While at the movies the other day, I noticed a nifty way of getting around those ridiculously exorbitant popcorn prices. Since Andy doesn’t eat popcorn (he’s a Candy Man), it would be fruitless for us to put such a plan into employ, but the next time I’m in a group, it might be worth a shot. There was a trio to our left: a woman and her daughter, and a guy who appeared, by all indications of his over-the-top and overbearing attempts to be funny and loud and gregarious, to be dating the woman and trying out for the role of fun step-father (but only ended up looking foolish, boorish, and idiotic). They had a large popcorn (the size that gets you free refills) and a tray with something else on it (nachos maybe? Who on earth orders nachos at the movies?) He removed the nachos or whatever other foul item that was there, and poured the bulk of his popcorn into the tray. He then went back out to the lobby and refilled it before the movie started. I thought it was an anomaly, until it happened again.
The family to our right, an interracial couple with three kids (and these kids were gorgeous, especially the oldest girl – the magic of an Asian father and a Caucasian mother) also had a large popcorn, then proceeded to produce several large plastic ziplock bags. The father filled the bags with popcorn, and each kid got one of their own. He then went out to get the bucket filled for him and his wife.
Is this what we’re doing now? Is this the only way to combat the ever-rising price of popcorn at the movies? Because I’m game. The only problem is I can barely finish a medium popcorn, much less a large – and much less two large buckets of the stuff. This is the stuff of group enterprises.
By the way, I’ve often wondered this with those free refills: let’s say you finish your large popcorn by the end of the movie – can you then get a refill on the way out? And if so, how come you never see people leaving the theater with full buckets of popcorn? I mean, even if you don’t want to eat it then and there, people will take free shit they don’t need or would ever use simply because it’s free. Just a thought for a Sunday morning.
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