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Food: Popcorn: Bucket
Popcorn On Demand   (+7, -7)  [vote for, against]
As much as you want, when you want it!

Popcorn at movie theaters comes in 2 sizes, not enough and way to much. I propose a system that would distribute popcorn in discrete batches directly to the consumer as requested.

First while purchasing your ticket you may add the "Popcorn" option for a fee roughly equivalent to the cost of a small popcorn. in return you would receive a small disposable container(about a quart sized). Mounted to the back of the seat in front of you there would be a small opening with a depression into which to place the container. Small magnetic strips built into the container would sense the presence of a properly coded container and that it is correctly positioned to receive popcorn. A HVLP air flow system from the popper system(see Instant popcorn popper link for one possible design) will deliver your freshly popped popcorn within 20 seconds. Additionally, there would be butter and salt buttons that would deliver those items along with the popcorn.

Want more, just repeat the process.

Increased cost for installation of the system will be recouped in reduced labor coast for excess popcorn cleanup as well as reduced supply cost as popcorn consumption will become much more efficient.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 12 2008

A possible application for the attached idea. Instantaneous_20Popcorn_20Popper
[jhomrighaus, Feb 12 2008]

lol, that's funny.

Now add a hot dog and mustard dispenser via a tube system and you're all set.(Where do you put your knees btw?)
-- skinflaps, Feb 12 2008


Its built right into the seat, kind of like where the Phone is on an airplane seat, in the headrest of the seat in front of you.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 12 2008


Mmm ok, we(UK)don't have headrests, I wouldn't be able to see the movie.Only kidding.
-- skinflaps, Feb 12 2008


What about charging on a price per chunk of popcorn basis?

Perhaps a slot for your credit card in the arm of the chair and a hi-tech popcorn counter...
-- Jinbish, Feb 12 2008


This could double as an 'in-seat' hand dryer or space heater in those cooler or wet climates. For a reduced fee, only the hot air with no popcorn.

Also, cold popcorn is not appetizing (partly why i never finish a batch). Perhaps the warm air could keep streaming through and you would leave the popcorn in the tray to be kept warm.
-- Mister P, Feb 12 2008


JH: There's got to be a market for a novelty single corn popper. Perhaps you could come up with a design for that? Oh, wait - I'll post it myself.
-- DrCurry, Feb 12 2008


That would become one stinky movie theatre
-- DanDaMan, Feb 13 2008


why would it be stinky?
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 13 2008


I'm afraid the irritating popping noise during the middle of the movie kills it for me.
-- jimmyhoffa, Feb 14 2008


the corn doesnt get popped in the theater, it is popped remotely and "flown" in to your seat for delivery so little or no sound at all, just a low pressure puff of air.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 14 2008


When watching violent action films, the popcorn popping noises will be synchronised with gunshots on the soundtrack so that they don't disturb you.
-- hippo, Feb 14 2008


All cinemas stink. There's nothing you can do about it, and this idea won't add or detract from that stinkiness. However, I think the noise would be a problem. Not necessarily the popping sound, which, as you say, is done elsewhere, but of the 150 people intermittantly filling up their buckets, jangling their change, and scraping their money against the metal of the coinslots. This entire process would annoy me. It would be like people eating rustley sweets! RUSTLEY SWEETS!!!

Sorry [-]
-- theleopard, Feb 14 2008


//jangling their change, and scraping their money against the metal of the coinslots.//

If I've read this correctly..

"First while purchasing your ticket you may add the "Popcorn" option for a fee roughly equivalent to the cost of a small popcorn."

The additional cost is a option when the ticket is purchased?
-- skinflaps, Feb 14 2008


Oops, I seem to have imagined that coinslot bit. How do you pay for your extra popcorn?
-- theleopard, Feb 14 2008


Attach a hairdrier, write on a small piece of paper that you require more popcorn, then blast the message back up the tube to the popcorn guardian.
-- skinflaps, Feb 14 2008


The misled and spotty, hunchbacked guardian in the popcorn room taps his yellow boney fingers over his bald flakey pate muttering incomprehensibles to himself. Even he cannot fathom the gibbering madness that dribbles from his lips. His tattered clothes, butter-sodden and visibly steaming fat from the heat of the popcorn machines, cling to his malnourished warty skin. Housed in the only room in the building with no doors, the guardian has begun to lose his grip on reality, sorting a selection of his favourite kernels in the corner of the room into alphabetical order.

"When will his shift end?" you ask.

When you don't want popcorn... anymore.
-- theleopard, Feb 14 2008


//How do you pay for your extra popcorn?//

You don't pay for the extra popcorn, the concept is kind of like an all you can eat buffet, most people will not eat that much popcorn and based on the amount left in the theater many people buy more than they actually eat.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 14 2008


So let me get this straight, I got one bone presumably because movie theaters stink(even though this idea has nothing to do with that) and I got another for the coin slots which were not a part of the idea(you buy the container when you buy your ticket) And last I got a bone for the popping noise which is also not real as the popping takes place in a remote space, we also have a mystery Bone as well, and last but not least we have the autoboner.

This place never ceases to amaze.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 14 2008


You very rarely see empty plates at a buffet. People commonly have larger eyes than stomachs at buffets. I think an "all you can eat" concept will both (a) increase waste, not decrease it and (2) tempt kids to throw around their abundant never ending supply of seemingly free popcorn. Massive mess. You'll be peeling it off your shoes in the car all the way home.
-- theleopard, Feb 14 2008


You already have that now, the point is to distribute in smaller batches, then when the consumer gets full the volume of waste is relatively small by comparison to a the big bucket that is left half full. If buffets lead to greater waste I can assure you they would not continue to be in business, the economics work out well for them.
-- jhomrighaus, Feb 14 2008


Buffets inevitably lead to greater waste, both in the necessarily excessive amounts produced and the amount consumed/left over. The reason they are economical is that they invariably consist of really cheap food.
-- theleopard, Feb 14 2008



random, halfbakery