It’s the theatres’ right to control food and drink brought in from the outside. This has pretty much been the norm with any business that serves food and drink as their main source of income.
This guy has a social problem. Millions of people live with diabetes and would never consider bringing fresh strawberries into a theatre. Likewise, it’s kinda “uncouth” to bring a sack of hamburgers and a 2-litre into a theatre or restaurant.
I and others of my generation wouldn’t dare try to rob the theatre of its profits, but some people today would. Guess they want to always be the “victim” and make the theatre manager look like the bad guy for enforcing the rules of his establishment. I always expected to pay higher prices for food at bought at the theatre. That’s why as a kid mama always told me “be sure and eat before you go to the picture show”. That folks, is the way we were raised when GOD blessed America.
Too bad drive-in theatres don’t exist any more. This guy would have loved them. He could have sneaked a full-course meal and the chef who prepared it into the drive-in in the trunk of his car. If it was half-price night and he would have had the satisfaction of saving even more.
Being diabetic is a poor excuse for his actions. It is a serious condition that does not need to be abused by the MSM and someone with social issues. I would not wish this condition on my worst enemy.
The strawberry-stashing father of three tried to explain his disease, but “they didn’t seem to care,” he said, so he asked a manager to refund his $12 ticket. When the manager refused, he stuffed his snack back in the bag and took a seat in the theater, he said.
Yes, IMO the theater manager probably should have given the guy a refund. OTOH, it is pretty common knowledge that movie theaters do not allow you to bring in food from the outside. This is nothing new or unusual. Theaters don’t make all that much off the movie ticket, they make most of their profits from the concessions, yes the way over priced concessions so that is why I have something to eat before the movie or go out to eat afterward or at most might share a bag of popcorn with my friends.
But then for whatever reason the manager had for not refunding the ticket (who knows why; company policy, the movie was too close to starting or had by then started to issue a refund, the movie customer was already acting belligerent?), the guy instead of giving up the strawberries, stashed them in his bag and took his seat anyway and that is where the customer was also wrong. Of course I think calling the cops was over the top but then we also only have this guy’s word for what transpired before that happened.
And why should they, the movie theater “care about his disease”? How are they to know if the guy really is diabetic or just scamming them because he just prefers to bring in food from home? I guess anyone could claim some type of special food need in that case. I could claim I have to eat Kosher, I have to stick with my paleo diet plan or I only eat free range organic tomatoes..….I have a popcorn allergy (and in which case, should I be able to insist that no popcorn be allowed in the theater I’m in?)
What does this guy do if he goes to a restaurant that doesn’t serve fresh fruit to his liking? Does he bring in his own? Do you think a restaurant also has the right to say, “no you can’t do that”?
FWIW, my dad was an insulin dependent diabetic and he often carried a few small hard candies in his pocket in case his insulin level dropped too low. However I don’t recall him ever having to use them. Why? Because he understood how to manage his disease. He planned ahead and ate at regular intervals and if he was going to have to go without food for more than a few hours, he’d adjust his insulin or take it a bit earlier or later than normal, eat a bit more, etc.
From what I know about diabetes, if this guy couldn’t sit through a two hour movie without having to eat fruit, it sounds to me like he’s not learned how to manage his diabetes very well, or doesn’t care to, but insists that others bend the rules to accommodate him.