Happiness at the Concession Stand

So, I mentioned the snowy bad weather we had last Saturday, but I forgot to mention one of the amusing things that happened.

I was working that night at a local theater. When I came in, the house was 86% sold. All of us kind of rolled our eyes and said things like "Yeah well, we'll see how many of them actually show up." Well, Michiganders are a hardy and brave people and weren't about to let some snow storm get in their way - we only had 2 pairs of tickets that weren't picked up. Frankly, that is average even on a regular night. In fact, when the final count was done we were closer to 89% sold - even people without tickets had driven down through the snow to see the show!

Anyway, one of the concession stand folks was out due to the weather. Since she didn't come in, one of my favorite volunteers, a gal named Sandy, had come in to work the counter. She asked if I could find someone to give her at hand at intermission. My luck finding another volunteer was abysmal, so I jumped in to help out. I've done it before and they have simplified things (including pricing) to make the job an easy one. Here's where the funny part comes in...

Sandy and I made bank! We hit a record for this particular show! Now it may have been because Sandy and I were having entirely too much fun behind the counter and people couldn't help but play along. When kids came up and couldn't choose what they wanted - Sandy started counting down. 5 - 4 - 3 - and before 2 the kids quick grabbed their Mike and Ike's with big grins. Me, I picked for them. One young lady couldn't decide between Hershey's, Twix or Starburst - I told her she was a Twix gal and she agreed. The young man who I told needed peanut M&M's also happened to agree with me. What can I say? Maybe I have a natural inclination to pick out people's favorite candies like the woman in Chocolat?

However, I kind of doubt that the reason we did so well in concessions was really because Sandy and I were fabulous, (which we were.) I think it was because of the roads. People had struggled to get down here, now they felt they deserved a little treat. Honestly, I am betting that if the roads had been clear, we would have never sold that much candy. People who would normally be thinking of their diets were grabbing cans of Pepsi and Skittles. In fact, I think you could track the weather and the candy sales on a chart and find that on the really bad days, there will be a regular spike!

I confess, it even happened to me. After my walk home through the snow I was ravenous... so I ordered a pizza. Now, I haven't ordered a pizza for just myself in well over 2 years. If I have it, it is as a social occasion, but that Saturday night I was craving something hot, cheesy and delicious, preferably delivered to my front door. Why?

Because I deserved it.




Photo by: Andy Wilson