This is a story of one bootlicking employee who was in desperate need of fucking off and minding his own business:

However, just as the movie started, an employee told them to put their snack bags away, the report said. They agreed but the employee apparently insisted on sitting next to them to monitor the snack situation.

A few minutes later, one of the children popped a Skittle he was already holding into his mouth, and quite frankly, all hell broke loose, the women said. The employee started shouting at them, and said that the police would be called unless they left. This is when the children started crying.

“My niece asked nicely: ‘If you’re calling the police, are they going to kill my mum?’” one of the women told the newspaper. “And he laughed at that stage. He looks directly in her face and he said: ‘Yeah, maybe we’ll find out.’

If you work at a cinema (condolences), and you see someone smuggling snacks in, no you didn't.

"many struggling cinemas depend on the sales of pricy food and drink"

Fuck you, what they charge isnt "pricy"

its fuckin exploitative. Its why they ban you bringing in snacks, in the hopes you'll pay 20 dollars for 5 cents of popcorn aind 7 cents of soda.

also, You expect anyone to have sympathy for the theater after

“My niece asked nicely: ‘If you’re calling the police, are they going to kill my mum?’” one of the women told the newspaper. “And he laughed at that stage. He looks directly in her face and he said: ‘Yeah, maybe we’ll find out.’

Bring your own snacks? Believe it or not jail.

We have the best Theatres because of jail

They agreed but the employee apparently insisted on sitting next to them to monitor the snack situation.

Instead of... telling them to take the snacks back out to the car? There's no situation where that isn't weird to me. Were there no other theaters to be cleaned, patrons to be helped, tickets to be sold, anything else, they just have this extra guy with literally nothing else to do but watch this family not eat the food they brought in?

I was planning to see a movie this weekend, but this story just reminded me how greedy and anti-customer that whole industry is.

I hope this cinema (or the chain it belongs to) goes out of business. What a hostile way to treat your customers.

At least it wasn't in the US. Calling the police on someone for anything has a non zero chance of just getting them straight up murdered. So i was happy to see it was in NZ lol

Where I live it is pretty normal to openly bring your own food. You can bring whatever you want. Bring your own ice cream and cheese burgers for all they care.

They do sell some stuff, but its not overpriced.

A few years back, one cinema chain said they were going to stop allowing this. Then their competitor advertised that they still allow you to bring your own food in and then the first cinema chain backed off.

Cinemas: our business model sucks so much we have to sell overpriced food!

So? Just die already. Bye.

I snuck a whole Arby's French Dip into that movie. Carried the au jus cup in my hand and walked right by the staff.

Ask me to leave all you want, but call the police? wtf? That'll be WHY I sneak food in the next time. This time I just needed actual dinner, and y'all don't even sell real food here.

“My niece asked nicely: ‘If you’re calling the police, are they going to kill my mum?’” one of the women told the newspaper. “And he laughed at that stage. He looks directly in her face and he said: ‘Yeah, maybe we’ll find out.’”

My man’s finally flexing the full power vested in him as cinema popcorn popper, and it is glorious!!

So, theater patrons and owners need to get together and tell studios to stop expecting to receive 99% of ticket sales money.

Here is the original posting from New Zealand Herald which has video of the incident (1 of 3 near identical pages, that website is a mess). I searched out the real one because that linked article is just horrible and unnecessary (idk why he felt cool putting "The only things I’m planning to sneak in are sleeping tablets." at the end).

For anyone wanting to get riled up, NZ Herald also has this wonderful little opinion piece from Ryan Bridge (a local broadcaster).

Ryan Bridge is wondering where people’s shame went when it comes to breaking the rules. This is not the most important story that you will hear today, but it grinds my gears. It’s a small, seemingly insignificant event, but I think it speaks to two things that I absolutely hate about the world that we live in right now.

The opinion article is just a shit show from what sounds like a pretty horrible and privileged person.

In rhe UK (at least the part i live in), they dont stop you from bringing your own food in. I think that staff know that no one wants to pay the crazy prices for the food they sell. If i could buy the snacks they sell for the prices that the shops across the road are selling them, then i wouldn't need to go to the shops across the road. Maybe thats not possible for them, maybe they need to find a new revenue stream.

What's the policy on bringing raw materials and making it in the theater? It's not technically outside food and is prepared on the premises.

Thinking a hibachi stove or an electric blender.

Food in general is one reason I haven't been to a theater in decades. I hate listening to the endless crinkle of wrappers, the shoveling in of popcorn, etc. I really don't want to smell the stink of the burger and fries you brought in or the crunching of the bag. It is bad enough when someone brings their smelly meal onto a plane and I have to smell it for an hour.

I like movies and I like the atmosphere at my local cinema. I'm going there almost every week. Most of the time I bring my own snacks. I think they just ignore me because I'm like...their best customer, lol. :D

I do order a drink every time. But eating popcorn or nachos every week sounds like a nightmare, and that's all they have there.

It is standard policy in New Zealand for cinemas to ban food brought in from outside and the Herald reported that Cinema 3 has five signs posted around the premises stating this.

“The exact wording is: ‘No outside food or drinks allowed’,” the cinema’s operations manager, Robert Greig, said, the paper reported.

Thus, once again, one of the oldest arguments in the world has been pushed back into the limelight: should you be allowed to take your own snacks into the cinema?

private businesses can do what they want. But the prices they charge for food is outrageous. So i just dont go to those places. For the cost of a few movies and snacks now, you could buy your own large screen TV and surround system that will annoy your neighbors if thats what you need.