Arbors and water fountains

Cook anything and put a fan in it and it permeates the air. I also worked at a theater. Popcorn doesn't have an additive that makes it smell. LOL.

Subliminal advertising is one thing but popcorn is popcorn. Just like baking at a bakery. If you want some and you smell it, you're more apt to buy it.

I investigated the popcorn smell claim and realized that I got the information from Readers Digest a long time ago. Upon further investigation, I found a claim online that that information may be false. Maybe it is true in some cases and not true in others. Not all movie theaters are owned and operated by the exact same entity.

And I am not convinced that the kid popping the popcorn cares enough about his job to read the ingredients on the barrel of oil under the machine or cares enough to look up said ingredients online when he gets home. I didn't when I worked at Target all those years ago and was called to the refreshment stand to wrestle the oil barrel into place for the little old lady who served the popcorn.

Also, just because a theme park doesn't rely solely on drink sales to stay in business doesn't mean that they don't employ every trick that they can figure out to sell more drinks.

A lot of tricks (that word is used loosely here, I'm not implying anything negative about it at all) are easy to see. Many parks place drink machines in the queue lines and gift shops at the exits of some of the major rides. At Dollywood, you have to exit the entire park (and enter if you have a season pass) through the park's largest gift shop. Six Flags advertises Flash Pass while you are in the stand-by line. They even exaggerate the wait time on a sign just above the Flash Pass advertisement.

So what is so crazy to think that a park would not purposely leave out some of the things that would make guests more comfortable in order to sell more drinks and get more traffic into the air conditioned gift shops?

If you owned a park, wouldn't you look for every "trick" you cold to make more money.

Travis, popcorn always smells like popcorn. Period. Do theaters pop it during times where people are arriving to increase sells? Absolutely. But that smell is there regardless.

I cared enough when I worked at a theater, and I can assure you, no one is pumping fake popcorn flavored smells into your theater snacks, regardless of ownership.

Seriously, I'm starting to wonder how you enjoy going anywhere, if you think everything has some ulterior motive behind it.

I'm guessing state park campgrounds only provide pit toilets and rough toilet paper, because they g a cut of the RV sales from down the road (from people who want better facilities) and they have stock in Charmin...

The problem is that you're implying that people are somehow victims. That somehow it's beyond your control. That you're being manipulated.

You're not.

LostKause said:

Many parks place drink machines in the queue lines and gift shops at the exits of some of the major rides.

Where people might be thirsty.

At Dollywood, you have to exit the entire park (and enter if you have a season pass) through the park's largest gift shop.

When people are more inclined to want to buy souvenirs.

Six Flags advertises Flash Pass while you are in the stand-by line. They even exaggerate the wait time on a sign just above the Flash Pass advertisement.

Because it's good practice (and I'm stealing this from Holiday World) to underpromise and over-deliver. Would you rather be told a wait might be an hour and find it's only 30 minutes or be told a wait is 30 minutes when it's actually an hour?

(I'm not even going to get into how stationary wait time signs HAVE to state a worst case scenario based on the logistics of differing operations/conditions on any given day)

So what is so crazy to think that a park would not purposely leave out some of the things that would make guests more comfortable in order to sell more drinks and get more traffic into the air conditioned gift shops?

Yes. It's borderline bizarre to think that way.

Is paranoia the word I'm looking for? Everyone's out to get you!

If you owned a park, wouldn't you look for every "trick" you cold to make more money.

Yes. But not at the expense of the guest experience. That's the circular logic you keep ignoring.

Just like in the FOL debates. You somehow think that indirectly doing bad things to people makes them better customers. You're looking for something that isn't there and you're filling in blanks that don't exist.

What if the truth is that offering people drinks in places they're more likely to be thirsty, offering a chance to buy souvenirs at the end of their visit and suprising them with less wait to ride than anticipated are all examples of doing things to benefit the guest experience and that's how it benefits the parks and their bottom lines?

Nah. That'd be crazy talk. ;)

Sounds like a lot of victim mentality. I avoid that while having fun doing fun stuff.

You guys have me all wrong. Businesses do have an ulterior motive, and that's to make as much money as possible. That is not a bad thing, and the people spending the money are not victims.

It seems like we have had this exact conversation many times before, and I am ready to move on.

Making money is a primary motive/goal of any business, not an ulterior one.

I know that, but not everyone does. Some people think that providing entertainment is the primary goal of a theme park.

So it's all somehow immoral because "some people" are morons?

I feel we have the same conversation because it comes across as businesses are doing some clandestine things to get money. Yes, that happens, but when it comes to entertainment venues, not so much. The people are there to blow money.

Personally, if I'm having a good time, why do I care if there are subtle ways of getting me to spend more money? I'm having a good time and that's all that matters.

Do casinos design the space so you'll get lost? Does the pattern in the carpet lead you to certain areas of the room, and is it such that if you drop money on it you can't find it? Is that scent that seems to permeate every casino developed to make you subconciously want to part with money? Do they forget to install things like clocks so you'll lose track of time or benches because they want you to find a seat at a slot machine or table?

Maybe. They REALLY want your money, and they know you can walk out anytime.

Regardless, I think movie theatres and amusement parks might employ certain tactics to encourage us to buy snacks and drinks, and things like product placement (location) and aroma enticement are well known and often used facets of retail design.

I think it's unfair, though, to think everything like that is purely nefarious. If there's one thing that parks, ballparks, and movie houses are guilty of it's overcharging a captive audience.

I'm still trying to figure out how to trap visitors to CoasterBuzz on the club page so they can't leave their computer until they buy a membership.

Maybe you could write a script that makes their computer smell like popcorn?

LostKause said:

I know that, but not everyone does. Some people think that providing entertainment is the primary goal of a theme park.

I suppose that, in theory, if you're doing it correctly, providing entertainment is the goal. Because providing entertainment makes money.

If the parks weren't entertaining, people wouldn't hand over money.

And that kind of goes back to my last post - putting drink machines in lines, exits through gift shops, and even infusing the air with magical popcorn aroma isn't going to do anything if people aren't enjoying themselves and visiting these places in the first place. It's not just a 'set a trap and catch the rubes' scenario. If it were that easy, we'd all have popcorn machines with super-popcorn-scented kernels popping away and we'd all be millionaires.

Let me make sure that people reading do not think that I find subtlety tweaking the environment to benefit the business as something immoral or negative, at least not the things we have spoken about here, anyways. I'm just mentioning ways that it could be done.

Department store music is specifically selected to make people lose track of time, so that they sop longer, and possibly buy more.

Did you know that a lot of popular movies are written within a certain formula? Pretty much a certain thing is supposed to happen at certain times throughout the movie, down to the minute. Not negative. Those watching the move are not victims (unless the movie really sucks or something lol).

I suspect theme parks harbor the same kinds of design secrets, and let me say again so you do not misunderstand me, I don't find it to be so bad. It's just a thing, man. It interests me a lot.

Department store music does nothing except make me want to get the hell out of the department store as quickly as possible. YMMV.

Tekwardo said:clandestine

RCMAC said:nefarious

Keep em' coming, guys! :-)

I'm convinced that Meijer scents their stores. I tend to notice pleasant aromas in various departments consistently, store-to-store, that change with the seasons. The electronics department usually smells like apple-cinnamon or something...

...I don't remember very clearly actually...it's all kind of a blur. As soon as I smell it, I run to the ATM, withdraw my entire bank account, put it in a cart, push it toward a cash register, and run out of the store!

Yawn...