My wife and I were planning to enjoy a movie at the neighborhood Jefferson Pointe Carmike in Fort Wayne this past weekend. To our surprise local management decided to implement a new policy of looking in women’s purses. She is not going to open her purse for some teenager that has not been trained in security control, especially when neither of the two employees could explain what they were looking for beyond saying “it is a new policy”. That evening she was not even carrying her legal handgun with her and we never carry food into theaters. As a result we chose to spend our food and entertainment dollars elsewhere that evening.
Afterwards we discussed the possible reasons that Carmike may have adopted this new policy. One may have been an attempt to create a perceived level of safety in an attempt to look for weapons following the illegal shootings recently. If this is the reason Carmike has failed epically as there remain so many security holes in the theater operations and inspecting purses would not have prevented any of the previous shootings. How sad that management chooses to create a false sense of security for employees and guests with a cursory purse check that overlooks so many other options to introduce weapons into the theaters.
The second more cynical reason we thought of is the Carmike is looking for outside food or drink to maintain their profit margins. We found this particularly insulting if this was any part of the reason for the purse search. What kind of company would use a crisis like the illegal theater murders to shore up their profit margin? Sadly I am sure someone in a company meeting mentioned this as an added benefit of the purse searches.
We will not be back to a Carmike theater until the purse search policy is rescinded. Either put in a true secure entrance staffed by trained professionals or stop this charade of safety. It is bad enough that Carmike chooses to make its theaters into supposed Gun Free Zones rather than following local law and allowing licensed individuals to legally carry a means of self-defense. I am sure you don’t care about one couples ticket and concession dollars but if you keep ignoring your guest desires in the long run you will find your business failing. Please e-mail me us if you change your policy regarding searching purses so we will know that we can once again can enjoy one of our date nights at the movies.
Carmike Cinemas in Fort Wayne suddenly began searching purses a couple of weeks ago too. We bought our tickets and when we handed them to the teenager in a vest she asked my wife to open her purse. I promptly said NO and we began walking towards our movie. The young manager was radioed for and she rushed over. This time my wife said NO, we are watching the movie we paid for or you are refunding our money. Our money was promptly refunded. Oddly enough this whole time I was standing there with my CCW.
Third day now and I am still waiting for a response to the letter I sent:
Waiting for defense of property rights. Funny that.
Waiting for defense of property rights. Funny that.
Depending on the movie playing, if they checked my ladies bag, they might pull out a pocket rocket or a silver bullet.
I suddenly get a visual of Skipper or Barbie peering into a bag to behold a full sized 1911. Step II, Plan B ?
Pocket Rocket = weapon of mass destruction?
Silver Bullet ~ with a +P charge?