E B.
Google
Never. Again. What an awful experience tonight and probably a move that will end up shutting this theater down: QR code ordering 🙄 One reason we used to come to this theater was the no phone policy. It's nice to detach from your phone for a while and know that everyone else is doing the same. NOT anymore! NOW everyone has their phones out through the entire movie either fumbling about trying to get their food and drinks ordered OR shining their damn flashlights around trying to find and scan the stupid QR codes. THEN, about 30 minutes before the end of the movie, a server comes out and starts sprinkling havoc dust all over the theater in the form of bills with unpaid balances... to almost EVERYONE. Where did this unpaid balance come from? None of your business, Jan. Just pay it. So, now the whole class has their hands up with questions because you provide your credit card for payment when you order. Server says he doesn't know why your card didn't cover the whole amount and now panic at the disco. ON go all the phones again because now it's a crime scene! Either this man is lying or someone on the other side of the world hacked our accounts and bought 8700 new laptops while we were trying to order fried pickles and a flat soda that we didn't need anyway, but it's been a rough week. Come to realize, maybe this is just the server's way of trying to get a tip because otherwise, they may not get one. However, by bringing you a bill they can run your card in the theater to pay this mystery balance and bring back a sales slip that you can add a tip to. It's a lot for a Friday night outing... probably should have gotten something stronger than the soda. So, where were we? Oh yes! By this point, you've completely missed most of the movie. Or, at least, the important parts, but nobody even cares about the movie anymore. Everyone just wants to go home, which people actually start doing. Yup. Just dipping out of what I can only presume is a really good movie. Ironic for the theater that's claim to fame used to be that it was serious about no phones and no talking because it was THE PLACE for people who actually LOVE going to the movies. And now for the grand finale, and the point in the story where some folks might actually end up on Dateline with Lester Holt telling the world how they lost their marbles at a movie theater in good old Winchester, Virginia because Alamo did them dirty. After finally escaping the exiting herd of fellow grumblers and the toilet paper traffic jam, you are greeted by a polite warning text from Alamo, informing you to finalize your bill within 20 minutes, or they will AUTOMATICALLY charge you 18% gratuity. For what? Again, none of your business, Mary. Doesn't matter anyway, because as you're reading the text, you realize it was sent sometime around the last pothole of your cinematic journey (you know, when you're supposed to be WATCHING THE END OF THE MOVIE!). Congratulations, loser! You have now successfully wasted 2 hours NOT watching a movie you waited months to see, overpaid for cafeteria food, been duped into double gratuity by a teenager, and you did it all from the comfort of your shredded pleather seat with your shoes stuck to God-knows-what on the floor of a run-through theater that smells like dirty socks and bad choices.