Work, work, work. It's real, it's fun, but it's not real fun. Have been managing concession for a couple art house movie theaters. Spend too much time rebuilding Paragon poppers. Today was the big meeting addressing the age old question... "Why are our per caps so low?" Over the past year the ten screens have averaged only $1.60 per ticket in concessions spending. Pretty awful. In the last couple months it seems pretty obvious to me... Red Zinger Iced Tea and homemade baked goods aren't going to make anybody rich. In point of fact my "list" was a bit more constructive... The Cornelius soda dispenser from Pepsi using premix is slow and expensive and drawing a diet drink takes minutes not seconds. If the theaters don't want to go with bag-in-box, 2 liters pour faster and have a better mark-up than premix. It's all well and good to sell corn for six bucks a bucket, but if you have a dozen extra "flavors" from nutritional yeast to chili powder too much time goes into serving. Half the line melts away waiting while a single customer asks for butter, and yeast, and grated cheese, and "eastern spices" ... all for an additional .50 cents. To date my "nachos" plea had fallen upon deaf ears. Just a bit too unhealthy in community where they would stick to granola bars and apples if they could get away with it. Speaking of which...if "organic" cider sells for $8 a gallon, selling a 16 oz cup for $2.50 doesn't pad teh per cap much either. Anyway...
Driving down Route 13 from Triphammer Road into Ithaca in the rain this afternoon, looking at the first bare trees of the autumn I saw the faded Kelly Miller arrows from July still afixed to a sign post. Chris Beckett knows how to apply tape! And wistfully I realized that soon many shows will be back in winter quarters and I missed most of a circus season. My own fault, that one. Last Saturday Cornell University snapped a ten game losing streak playing grid iron football, rolling over Bucknell. I love college football but it's really, really hard to take the Ivy League seriously. Made me wish Trey Key was nearby to talk about real teams, real schools, with real programs. I suppose I could get excited about Syracuse, but then I'd tear up thinking about the glory days of Jim Brown.
Let this be a lesson. Even a bad day on a circus is better than most good days in town. I already knew that, I just forgot for a while.
Oh, and never, ever convince yourself that Red Zinger makes for a grand iced tea. Stick with the sodas.
Driving down Route 13 from Triphammer Road into Ithaca in the rain this afternoon, looking at the first bare trees of the autumn I saw the faded Kelly Miller arrows from July still afixed to a sign post. Chris Beckett knows how to apply tape! And wistfully I realized that soon many shows will be back in winter quarters and I missed most of a circus season. My own fault, that one. Last Saturday Cornell University snapped a ten game losing streak playing grid iron football, rolling over Bucknell. I love college football but it's really, really hard to take the Ivy League seriously. Made me wish Trey Key was nearby to talk about real teams, real schools, with real programs. I suppose I could get excited about Syracuse, but then I'd tear up thinking about the glory days of Jim Brown.
Let this be a lesson. Even a bad day on a circus is better than most good days in town. I already knew that, I just forgot for a while.
Oh, and never, ever convince yourself that Red Zinger makes for a grand iced tea. Stick with the sodas.
