Yes, it is. But that doesn't make it stingy.

The essence of stinginess, and the examples that almost always comes to everyone's mind, involve people going far out of their way in order to free themselves of a small expense. Obviously no one would consider it "stingy" to bring your own food if food was marked up 100x rather than 4x or whatever.

But the fact is that bringing some food into a movie theater (which isn't even against the rules everywhere, keep in mind) is going through a very minor hassle in order to save yourself from pretty exorbitantly priced goods. That's just not stingy.

if they lowered the prices on concessions they would just raise the ticket prices to compensate.

For every $1 they lower concession they would need to raise ticket prices by like $5. They make their profit from concessions, not tickets. Almost all of the ticket money goes back to the movie companies/actors/etc...

Amazing that some guy with absolutely no experience can run a movie theater better than the 100s of theater owners out there! What are the odds that we are running into the one guy who understands the economics of the situation more than the people who's livelihood are actually decided on by it.

It's stingy and against the terms of the deal you make when you buy the ticket in a theater. I'm pretty sure it's clearly stated that it's against the theater's policy to bring in outside drink/food. I know this isn't exactly analogous, but it would be like going to a bar to watch a band play, then bringing in a couple of 40s because you don't want to pay what the bar charges for a beer.

Pretty slim, I'd wager.
Untwist your panties. Just saying, they charge outrageous prices for things and I'm not surprised people go elsewhere for their concession needs.

So you also agree it is okay for me to bring my own beer with me to a bar then? My favorite band is playing and I paid the cover charge, so what's the big deal?

A lot of people do, actually.
I don't bring my own beer. I would usually just drink water. I don't care that other people do, though.
Beer is a little bit more tricky than, say, vodka in a water bottle, iyam.

you can grill in the parking lot outside the movie theater too.
i'm sure it happens but pretty much every bar and restaurant has a no outside food and drink (which includes bottled water) policy.

Are there really people that don't sneak food into sporting events?

I didn't realize there were people who did. I mean, I maybe snuck beers to basketball games when I was in college, but that's it.

Like someone else mentioned, I view it the same way as someone sneaking beer into a bar.

For the couple restaurants/bars I worked at the no outside food and drink was typically a liability thing. As in, someone brings in starbucks and eats our food. They get sick, they blame the restaurant's food, it could have been the coffee drink.
That said, there was most probably profit reasons too.

I don't know about the liability stuff. I mean, if someone drank a cup of coffee with spoiled milk, then walked into your restaurant to have dinner, went home and got sick, I don't think that there's a real clear distinction of where the sickness came from.

Basically, I do think that it's all a matter of "This is a restaurant, not your personal picnic table. If you come in here, you come in to buy our product, not take up space and not spend any money."

Well, when people would come in from the mall to our restaurant/bar and they'd have something from outside with them we would use that line to ask them to throw it away, in any event.

But also, your scenario is beyond the business' control, mine is not.

Yes. I highly doubt that it actually had anything to do with any kind of liability, either.

This is beyond dumb. I could not disagree more.

I go to a bunch of sporting events each year and rarely buy the food/beer. This is b/c I don't feel like being bent over with the crazy prices they charge. $8 for a beer at a football game is just ******ed.

You don't HAVE to buy them. Choosing not to is perfectly fine. I only find it stingy if you are sneaking your own beer in with you instead.

Well, it's one thing to go and not buy food/drink at the game. I think it's a very different thing to go and sneak in your own food/drink.

Hey, I was wondering if anyone thought there was a difference between not buying overpriced food and beverages at public spectacles, and bringing your own food and beverages to public spectacles.

I almost always bring food and drink into baseball games with me, but they allow it. Seems like good business. I always buy like 3 $1 waters from the guys selling them right outside the stadium.

My son recently played in an athletic event. It was held in a major city, in their Convention Center.

Mostly, the teams would be in the building for 5 -6 hours each day for 4-5 days. Playing sports. Sweating.

No outside food or drink was allowed by the city/facility, but they did have concession stands inside. No drinking fountains, no water stations, but concession stands.

16 oz. of water was $3.50. Sandwiches were $7.00.

3500 or so players per day in the same building playing an athletic sport with no access to free water? Pretty stingy city if you ask me.

Then again, they weren't checking each and every player's bag that came through the door, so we all snuck in water and snacks for the kids.....

This I would disagree with and is obviously not the the type of event being referred to. Any athletes participating in an athletic event should be allowed to bring anything with them that allows them to compete. I have never heard of not allowing an athletic team to travel with water/gatorade/etc.... That is just mind-baffling to me. I would refuse to participate (or allow my kids to participate). I'd hope you parent's would group together and demand change or boycott in a situation like this.

It's not, though.

FYP