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I'm reading and seeing about the effects of the increasing popularity of low carb diets. Hardee's recently introduced some low carb burgers and other restaraunts are scrambling to offer similiar fare. Have any of your customers asked for something low carb or sugar free? Do you think this diet craze will have any impact on our concession sales?

A few of my patrons have asked for sugar-free candy, but I have not seen any negative impact on my sales figures.

I want to try that diet, but I seldom cook for myself and eat out regularly. There is no place in this town that serves low-carb faire.

Hey Burney!

Get his book and it will tell you what the low carb foods are. Most restaurants will customize your order. For example, I ordered a cheese omlette recently but instead of hash browns I asked for cottage cheese and they obliged. I've been on the diet for three months and have lost 25 pounds. Eventually you will need to add carbs to the diet but you will have learned the difference between "good" carbs and "bad" carbs.

If anyone considers stocking sugar free candy look for stuff sweetened with Splenda. Then you won't have to worry about the adverse effects of Aspertame (sp?) or cancer causing ingredients in saccarine. Splenda is made from sugar but has no calories and is good for diabetics.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

While 'giving the public what it wants' is the basic policy of all exhibitors, one must be judicious in offering anything that is not a standard, time-proven food. The suggestion to offer anything with SPLENDA or any other artificial sweetner is a calculated risk, especially if no standard sugar-based products are also offered. It would be nice if every new "scientific" product to come down the pike were the panacea we hope it to be, but, alas, that is NOT the case! Go to www.Google.com and type in the word 'splenda' and you will get many warning sites on its first page which will tell of its dangers -- many very little known. Unfortunately, you cannot depend upon the government to clear any product of dangers, nor to back you up in the event some idiot decides to sue you for millions in health care costs ever since the time years ago that they bought some artificially-sweetened product at your place; if it is 'proved' that a health-related problem exists with some product you offered, the government will hide from helping you, and the lawyers will smell a new cause celeb to fatten their check books at the expense of exhibitors too small to effectively fight them!

It may seem obvious that adults should be able to select what is best for themselves and then live with the consequences, but in our litigious society there is always someone who is looking for supposedly "deep pockets" to sue to get money. McDonalds reportedly spent some 5 million dollars defending itself in the famous 'coffee spill' case, so even if you are determined by a court not to be blameworthy in anyone's ill health from your selling a sugar substitute, the costs of defending yourself can easily bankrupt you -- even if you do 'win'! Offer whatever you like, but be aware that there are some 'activists' out there who will relish doing legal ill to you if you buck them. It's a tricky and nasty world out there; be careful! (though I must admit that I wonder when someone will decide that the popcorn flavorings are carcinogenic, and it will be a legal free-for-all.)

How about offering "Slim Jims" or beef jerky. I also am on Atkins, I went to the movies last month, ordered a diet soda and a slim jim (however I had more snacks in my purse because I didn't know what they would offer).

Slim Jim's is an interesting idea. I've done a bit of investigating some alternatives. The idea of offering a couple of items for special diets is a good one. Any other suggestions?

Sobe used to manufacture some delicious hard candies and I think a few soft which were completely natural.

You might look into that...I heard a suggestion a while back while preparing a base menu for my own theater.
Trailmix or salted peanuts (out of the shells of course) or perhaps corn nuts, although I think the crunching of corn nuts could be almost as annoying during dialog as nachos...But hey, nachos do great anyway, right?