To think Cinemas are trying to get rid of Staff?

[girlfriend44]

It's cheaper to book online than in person, at the Odeon.
Your charged alot more if you just turn up?
How is this fair to people who can't book.online or who don't want too?

Are they moving away from having staff? You'll.just turn up, scan your ticket and Walk in?

A lot of businesses are trying to reduce staff numbers now. That's why we're seeing a huge increase in self service tills. Big money companies would sooner exploit their customers than hire staff. Why spend money on employing people when they can stick a load of machines in and insist customers work for the stores for free. Same with booking everything online. You do the work and the business's profits soar because they're not paying wages anymore.

The same as any business really - they want to minimise their costs and maximise their revenues. Automation - from online booking to self-service checkouts - allows businesses to cut down on their wages bill which for many is the majority of their costs. They would have done it years ago if the technology had existed. Add into that the pressures in the labour market that mean that many businesses will be short-staffed for the foreseeable future and it's not surprising that they are just getting rid of staff wherever they can.

Remember that automation have to be able to do a job BETTER or FASTER than humans for a company to adopt it. It just has to do it CHEAPER.

Tbh if it makes the trip cheaper I am happy. The cinema is so expensive!

The last few times I’ve been they’ve closed the food and drink outlets before the films went in. I couldn’t buy anything.

But who can't get online these days?! Practically everybody has a mobile phone. There are free computers in libraries for those that don't. Anyone that is so disabled that they personally can't get online will have a carer that can. Really, anybody that doesn't go online these days is really making a choice not to.

I’d prefer to just turn up and pay personally, not to have to faff about online first.

Can confirm I went to the cinema yesterday and walked in without having my ticket checked and there wasn’t the usual staff patrol once or twice throughout either.

You said practically everyone, which means some don't.

Our local Odeon closed down, I don’t miss it. It was a dump and too expensive.
Now we go to a Vue cinema that charges about £5 pp for any movie.

Strangely, it isn't true at my nearest cinema - they charge a booking fee if you book online!

We don't bother going as it's too much hassle, I don't want to be booking online, I would rather just go in and buy a ticket when I'm out, our local one is Cineworld and it very expensive. We do get free tickets for Vue through Sky but that's 15 miles away and a parking charge so not worth it.

My local Odeon is £5 per ticket if you book online.

Bizarre OP.

Please say who is going to a cinema but can’t get online?

Obviously cinemas can try to make their services as efficient as they like. Not sure why they owe you more people than they need.

I haven't bothered with the cinema since before COVID. I don't miss it - I'd much rather watch at home so I can lie down under a cosy blanket, pause it if needed, talk if I want to and not deal with other people

My mum goes to the cinema every few weeks and whilst she can get online and does some things online there's no way she'd go through the rigmarole of booking cinema tickets online rather than just do it in person because she tried once and couldn't do it.

@girlfriend44 look at it as a discount for online booking, rather than a premium to book at the desk.

Is that better?

That's her choice obviously. But the benefit of the "rigmarole" is cheaper tickets 🤷‍♀️

Local Odeon is £5 pp if booked online. Including booking fee. Plenty of staff too
the cineworld up the road is £15 no contest

Why is Cineworld so much more expensive than some of the other large cinema chains

If they lowered their prices they might get more footfall.

My mum took herself and 4 kids for one of the kids bdays and it cost about £100 all in.

That's fucking ridiculous.

I have a cineworld card at £16.99 per month, two films and it's paid for itself. I get discounts on snacks and drinks and this brings the price down to merely "yikes" as opposed to "YIKES"

Our local cineworld has an iMax, loads of lovely staff who genuinely seem to like working there and an excellent manager. I love it! I hope very much they drag themselves out of their financial trouble and continue to trade.

That includes food and drink.

Paying £10 or less to see a film at the cinema isn’t expensive.

What's the point of this post? Cinema patron numbers are falling massively, so it makes sense the owners are trying to cut costs so that they can keep the place open.

I'm sure the number of people who would have literally zero way to book a cinema ticket online for a couple of quick cheaper, is fairly tiny tbh.
And that tiny number without internet access wouldn't know what they were missing anyway.

Yes, and my very next sentence gave an option for those that don't!

I think it may be to commit to coming, not changing your mind at the last minute. Cheaper to book a designated train in advance, hotels in advance if you pay there and then, as other examples.