It is really nice to have some things feeling normal after two years of pandemic-related madness.
Bars, restaurants, concerts, sporting events, I’ve been back to all of those things for some time. However, the one activity I haven’t returned to post-pandemic?
The movies. I have yet to be back in a movie theater since pre-2020. Shocking to me, because I love the movies.
It’s not pandemic-related fears; I’ve honestly never given much thought to Covid. I just lived my life and went where the local “authorities” would allow open. Plus, with streaming being so easy and convenient, there was really no rush or desire to go back to sticky floors, loud people, and overpriced popcorn.
Now that summer 2022 is upon us, and big-budget popcorn flicks like Top Gun: Maverick are in theaters, I’m ready to go back.
Did I mention “popcorn flick”, because guess what we might not be getting any of this summer!
Per Outkick:
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As if the world didn’t have enough problems, now you may not even be able to eat popcorn when you go to a movie.
No, seriously. The United States and its theaters are experiencing a shortage of the most-purchased snack, per the Wall Street Journal.
Some theaters are seeing a popcorn shortage just as the summer blockbuster season starts. https://t.co/PQKEzoSrR8
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) June 2, 2022
Folks, how upside-down is this country? How utterly incompetent has this administration been? There have been shortages of everything from potato chips, baby formula, microchips, and chicken wings, but come on. Popcorn? Has anyone ever driven through the Midwest? It’s ALL CORN!
Anyway, the chief executive of Preferred Popcorn, Norm Krug, told the WSJ that trouble may be on the horizon.
“Popcorn supply will be tight,” were Krug’s exact words, and he would know, given that his company is the one that provides the (sometimes extra) buttery goodness to the theaters.
This is sobering news! I’ll admit here since we are all friends, that I have ALWAYS had a pretty hard and fast policy of bringing my own candy and soda into the theater. Probably a habit from my childhood when my mom would fry chicken and we would take it into the drive-in. Yea I’m old, so what? No shame in my game. I’m a working man. Cargo shorts for the candy, and the kids smuggle in the drinks. No sweat. But I ALWAYS copped the largest, greasiest, most delicious tub of buttery popcorn available. It breaks my (hopefully healthy) heart that I may not be able to do that moving forward!
“And it’s not just popcorn,” relayed Nextstar Media. “Supply disruptions are also creating shortages of buckets and bags for popcorn, not to mention cups for drinks, trays for nachos and other necessities.”
Keep in mind that the majority of movie theatres make most of their money off concessions sales. So this is one story that may not have a Hollywood ending.
“It’s a mess,” one theater owner told the WSJ.
A mess indeed. I can’t live on candy alone! I need nutrition if I am going to survive another Top Gun.
Alas, this is just another symptom of an incompetent administration that could literally screw up a daydream.
Hang in there folks, help is on the way. Maybe Tom Cruise can run in 2024.