Here's another exciting story about me working in a movie theater. This one takes place a few years back. It was a slow day in the thearer. I mean REALLY slow. We had NO customers. It was a beautiful sunny summer day, and that means everyone was at the beach. Slow days are almost worse than busy days because of the soul crushing monotony. Every second takes an eon to pass, and all you can do is stare at the clock while vainly willing time to move faster. Anyway, that day was such a day. AT FIRST.
The boss I had at the time, knowing that it was gonna be a slow day, had the brilliant idea that he could pay less employees by bringing in only one worker for the day. That worker was me. Usually it takes three workers to run the theater on a regular day (plus one manager). One person runs the box office, another runs the concession stand, and another is the doorman. However, the manager at that time thought I could basicly cover all three positions since we weren't gonna have any customers anyway.
It all went fine for the first few hours. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a single customer in sight. Have you ever seen Little Shop of Horrors? You know the scene where the main characters are all in the plant shop and they look so bored because they don't have any customers? They're literaly falling out of their seats due to the deadness (symbolized by their plants all being dead, which is probably why they had no customers)? It was like that. Except I was ALONE. And I didn't even have a man-eating alien plant to amuse me.
It was at this point, perhaps, that God decided to take pity on me and send a little activity my way. Either that or the weather man decided to have a few lols on any beach-hopefuls that day. In the span of maybe 5 minutes, the sky went from beautiful and sunny to dark and raining cats and dogs. It was raining so hard that you could probably shower off on your front lawn after rolling in the mud for a few hours.
Now let's play a game. A little make-believe. Pretend that you are a tired, stressed out parent planning to bring your kids to the beach for the day. The tiny tots are hyper and excited to bounce around go swimming. You're just glad to have found something to keep them occupied for the day. You get to the beach and it's beautiful. The kids are playing and you and your significant other (be that other a man, woman, or imaginary friend) finally can relax on the sand. Suddenly, you're soaking wet and freezing. Someone decided to rain on your parade. Literally. The kids are crying because you're yanking them out of the ocean and making a mad dash for the car. This is bad. You need a plan B and you need it right now. However, you have an idea! What's fun and doesn't let rain fall on your head? Going to the movies! Surely that's the way to salavge this fiasco of a family outing. You and every other parent on the beach has this same idea.
Cut back to me being super bored in an empty theater, amused by the sudden weather change. At least it was something to watch. But wait! What's that I see on the horizon? It's a stampede of families all rushing for the theater door! And the only defense between my place of employment and the frothy hoard of desperate parents and crying kids is me! To make an already long story short, the end result was me running back and forth between two registers trying to sell tickets, rip tickets, and sell snacks all on my own. For a MOB! It was quite hectic and I apologized to many customers for making them wait so long. Also, I burnt the popcorn and had to prop the front door open to vent the smoke. The moral of this story is to expect the best, but prepare for the worst. Also, don't be too cheap to staff more than one person at a time.
P.S. That manager doesn't work at my theater anymore.
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