The Ethics of Snack Smuggling at the Movies

Nancy Williams, the coordinator of professional education at UNC Asheville (in North Carolina) wrote on this topic recently. Apparently at Carmike movie theaters (Nancy’s theater of choice), the 2015 refillable popcorn bucket is $20. Refills are $4 each, all year long and the bucket comes with a lid. This makes bringing in a hidden snack even easier. After reading Nancy’s article I have decided to add my own two cents on the subject of snack smuggling. Since everyone knows snacks at the movies cost a lot more than two cents, we easily have room for this topic in the first place. Movie theater snacks often run more than the price of a ticket (at least for the matinee or senior rate), so when I take the grandkids to the movies I carry a big purse and stop off at the Dollar Tree (dollars in hand) so everyone can pick out their candy. I give each child a dollar and then station myself at the register in order to pay the tax to the cashier and stash the goodies in my purse. The store is in the same shopping area as the movie theater and that makes this even easier. The last time we went my two youngest grandsons came running up to the register from the candy aisle yelling about how they each scored 60 ring pops for a dollar. I just said pay your dollar to the cashier and put them in my purse. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered what that much sugar might imply for the rest of my afternoon but skittles and gummy worms were soon added to my purse and we were off to the movies. Those two candy bargain hunters were very disappointed when they opened the bags and found only 4 ring pops in each. In the small print on the front of the package they read, Only 60 Calories per serving. The movie was a good one but I figure they’ll look closer at candy packaging in the Dollar Tree the next time we go because yes, I plan to continue snack smuggling.