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How many employees do you have working in your concession stand on an average weekend evening? How about during the week?

I have been to many theatres that keep such a small number of employees behind the counter that it has to negatively affect their per caps.

Just curious.

4 on the weekends with us or the manager helping fill popcorn and run the popper. 3 if it is a slower movie week. If we have a blockbuster I have an express stand that I run too. It has popcorn, soda and about 4 candies to choose from.

During the week, if we are busy in the summer, 2 normally sometimes 3 on the Harry Potter weeks. In the off season 1 during the week.

5 in the kitchen, 4 cashiers out front, plus 2 to 4 "runners". The runners make popcorn, keep ice bins filled, deliver food orders from kitchen window to customer counter, do stocking, etc. A couple of them are boxoffice trained, and can open another line when needed.

We try to keep the cashiers as close to their tills as possible... keeps the lines moving faster.

BTW... just a thought for you: We never hire new employees for boxoffice cashier. It's not as directly-supervised as the snack bar, is cash-oriented and is our customers' first impression of the staff. It's worked best for us to cross-train from the snack bar when a good employee surfaces.

Oh... add three from the family. Cindy runs the boxoffice, a daughter and I go everywhere.

[This message has been edited by rodeojack (edited August 07, 2007).]

At our single screen theater, which is only open on the weekends, we'll have 4 people behind the counter. This includes 2 people running the registers and taking orders, one person pouring drinks, and one person making and bagging popcorn. If we need to we can get by with 3 people, 2 running the registers, taking orders, and getting their own drinks, and one person making and bagging popcorn. But we found that we can get people through the lobby much faster with someone drawing drinks while the cashier finishes up the order.

we usually have a ticket seller, an usher and a projectionist..on friday, sat, sun we usually have one on candybar as well. When it gets busy we will put 2 on candybar. We have a 3 screen cinema in the country. on weekdays we are open for 7pm and 9pm shows and all day/night on weekends and school holidays. we also have 11am shows on wednesdays and fridays just because thats our delivery days, so we figure if we are there we may as well open, but its so quiet we usually just have the projectionist and the ticketseller.

We have 4 in the kitchen, 3 cashiers + 4 "runners" like Jack calls them. There are times when I have to jump in the kitchen as well.