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Get It
Yourself!
Self-serve reduces lines
and increases sales.
What's not to like?

by Anne Gilbert

Consumables: the cinema operator’s best friend. Concession counters provide strong profit margins and — because there are easier things than getting through a 152-minute Martin Scorsese epic without snacking material — reliable demand.

Little wonder then that exhibitors remain vigilant in their search for ways to serve more items to more customers with less labor.

Self-serve has been on the rise at the box office for years, with automated kiosks and online ticketing systems helping to reduce lines and move the customers into their auditoria more efficiently.

Incorporating some degree of self-serve or automation into a concessions operation can have the same effect of lessening transaction time and line-lengths. But is a single change in they way a concession stand operates – a change that simultaneously lessens labor requirements, reduces patron wait-time and meets with customer approval – too good to be true?

Not according to the exhibitors already utilizing it.

Pouring Patrons
At 5-year-old Phoenix Theatres, a Michigan-based circuit planning to open its third site later this year, the soda fountain has always been the domain of the customer. “We determined right off the bat that we were not going to have any soda machines behind the register,” says Phoenix co-owner Cory Jacobson.

The circuit’s Pepsi fountains – along with the straws, napkins, condiments and other grab-and-go essentials – are all situated outside of the candy stand. A thirsty patron still heads to the counter, but the cinema employee hands over only an empty cup – the moviegoer gets his ice and soda directly from the fountain.

Jacobson cites a late 1990s study on concessions transactions in numerous industries that indicated that the time spent by an employee pouring a soda could account for upwards of 30 percent of the total transaction time. Still more time elapses as the patron grabs napkins, inserts a straw and gathers his belongings, impeding the customer behind him. Having the customer pour his own soda, says Jacobson, greatly increases the number of patrons an employee can serve in an hour’s time.

“In my opinion, it dramatically increases our per capita, because we’re waiting on a lot more customers a lot faster,” says Jacobson. “Concessions is a very, very time-sensitive business. If someone walks into a theatre and there is a big line at the candy stand, they are going to just walk around the candy stand and go straight to the movie and forget about us.”

Jacobson also cites a more time-honored method of self-serve as a boon to his concession income – vending machines. Glass-front machines, offering a view of all selections, have provided Phoenix a line-free, labor-free way to serve a wide variety of juices, energy drinks and waters to patrons who do not usually purchase fountain drinks.

For what it has done for Phoenix’s bottom line, Jacobson says, “We will never open a site that does not have self-serve sodas.”

More Than Drinks
San Antonio-based Santikos Theatres is a similar convert to the benefits of self-service soda. Since recognizing the effect it has had on both line-speed and concessions revenue, the circuit has converted all of its seven sites to offer self-serve beverages. Three new Santikos facilities slated to open within the year will employ the same strategy.

“It saves us a ton in payroll and cuts down the lines drastically,” says Richard Cieplechowicz, Santikos’ director of operations. “It cuts down on transaction time, and that’s letting us cut down on staff. Our new theatres are being built with probably 20 percent fewer registers, and our service is still probably faster than our competition.”

When Santikos recently added six new screens to its existing Mayan multi, it had already grown so impressed with its self-serve soda operations that it also added a new kind of concession stand that offered more.

“From popcorn, drinks, hot dogs, nachos, pizza, the customers grab them all themselves and go to the cashier,” Cieplechowicz says. “It’s a test site; we wanted to see how it would work.”

Using the broader self-serve model has also allowed the circuit to offer its patrons a greater variety of goods. “We’re able to put out things like funnel cakes, hamburgers, things like that, where customers can just grab and go. The lines are also a lot shorter, so they are able to get in and out faster.”

Though the company does not yet have a complete year’s worth of numbers, the Mayan’s expanded self-serve operation looks good to Santikos so far. “Our per-cap is very strong there, and it’s continued to increase a little bit,” says Cieplechowicz. And while new sites slated to open in the next year will all have more traditional concession stands with self-serve soda, those plans were drawn a while ago. “Going forward, we’re really going to be looking at the self-serve concession stand.”

One-Stop Shopping
Moore Theatres in Michigan is similarly enthusiastic about the benefits of self-service. It first considered the idea when the circuit acquired a new plex that did not have room for both a conventional concession stand and a box office.

The result is a one-stop shop for both tickets and food items. “The candy, popcorn and soft drinks are all served without the employee moving at all,” says circuit president Carol Moore, because candy is in a lateral file behind the counter and popcorn and soda containers are both sold empty for patrons to fill themselves. “Other things – hot dogs, caramel corn, ice cream, et cetera – we try to get it so it’s all within two or three steps.

“Our goal is to make change once, not have people stop twice, and have everyone first in line for concessions,” Moore says. “Our goal is to never have a line.”

Though it started as a space-saving experiment initially, the move to self service at the concession stand has been a tremendous boon to Moore’s income. “It cut own our costs dramatically, because you can serve more items per person – in other words, more drinks, more popcorn per hour of employee labor.”

“But it’s not only had a positive impact [on our concessions revenue],” she adds. “I think it’s caused people to come to the theatre because of the elimination of lines. I think it makes the theatre much friendlier to customers.”

Mechanical Cashier
Another option for implementing some self-service concessions is to keep all of the food service behind the counter, but move the ordering-taking to an ATM-like device. Radiant Systems is largely in the business of automated box office kiosks that provide advanced ticketing and credit card ticket sales, but their systems have an added feature. “Customers are then presented with options to purchase concessions,” explains Brian Whitney, Radiant director of business development.

Radiant’s systems allow customers to order from menus as traditional or as expanded as the cinema operator chooses. When the transaction is completed, the customer receives a receipt with a bar code and order number, and “all of those orders are fed to a prep monitor behind the concessions stand, much like you’d have at a fast food restaurant,” says Whitney.

From there, customers go directly to a designated line at the concession stand where their receipt is scanned and their food order awaits them. “It basically cuts down on their wait time,” says Whitney, “which is the number one reason why people don’t buy concessions.”

In addition to cutting down on customer wait time, Radiant’s kiosks allow some added advertising opportunities, offering a means by which exhibitors can pair with other companies, such as beverage manufacturers, to feature a product at the point of sale. Cinema operators can also highlight their own food combos to increase sales.

“We’ve actually seen on average, in our initial testing, a little bit more than a 5-percent uptick in per capita spending,” states Whitney. “In addition to the per cap, customers are more likely to order and likely to order more products.”

It Takes All Kinds
The broadest use of the term “self-serve concessions” encompasses much. AMC Theatres’ self-serve condiment counters allow moviegoers to add their own popcorn butter. Some Regal Entertainment Group facilities offer bulk candy bins and bags that patrons can fill themselves. These amenities offer the self-serve benefits previously discussed, and give customers the ability to prepare their food just the way they like it.

At The Grove 14-plex in Los Angeles, Pacific Theatres has incorporated several ideas into its concession operations. Its condiments and popcorn toppings are available at self-serve counters, and so are its soda fountains. Further, the plex makes use of the ATM-like mechanical cashiers, which allow patrons to pay by cash or credit card; patrons then listen for a concession attendant to call the order numbers assigned them by the machine.

Century Theatres, recently merged with the sprawling Texas-based Cinemark chain, has also been using self-serve options at their concessions stands. In addition to stations offering full service for all traditional concession items, Century makes it possible for patrons to serve themselves soda, candy, bottled drinks and ice cream and proceed directly to the cashier.

Potential Pitfalls
“The fear was always that we would increase our syrup usage, that customers would come out of the auditorium all the time and keep re-pouring their sodas,” acknowledges Phoenix’s Jacobson.

Not everything about self service is better right off the bat. “One of the biggest risks you are going to have as an operator is an increase in costs,” explains Radiant’s Whitney. “Potentially, you’re going to have some loss due to people basically shoplifting concessions items.”

“It hurts the yields,” Santikos’ Cieplechowicz concurs. “When kids are able to grab, they are spilling, they are touching things they shouldn’t. There is a lot more waste involved in a self-serve concessions stand.”

But Whitney also points out that “with any new marketing technique, there are going to be risks and benefits,” and that loss can be minimized with well-placed staff and an up-to-date inventory tracking system.

“One of our original thoughts was that people would not purchase large sizes,” says Jacobson, but “the percentage of drink sales – small, medium and large – has really remained unchanged from when we were pouring them for the customers.

“The customers don’t want to get up in the middle of the movie and make the trek to the lobby to pour a refill. They think the movie is going to be two hours, they still want a large cup to sit there and watch the film.”

One potential downside that never manifested at all, says Jacobson, was a negative reaction from customers, thanks to the prevalence of self-serve soda fountains in fast food restaurants and convenience stores. “I think customers almost expect that this is going to happen,” states Jacobson. ”I honestly think that they prefer it.”
The advantage, say proponents of self-serve, is that when customers gain control over their preferred level of ice, the ability to mix fountain drinks and — sometimes — even refills, it improves their experience at the concession stand.

Exhibitors are warned that added attention must be paid to the self-serve areas, as theatre patrons are not always the tidiest of creatures. “It can get messy,” says Jacobson, “but it’s all contained in one area.”
Whitney also points out that, with self service, cleanliness can be about more than simply appearances, as “things like spilled butter can lead to serious slippage issues.”

And, of course, converting a traditional concession operation to include a self-serve option requires some initial capital. “You can reduce your labor,” says Whitney, “you can reduce your terminals, but you have a lot of investment in infrastructure.”

Cost Versus Benefit
Is self-serve for your cinema?

“In a theatre that’s not being remodeled, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Cieplechowicz says of converting concession operations to self-serve. “It’s not the easiest thing to do.”

“It takes less space,” Moore remarks of her circuit’s box office/self serve concessions hybrid arrangement. “It takes more equipment behind you, but it takes less space. You do have to invest a little, but we found it not to be difficult at all.”

Radiant’s self-ordering systems do not necessarily require a large outlay of new equipment, says Whitney. “It’s a very light configuration change – you may want to add the scanners [at the registers] and you may want to add the kitchen monitor, but you don’t necessarily have to add either of those. And it’s the easiest thing in the world to just remove one or two registers off the [concession] stand to create a VIP lane.”

“We don’t see a problem with any theatre we are in today being able to retrofit some level of concession ordering at kiosks,” he adds, “because we think that’s the key to drive additional revenue with very, very minimal cost.”

“We have had to change things as we’ve gone along,” acknowledges Moore, “but all of our changes have been to facilitate speed of service. There haven’t been any downsides that we’ve felt were worthy of giving [self serve concessions] up.”

Way of the Future?
“Smaller chains are often more nimble and able to act a lot quicker than the larger national chains,” Whitney says of the current trend he sees towards self-serve concessions. “It’s a lot easier to make a change when you have five or seven or eight sites than when you have 500, even if it’s just a pilot program. But we are definitely starting to see more of this pop up with the larger and larger chains.”

“I’d recommend trying self-serve soda if you haven’t, and see what people say,” says Moore. “And you’ll move right into everything else when you do.”

Jacobson is just as confident in the lasting benefits of self serve, at least at the beverage stand: “It is truly something that, in my opinion, would help anyone’s business. It increases sales simply because of the fact that you do not have as much congestion at the candy stand.”