot food allowed, but sweets are fine :smile:

I've walked in with a costa Coffee in my hand too.

Odeon had a security check once and that's when I stuffed my bag with krispy kremes and all these cakes from tesco lol. They looked at it, checked for knives or something, and then let me go in. So I've never had a problem with taking food into cinemas!

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Reply 39

Yellow_Watermelon

Original post by welshmun

A few weeks ago I went to see Cloud Atlas at Cineworld with a few friends, we had seen some trailers on the internet and it looked great. Following a recent TV documentary I watched, :biggrin:

What was the name of the documentary?