Theatres shouldn’t sell crisps at the interval

[wayoutinthewater]

AIBU to think it’s crazy to not just sell crisps in a theatre but for them to sell kettle chips (ie the MOST NOISY CRISPS EVER) and to allow them into the auditorium?

I spent the first half of the play listening to the people next to me chatting and the second act to them crunching their way through a bag of noisy crisps.

It was so distracting that I ended up musing about how Shakespeare would have got on with a packet of golden wonder, rather than concentrating on the play.

“Shall I compare thee to a packet of salt and vinegar?
Thou art so tart and seasoned”

Or perhaps he’d have written a play, “The crunching of the crisp packet”, “Maccoy” or “A Midsummers Night Snack”.

To be honest, I think the people were just inconsiderate but if the theatre didn’t sell crisps they couldn’t have bought them at least.

*in the interests of not drip feeding, I’m hearing impaired and my hearing aids magnified their crunching/rustling. We were in the “accessible” part of the theatre.

I'm surprised to hear this. I go to the theatre regularly, and have never seen crops on sale. It's always ice cream.

Are you sure the theatre goers didn't get them from a local shop?

Yanbu to be annoyed by people eating noisy food during a play.

They seemed to buy them in the theatres cafe. They were getting A LOT of glowers from our section. I get people like a packet of crisps with their sandwich but for goodness sake, either ask them when you sell them not to take them into the theatre or don’t sell them at the interval.

I have never seen/heard this in any other theatre and I also go fairly regularly.

I have never gone to a theatre that sells crisps, and allows people to bring them into the auditorium. YANBU to find this strange and annoying.

To be honest I am shocked every time I go to the theatre these days at just how much food and drink is taken in.

Back in the day it was an ice cream at the interval and that was your lot.

The lady also had a water pouch made of plastic which she decanted something (berocca? Gin? Asprin? We’ll never know) into and shook vigorously (and loudly) before drinking.

I was trying to decide if I’ve somehow become a theatre snob but it would seem on this occasion IANBU.

Yanbu. It’s revolting.

It’s not so much revolting as hugely irritating. And inconsiderate. I’d ban anything bar drinks from the theatre...

Well I’m revolted

YANBU I barely go to the cinema or theatre anymore due to so many people equating watching a show with stuffing their faces. I don't like the sounds of crunching and swallowing, rustling sweets packets etc so I won't shell out money for an event I can't enjoy in peace

I'm convinced even if a show was as short as 1 hour, gluttons wouldn't be able to get through it without eating

I really don't care 'munches combo of crisps, popcorn and slurps ice cream'

YANBU.

I also hate the widespread practice of having alcohol in the auditorium now and even having drinks delivered to people’s seats. I work in a profession related to theatre and have seen a sharp correlation between growing poor behaviour from audience members and alcohol consumption during the show. When I’ve been sat in the audience, it gradually starts to smell more and more like a brewery by the time we get to the end! I’ve had wine and beer knocked over into my handbag or coat on a number of occasions and when I was sat in the gods at Hamilton, a tipsy woman in the row above poured her entire glass of red wine all over my cream outfit because she was struggling to cope with the steep angle of the rake and being drunk as she made her way back to her seat. She didn’t even apologise, she just found it really funny.

I genuinely don’t understand the incessant need to constantly be eating or drinking in our society now. Like previous posters, I remember when you’d get an ice cream at the interval and that was it. I’m relatively young too! It’s not just the theatre either...I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been commuting by train early in the morning and the person next to me has whipped out a six pack of lager and cracked open a can, or watched fellow travellers down a pint or two with breakfast at the airport who have gone on to spend an 8 or 10 hour flight boozing and going back and forth to the galley for more drinks and snacks. It’s like some sort of dependency that can’t be healthy but is being totally normalised.

I paid £££ to have a good seat to see Wicked recently. Woman behind me crunched her way through family pack Kettle crisps then popcorn. I was fuming as it affected my enjoyment of the show. She clearly thought she was stacking a movie st home. I was ill and in A & E two weeks ago (am fine now) and I once again I was stuck next to a woman eating family pack of crisps. The smell was awful. I had already been sick! It was a big bag so she took her time!!

I thought I was the only one. We went to see inspector calls and these people turned up late so we had to get up then they proceeded to eat every noisey food they could find. And then talk. I was fuming.
I just don’t get it.

Much Ado About Crunching

The Taming of the Chew

Hate the sound of all the slurping and munching going on all around me in the theatre, but to be honest I think the mobile phone thing is far worse.

Ugh, it is the worst. I am incredulous about the need to eat at performances. Eat before going in, during the interval, or after the curtain call. It is massively irritating and disrespectful to other audience members and the performers.

And the talking makes me so angry. It is getting so bad lately as well. I wish ushers would react to it more.

I feel like such a theatre snob, but it has begun to put me off going, and I love theatre. I just hate spending the money for the ticket and then having the experience ruined by people eating sandwiches, noisy sweets, being on their phones or talking to their companions like they are at home in private and not in an auditorium.

You are definitely not being unreasonable. Rant over.

Wasn't at the theatre recently, but was at the cinema.

People right behind us were rustling plastic sweet bags, people two or three rows in front were too. We (6 of us) all had pick and mix in paper bags, I opened the bags wide before film started and warned the boys not to rustle during the film or they'd get their sweets removed (they'd get a warning and if it didn't stop they'd lose them.)

Rustling during adverts from us and neighbours you live with, but at start of film we stopped rustling, neighbours didn't. I passive aggressively gave a big sigh and gave my bag a decent rustle. People in front took the hint and stopped rustling, other bits of noises around about abated! Yay.

Became aware rustling directly behind hadn't stopped, and worse, our 11 yr old son was rustling. After a few rustles I leaned over towards ds and said, in a rather loud whisper, "I said if there's rustling during the film I'd take your sweets off you, there are other people trying to hear the film too." He stopped rustling, people behind stopped rustling. I sat back and smiled smugly, happy I didn't have to directly ask the people behind to STFU. But depending on what sweets they had I might have wanted to confiscate theirs for myself.

It is really inconsiderate making noise in the theatre/cinema, but I think this is a symptom of how a lot of people are the rest of the time too - inconsiderate, self serving etc.

And no, these places should not sell noisy food and drinks. Unfortunately they make a lot of money from them so are not going to stop selling them, not everyone buys popcorn so they need to branch out to sell lots of different things.

(I once saw an Undercover Boss (USA I think) at a cinema company. If I remember correctly the owner/CEO/bigwig worked the 'concessions' as part of it and they explained in the program that if they didn't sell a lot of food and drink they wouldn't be able to run the cinema, it wasn't viable with just showing films, possibly the way it's going over here too.)

There was plenty of time to eat the damn things during the interval as well