Warren Theatre

[pearlbluevtx]

Heard today that Warren's interior is really impressive. Only 2nd hand knowledge from people who have been inside but they were impressed.

[Ginkasa]

Sure, the unemployment rate is low. But all those so-called economists do a lot to politicize various figures, only looking at the situation through rose colored glasses.

The unemployment rate counts only those people who are collecting unemployment benefits. It doesn't count people who have fallen out of the work force and are not receiving any benefits.

Economists and politicians both love to overlook the fact that all "jobs" are not the same. They don't pay the same. I yawn whenever I hear some blow-hard on TV campaigning about "jobs." They don't like to comment on many millions of Americans who are under-employed and offer any ideas how to foster growth of "good paying jobs."

Some minimum wage paying service industry job isn't going to do squat to support a city's property tax base. It isn't going to do much to keep our policemen and firemen paid. Low paying jobs don't help on supporting a public school system. They don't help on maintaining infrastructure.

All that stuff is nothing new. It's just like the comedy of how the government reports inflation figures. Conveniently, the inflation figure doesn't count the cost of fuel, food, clothing and a lot of other items regular people spend most of their paycheck to buy.

To get back closer to topic, anyone working in a movie theater is doing a largely thankless job.

The folks working in the box office, refreshment counter or walking the halls to clean up the place are all paid minimum wage. The employee turnover rate is high and the vast majority of theaters are typically stuck with hiring only high school aged kids for those jobs.

Theater managers and assistant managers aren't all that well paid either, usually the minimum federal standard for employees paid salary. The hours can be incredibly long. Very often many movie theater chains make managers send home as much of the minimum wage staff as possible and have managers doing that grunt work, along with the stacks upon stacks of paperwork and other garbage.

Anyone looking to make a career of working in movie theaters had better do it over being a die hard film fan. I can't think of any other logical reason to be in that business.

THANK YOU!

[flintysooner]

Sure, the unemployment rate is low. But all those so-called economists do a lot to politicize various figures, only looking at the situation through rose colored glasses.

The unemployment rate counts only those people who are collecting unemployment benefits. It doesn't count people who have fallen out of the work force and are not receiving any benefits.

Economists and politicians both love to overlook the fact that all "jobs" are not the same. They don't pay the same. I yawn whenever I hear some blow-hard on TV campaigning about "jobs." They don't like to comment on many millions of Americans who are under-employed and offer any ideas how to foster growth of "good paying jobs."

Some minimum wage paying service industry job isn't going to do squat to support a city's property tax base. It isn't going to do much to keep our policemen and firemen paid. Low paying jobs don't help on supporting a public school system. They don't help on maintaining infrastructure.

All that stuff is nothing new. It's just like the comedy of how the government reports inflation figures. Conveniently, the inflation figure doesn't count the cost of fuel, food, clothing and a lot of other items regular people spend most of their paycheck to buy.

I conclude from your remarks that you are not arguing with the veracity or accuracy of the statistics but that you dislike the name of the statistic.

It is very true that there are rules about who can apply for and receive unemployment benefits and for the length of time the benefits can be paid.

It is not mandatory for people who are eligible to even apply for benefits but the fact that such persons are not counted in the number of people for whom taxes are contributed would be significant.

However, I think it is likely that a low number of people applying for unemployment benefits coupled with a high number of people for whom unemployment insurance is being paid is useful as an indicator of the relative job market.

It is true that the statistic does not in any way measure the relative values of jobs.

I disagree with the entire principle of "under employment." No one, under our system, is entitled to anything more than an opportunity. If someone feels he is undervalued, then he has choices. He can find another job or he can start his own business.

To get back closer to topic, anyone working in a movie theater is doing a largely thankless job.

The folks working in the box office, refreshment counter or walking the halls to clean up the place are all paid minimum wage. The employee turnover rate is high and the vast majority of theaters are typically stuck with hiring only high school aged kids for those jobs.

Theater managers and assistant managers aren't all that well paid either, usually the minimum federal standard for employees paid salary. The hours can be incredibly long. Very often many movie theater chains make managers send home as much of the minimum wage staff as possible and have managers doing that grunt work, along with the stacks upon stacks of paperwork and other garbage.

Anyone looking to make a career of working in movie theaters had better do it over being a die hard film fan. I can't think of any other logical reason to be in that business.

I don't see the point of your argument. This seems true to me about any number of industries. Roofing is really hard and it is dangerous and it is dirty and no one thanks you much for it either. Or try working in a nursing home or a hospital and emptying bed pans and changing soiled sheets. Or try farming for a living. Or try being a city worker or a city manager or even a city council member. You won't get much appreciation for those jobs.

All jobs that I know anything about have good and bad things about them. Some are physically demanding and some are emotionally demanding and some are both.

Anyone who works at any job should be accorded respect period.

I still don't understand why a job someone doesn't like or a job that entails doing things someone doesn't like or even a boss someone doesn't like gives anyone the right to spit in popcorn.

Truly I am surprised that there is any defense of spitting in people's popcorn.

[pearlbluevtx]

I don't really understand the arguments here.

Should everyone in the movie theater business be paid $25/hr? How about a base salary of $50k/year for those people who take the tickets or run the refreshments?

I guess what I'm trying to understand is - it might not be the job I want but someone can fill that job and I'm certain they aren't wanting to work their full-time taking tickets or scooping popcorn or whatever ... but if you need a job, it's there.

But let's take this further - if that minimum wage job isn't min-wage anymore and instead of $7/hr you're paying $25/hr ... how much are you willing to pay for your movie ticket? Are you happy with the current prices? Would you pay double or triple for the tickets and also for what refreshments you want to consume (which we all know are already high)?

The point it - there's a lot of people working now period. No job is perfect - the grass is always greener on the other side (until you get to the other side!).

Sure, the unemployment rate is low. But all those so-called economists do a lot to politicize various figures, only looking at the situation through rose colored glasses.

The unemployment rate counts only those people who are collecting unemployment benefits. It doesn't count people who have fallen out of the work force and are not receiving any benefits.

Economists and politicians both love to overlook the fact that all "jobs" are not the same. They don't pay the same. I yawn whenever I hear some blow-hard on TV campaigning about "jobs." They don't like to comment on many millions of Americans who are under-employed and offer any ideas how to foster growth of "good paying jobs."

Some minimum wage paying service industry job isn't going to do squat to support a city's property tax base. It isn't going to do much to keep our policemen and firemen paid. Low paying jobs don't help on supporting a public school system. They don't help on maintaining infrastructure.

All that stuff is nothing new. It's just like the comedy of how the government reports inflation figures. Conveniently, the inflation figure doesn't count the cost of fuel, food, clothing and a lot of other items regular people spend most of their paycheck to buy.

To get back closer to topic, anyone working in a movie theater is doing a largely thankless job.

The folks working in the box office, refreshment counter or walking the halls to clean up the place are all paid minimum wage. The employee turnover rate is high and the vast majority of theaters are typically stuck with hiring only high school aged kids for those jobs.

Theater managers and assistant managers aren't all that well paid either, usually the minimum federal standard for employees paid salary. The hours can be incredibly long. Very often many movie theater chains make managers send home as much of the minimum wage staff as possible and have managers doing that grunt work, along with the stacks upon stacks of paperwork and other garbage.

Anyone looking to make a career of working in movie theaters had better do it over being a die hard film fan. I can't think of any other logical reason to be in that business.

[metro]

anyone have an updated pic yet?

[SoonerDave]

For all the philosophy being tossed about, there's a much simpler concept at hand - supply and demand. The kinds of jobs offered by a movie theater are inherently disposable, and thus affiliated with high rates of turnover. Bottom line: large supply of workers, relatively narrow demand --> low end of the wage scale.

As far as how unemployment is calculated, here is a link to the US Department of Labor's description on what's included/not included.

For all the concern about how low-paying jobs don't help infrastructure or tax base, I can't help but detect an implicit suggestion that the government has the responsibility to create those jobs?

Beyond that, why doesn't it seem as though there's at least a modicum of responsibility on the part of the worker to make him or herself more marketable by increasing skills? If someone doesn't like that minimum wage job flipping burgers or spitting in my popcorn, why is there this implicit notion that their situation is someone else's fault? At some point, someone has to be willing to take a step out, improve their skills, and migrate up that employment ladder without the government kicking them in the posterior to do so.

I almost get the impression that some of the argument is to suggest that theater jobs are so bad I should be thankful if I get a tub of $6 popcorn that hasn't been spat in, which is patently ridiculous. When I think of the kinds of problems people in my mother's generation, and her mother's generation, lived through without the government sticking some sort of subsidy check in their pocket, but NEVER griped or complained about it (or spat in anyone's popcorn), it makes contemporary complaints about the government "not doing enough" seem ridiculously hollow.

If I've misinterpreted the point of the previous post, I'll offer apologies here right now.

-soonerdave

[mcbee04]

This is a little aside, but I know at the one in Wichita you can get beer and drinks in the balcony area. Any idea if they'll be able to do that here?

[SoonerDave]

Supposedly the balcony area will be reserved for custom service, including "adult beverages." Higher $$ ticket to access the area, at least as I understood it from some time ago.

-sd

[traxx]

I knew there was some reason I had become less enthusiastic about going out to eat as I age. Popcorn I fix at home has no spit in it. Home theater sounds pretty good.

It really is disturbing that so many people who handle food treat the customers with so much disdain. These reports about filthy conditions at differnt places and employees not washing their hands and so on are just so common now. Then you hear all these stories.

In Cleveland county (which is where Warren Theatre is being built) you have to have a license to sell food. Doesn't matter if it's a restaurant, street vendor, movie theater, quick stop or the OU stadium. If you report a complaint about unsanitary food conditions to the Cleveland county health dept. (the one in Norman) they have to investigate. If the establishment repeatedly fails to comply then the health dept. will shut them down.

They would'nt shut down the entire Warren Theatre, just the concessions. But if Warren is as top notch as everyone says, I don't think we have to worry about this as Mr. Warren wouldn't tolerate it.

Just as an anicdote; I know some of the sanitarians at the Cleveland county health dept. One of the guys was doing a routine check at Chinese restaurant and found they had severely unsanitary conditions for cooking their food and made them put it in the trash while he watched them. When he left he drove to an adjacent parking lot and got pics of them digging that food out of the dumpster in order to sell it. He went back inside and sure enough, all the food they'd just gotten out of the dumpster was back in the kitchen being prepared for sale. He slapped a sticker on their front door and shut 'em down. They had to turn off the lights, lock the door and put up their closed sign. They were closed for a couple of weeks until they got all of their violations cleaned up.

[SoonerDave]

Well, getting license sounds good, but its not as great as it seems.

A few years ago, some friends opened up a donut shop in Moore. They were told they had to get a food handler's license, which they expected, so they went to the health department...you know what they had to do?

Watch a 20 minute video and take a multiple choice test.

It was basically a joke.

Sadly, their donut shop got hit by a small tornado that blew threw Moore several years back (not the big one in '99, a smaller one) and their landlord was, shall we say, not exactly energetic about getting the place repaired, so they shut it down...

Point is that licensing sounds good on one hand, but don't be surprised if it doesn't mean as much in reality as you might expect.

And, over the years, I have heard *horrendous* stories about Chinese food places...the worst was when, supposedly, one such restaurant owner was arrested near the Greenbriar housing addition in SW Oklahoma City for stealing ducks from their pond and taking them to his restaurant. Supposedly was watched for some time before they caught him....was several years ago.

In a word, yuck. If you really want a shock, check out an episode of Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America or (sometimes) on FOX (on Sundays now). He basically goes into fix a dying restaurant, and the kitchens in some of these places - some of them supposely upscale - are hideous, with rotted, molded food being stored and served. Sometimes, I think the less I know, the better.

-sd

[traxx]

Yeah, the licenses aren't supposed to be that difficult to get, it's just so any old Joe can't just start selling food out of his garage. The main thing is, is that they do random inspections of all the food establishements in Cleveland county. Which I still don't understand why some places don't clean up their act and then get mad when they get shut down. If you know these people are gonna be coming around every so often, it shouldn't come as shock that you're gonna get dinged if you're not up to par.

[pearlbluevtx]

SoonerDave - you're spot on with what you're saying. Agree w/ ya.

[pearlbluevtx]

Here's some photos I shot driving around Warren today .. around 4pm 2/29/2008 ...

btw, the balcony - yes - I believe there are TWO (not sure but what I heard). Supposed to have some sort of very nice theater style seating in them and should be very nice. Just heard about it in the last few days.

Photos... hope this works!

[Ginkasa]

I still don't understand why a job someone doesn't like or a job that entails doing things someone doesn't like or even a boss someone doesn't like gives anyone the right to spit in popcorn.

I don't understand why everybody so hung up on my comment. It was following reply to post talking about whipping people to get the popcorn made fresher. Just like that post didn't mean he actually whips concessionist when his popcorn's not fresh, my post wasn't saying people actually spit in the popcorn.

(Well, I must admit teenagers decided to get revenge and spitting in popcorn is probably more commonplace than whipping concessionists, but certainly not widespread; besides, most theares I've been too have wide open and visible concessions stands so you could probably see if you're popcorn was spit in....)

Anyway, it wasn't meant to be serious.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Says you.

I keep a cat-o-nine tails dangling at the end of my wallet chain JUST for theater personel.

[flintysooner]

I don't understand why everybody so hung up on my comment. It was following reply to post talking about whipping people to get the popcorn made fresher. Just like that post didn't mean he actually whips concessionist when his popcorn's not fresh, my post wasn't saying people actually spit in the popcorn.

(Well, I must admit teenagers decided to get revenge and spitting in popcorn is probably more commonplace than whipping concessionists, but certainly not widespread; besides, most theares I've been too have wide open and visible concessions stands so you could probably see if you're popcorn was spit in....)

Anyway, it wasn't meant to be serious.

I am overly sensitive I suppose. I saw the segment on one of the news programs about how filthy the lemons are in 20 restaurants around town. Not a single restaurant passed. When they asked me if I wanted a lemon yesterday at Chili's I said "No." Then the segment about the contaminated syringes in Nevada that has put 40,000 patients at risk bothered me. Several other stories have been on the news lately. Then several of my friends from food service have said "Oh yeah, it happens all the time that someone spits on food." I can't imagine doing it myself and I hate the thought of others doing it to me or anyone else.

I apologize for getting off topic.

I think I remember you worked at Harkins. I know we will still go to the Harkins because it is in Bricktown and we do like to go there from time to time. We've always enjoyed the Harkins. We'll definitely try the Warren if we can get to it at least. I am concerned about the traffic and the huge number of visitors that are expected.

I heard the other day that the inside of the Warren is really spectacular with a beautiful domed ceiling in the main lobby and then vaulted corridors off of it. The floors are supposed to be very beautiful, too.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

I am overly sensitive I suppose. I saw the segment on one of the news programs about how filthy the lemons are in 20 restaurants around town. Not a single restaurant passed. When they asked me if I wanted a lemon yesterday at Chili's I said "No." Then the segment about the contaminated syringes in Nevada that has put 40,000 patients at risk bothered me. Several other stories have been on the news lately. Then several of my friends from food service have said "Oh yeah, it happens all the time that someone spits on food." I can't imagine doing it myself and I hate the thought of others doing it to me or anyone else.

Sounds like somebody needs to quit watching the "ZOMG! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" news.

[soonerkev]

I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of the March Edition of Moore Monthly. There is a section that gives a great deal of info about the theater and all of the amenities. My favorite tid bit is all seats have Tempur-Pedic foam in them and seats in the balconly have heated chairbacks and seat bottoms.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of the March Edition of Moore Monthly. There is a section that gives a great deal of info about the theater and all of the amenities. My favorite tid bit is all seats have Tempur-Pedic foam in them and seats in the balconly have heated chairbacks and seat bottoms.

I'm sitting here reading that right now.

He even explains why they went from 20 to 14 screens.

I can't wait for this place to open.

[soonerkev]

I'm sitting here reading that right now.

He even explains why they went from 20 to 14 screens.

I can't wait for this place to open.

Yeah I would have to say that Bill Warren is one smart business man!

[xpertinfun]

They had the marquee lit up this morning! Should be getting close now.

[cindyl57]

After reading the March edition of Moore Monthly...WOW I am excited about the opening...I cannot imagine a Theatre of this magnitude or cost...
Some one who actually thinks the customers deserve something special right down to the popcorn..

[pearlbluevtx]

Will try to post a photo later, if I remember - but their WARREN marquee signs look fantastic!!!

[DVDFreaker]

I got a question: I am wondering if when the new theater opens, people from Norman will be going to the new theater and if they do, will the Hollywood Theater be shut down which I hope not because I am considering moving into a apartment just a few blocks away from Hollywood Theater in May or June

[pearlbluevtx]

I just read the Moore Monthly article regarding Warren Theater and WOW - it's amazing what they are doing. I knew some of the stuff or had heard about some of it and maybe was misguided about the reasons why the theater went from 20 to 14 screens ... his reason for that made sense as well.

can't wait for this to open.

dvdfreaker - I think the Warren has the opportunity to draw people from around the whole metro okc area so I think Norman residents will be drawn up too. I'm sure that there's still room for another theater down in Norman but I wouldn't want to be competing in this market against Warren.

IMHO, the only issues that I see being a negative with Warren is possibly Hollywoops can't create good flicks and Warren might be so busy that it's not comfortable to get/be there b/c of the traffic on the roads OR inside the theater!!