From: bd@fluent@dartmouth.EDU (Brice Dowaliby)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: PEEVES at MOVIE THEATERS !
Date: 24 Jan 93 13:42:58 GMT
Reply-To: bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU
Distribution: usa
Organization: Fluent Inc., Lebanon NH

spencer@der.Princeton.EDU (S. Spencer Sun) writes:

>In article <BD.93Jan20133213@bd.UUCP>, bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU writes:
>>fontana@cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark Fontana) writes:
>>
>>>(The booth door is always RIGHT NEXT to two big swinging doors that are
>>>unmistakably the entrance to the auditorium!)
>>>
>>>Then later on, I'll be out in the hall doing usher stuff, and some
>>>patrons will walk up to the booth door and start tugging on it,
>>>completely missing the swinging doors right beside it.
>>
>>How can you say with a straight face that the entrance dorrs
>>are unmistakable when it's clear that patron after patron
>>are mistaking them?
>
>I hate to break this to you, but there *ARE* an incredible number of
>stupid people in the world.  I have had people stand in front of a
>marquee (with large easy-to-read numbers) and ask me what time the next
>showing was.

Spencer, your condescension is showing (once again).

Yes, there *are* some stupid people out there, but your example
is a bad one.  Since there is often considerable variance between
the marquee time and the actual starting time, to ask theatre
personel when a movie is going to start is not unreasonable
regardless of how big the sign with the times is.

>Besides those people, there are also the people who think that
>"Everything applies to everyone else except me/us."  We put up crowd
>control ropes to block off access to the auditorium AND close the doors
>while we're cleaning our theaters.  Once, while we were cleaning, with
>about 10-20 people waiting outside, someone walked in.  We politely
>explained that we weren't finished cleaning yet and if they would wait
>behind the ropes we'd be happy to let them in when we were done.  They
>said "Oh, sorry" and went back out.  5 seconds later, repeat, with
>different couple.  And again.  At least 5 different groups of people,
>all of whom were already waiting when we started, walked in while we
>were still cleaning.  You'd think they would notice when the first few
>people went in, then came back out.  You'd think that those people would
>tell them that we were still cleaning.

Oh, so now you expect members of the paying public to do your
job for you?  It's not the responsibility or obligation of
the patrons to tell another patron when you are cleaning.

What you fail to see, for some reason, is that many of the
actions of the paying public which you find objectionable
are actions that we have developed over time to deal with the
lack of consideration of theatre personnel.  Not waiting for
the theatre cleaners to finish, for instance, is IMO a
reaction to having theatre personnel clean a theatre, leave,
and not bother to tell the crowd that it's okay to go in
now.  Instead we wait patiently until some employee happens
to notice us and says with a sneer "that theatres been clean
for five minutes now - you'all can go in".

>Another manifestation of this is people who deliberately walk around (or
>worse, step right over) the crowd control ropes.
>
>None of this really bothers me or the staff, because all we have to do
>is explain one more time that we aren't ready yet.  

Dealing with the public - ain't it a bitch?

>It ought to piss off
>other patrons, because for some reason this particular patron or group
>of patrons thinks that he/she/they are for some reason exempt from
>whatever is holding back everyone else.

Condescension again.  I think you're mis-reading the
situation.

When I used to run a retail store that opened at 6:00
there was almost always someone waiting to go come in
at 6:00.  When it was time to open up I would 
turn on the lights and unlock the door.

The regulars knew this routine, and as soon as I would unlock
the door then they would open it and come in.  But sometimes
people who weren't regulars were there first.  When I unlocked
the door and turned around to head off to the cash register
I would notice that no-one opened the door behind me.  Then
I would turn around, push the door open myself, and say something
like "Good morning, come on in".  On the few occasions that
I didn't notice no-one coming in, I would get all the way
back to the register before I noticed that the people were
waiting politely outside for me to tell them it was okay to
come in.

On dozens of occasions, there would be a stranger first in
line at the door, but the first person through the door was
a regular - it's obvious that the regular reached past the 
stranger and opened the door, since the stranger wasn't doing 
it.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've gone to a
store early in the morning to find a little group of people
outside the door.  I'd reach through them, open the door, and
go inside.  It was clear to *me* that the store was open
and they had spaced out.  Stupid people?  No, just people
being quietly polite.  That doesn't man that I was being
pushy, or inconsiderate, or rude just because I happened to 
actually try the door.

My point is that we have become so accustomed to rude
and inconsiderate treatment be theatre personnel that
we have had to find ways around it.  If the door is 
closed we open it because more often than not theatre 
personnel won't do it for us.  If we as what time a
movie is going to start it's because when there is a delay
in the starting tiome of a movie theatre personnel don't
bother to tell us.

Sorry to go on for so long, but your attitude *really*
bothers me.  I got out of retail because I found my
attitude beginning to approach yours, and I felt that
both the customers and I deserved better than that.