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.
Yes, the manager could have given him a refund and the incident would have been avoided.
About diabetes, what you stated is correct. Since he was not insulin dependent, I doubt he was going low. If he was, he could carry glucose tablets to counteract that condition.
On the other hand, he should have had his blood sugar under control before going into the theatre. Diabetics must watch the carbohydrates, not so much the calories, of what they eat to control their condition. Carbohydrates raise the blood sugar and insulin produced in the pancreas lowers it. Cells must have insulin to efficiently consume glucose from the blood, otherwise glucose remains in the blood at higher than normal levels for too long a period of time.
It’s a shame the general public knows so little about what diabetes really is and is not.