Another Example Of Not Knowing Your Customers
Movie theaters may ask to jam cell phones
Movie theater owners faced with falling attendance are considering asking federal authorities for permission to jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films, the head of the industry's trade group said on Tuesday.Industry leaders at the ShoWest conference for theater owners want to find ways to win back crowds.
I honestly cannot think of a better reason to NOT attend a movie, especially if my local theatre decides to take part (which I highly doubt). I am on call 24x7. No, obviously I'm not a doctor. But my job requires me to be reachable 100% of the time, which has involved me being paged out at DisneyWorld, at the movies, at dinner, etc. And the best way my customers and my employer can get a hold of me is my CrackBerry.
But movie theaters aren't thinking of this. They think only of the annoying teenager who decides to hold a conversation during a movie, so therefore we must punish the audience as a whole and jam cell phones. Whatever happened to someone asking someone to leave the theatre when they are being annoying? While they might gain a few customers who will enjoy the silence, the rest of us will stay at home, eating microwave popcorn and watch HD-PPV or a Blu-Ray disc. Why? Because I won't lose my job and in the long run, it will save me money (and my job).
Comments
Ummmm, yeah, so I'm gonna have to kinda .. disagree with ya there.
If you choose to be on call 24x7, then that necessarily limits the things you can do. There are places right now for example that you're not allowed to have a cell phone on -- even in vibrate mode -- for the disruption that it causes. (New York City operas come to mind, I seem to recall reading somewhere that some opera-goer lost his season ticket because he brought his cell phone in on vibrate mode).
Cell phones have no place in movie theaters. Period. Full stop. If you want/need to be on-call reachable 24x7, then a darkened theater isn't the place for you.
Fortunately for the theater industry, though, 24-hour-on-call people make up such a minority of the population, that they can afford to tell you to sod off.
In reality, "24x7 on-call" -- where the on-call person is tethered via a cell phone -- is an illusion anyway. There's spotty cell coverage, there's visiting someone in the hospital (where using a cell phone is often a number one priority verboten task), etc., etc., all of which are places where someone who is "on-call" would not be reachable.
So turn off the phone for 90 minutes, tell your boss you couldn't get signal, and life goes on, because in reality, that sort of thing happens all the time *anyway*.
Posted by: Derek | March 15, 2006 9:43 AM
If you choose to be on call 24x7, then that necessarily limits the things you can do.
You would be surprised how many jobs now are calling for immediate access via cellphone. We're talking much more than 1% of the non-geek people that I know (think plant managers, engineers, maintenance guys, etc). And it's not the "I have it this weekend" crowd, but those who are on-call all of the time.
If a phone vibrating bothers you THAT much, I can only imagine when someone farts, sneezes, coughs, gets up for popcorn/bathroom/etc. A vibrating cellphone in the pocket of someone is only going to possibly be heard by people within a ten foot radius, that is if they are looking for it.
In reality, "24x7 on-call" -- where the on-call person is tethered via a cell phone -- is an illusion anyway. There's spotty cell coverage....
Not in these fly-over parts. I have good/great coverage in the theatre.
So turn off the phone for 90 minutes, tell your boss you couldn't get signal, and life goes on, because in reality, that sort of thing happens all the time *anyway*.
Does it happen? Yes. Would my customers be highly pissed if they couldn't get a hold of me for an hour and a half? Oh hell yes. Would that affect my job? Most likely in the long run.
I don't understand the logic behind this Derek, if there is someone who is behaving badly in a movie theatre, the theatre already has the right to bounce their asses out. I've had more problems with teenagers talking during a movie compared to people answering cell phones, maybe we should ban teenagers from movie theatres ;-)
Posted by: Brian | March 15, 2006 10:43 AM