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Theatre owner blames employee thefts for closing
posted by
btkrefft
on
November 1, 2006 at 2:18 pm
RIVERSIDE, OH — According to this report from WHIO-TV, Joe Kinney, the owner of the Page Manor Cinema in Riverside, due to stealing by his employess that was “off the hook”, has shuttered the theater, which first opened in 1967.
Kinney said that over the last two years, he has had to fire over 30 employees due to theft of money and a pinball machine. Kinney has operated the Page Manor for the past two years.
Comments (15)
Huh? Thats about as sorry of an excuse Ive ever heard. I highly doubt a place could go through that many “stealing” employees in such a short ammount of time. I mean what are the odds that he’d “just happen” to hire that many criminals? And if he were that rare 1%, how incompetent do you have to be to not start doing criminal checks or impliement some sort of safeguard the first time you suspect something?
The truth is Mr. Kinney was up. It was a three year deal at $3,000 a month.
Mr. Kinney wanted to close it about 3 weeks into it, and talked about it all the time.
He only left it open so the lease would run out.
The theft was wild there a lot from his own family and “friends†working there with him.
Even had own “friend†take over $600.00 in one weekend.
In reading this article, it sounds like the owner did not know how to manage people properly or else had a poor management staff. Having operated other businesses myself, it’s amazing how an owner can blame others for their lack of business knowledge when business (or profit) is lacking.
This is not to start rumors or talk about of anyone. The biggest down fall of the theatre is the greatest opportunity it once had. Joe Kinney is a great guy; he is very smart and runs Joe’s Heat & Air. Joe has a big heart and that got him in to trouble and doomed the theatre before it was ever open. Joe put a lot of time and money in to PMTC.
Charlie was the guy who only on paper owned part of PMTC with Joe. Charlie was to put his 50 plus years of theatre operation know how into it and Joe put the money in.
Mr. Augustine a teacher by day emailed me and said he saw the theatre was opening and wanted to know if we (PMTC) needed his help.
Mr. Augustine who once worked for Regal and Danbarry.
Mr. Augustine stabbed the 70 year Charlie in the back when he knew Joe was the money man and pushed Charlie out. This also was helped by Joe’s Dad who felt because of the last 20years Charlie owned Cinema â€"X-East it would look bad on PMTC.
The theatre opened on a Friday in January 04. That Charlie was let go that night. The theatre was to be $2.50 and play movies before they left first run. This is like an intermediate policy even though most do not use the term anymore. The former Beaver Valley Cinema which in now The Bargain Box Office operates the same way. They play a movie that left Regal but is at other first-runs.
Joe instead of talking to the studios from his booker and Mr. Augustine’s lack of theatre know how pulled the movies and played day and date with Danbarry. After a few months and being closed almost 6 years Mr. Augustine thought best to make is a dollar and even tried to change the name to Page Manor Dollar Cinema.
Over and over Joe would talk about cloing it. Almost all the time from month 2 to just weeks ago.
The past few years have seen Augustine hire unfriendly friends who the “trained†and thought the knew the world to hiring “operators†with pink and blue hair who banned all kids under 16 so he didn’t have to tell them to be quite. Skateboards and people lying on the floor it was a mess.
Free concessions going out everywhere the cost was out there and it wasted. A 900plus week pay roll and $12,000 concession spending. PMTC went back at the end to $2.00 admission and pulled the same patrons as a dollar. Instead the were just losing $1.00 for a year! Augustine had a bright idea of making a bargain day of $1.00, but did it on Fridays one of the busiest time for theatres.
The lease was final up and Joe did not want to renew and PMTC closed.
I’ve seen large chain complexes and small theatres operated by poor management. At one theatre (large chain), there was a problem of alot of seniors were going to the movies. Doesn’t sound like a problem, but the past records showed this theatre did not do a large senior trade. So the chain started sending checkers in to see what was up. It turned out they had a manager selling senior tickets to regular patrons and pocketing the differance. On Friday & Saturdays the manager worked the box office without a cashier and did not get the dual signing on the box office reports. The manager did not have a record, he pasted his criminal checks. The problem turned up he started going to those card clubs and betting large amounts. So the next manager at that theatre worked out just fine and was sent to another theatre. But the next one after that one had worked for the chain for a long time. She was a nice person, ran the theatre well. But the staff made deals that she did not know about. I got sent back into the theatre just to watch what was happening. I was their projectionist and maintained the theatre. The staff got to eat popcorn and soda, no big deal. The staff passed friends into the theatre also no big deal, the money was working out fine. The problem was that the chiefs of staff were trading 5 gallon boxes of Coke (soda) to the neighbor pizza place for free pizza. This was what the company wanted me to find. The staff had no records. They got the idea that the company buys the bag-in a box of Coke for $20, they could buy a large pizza and stuff for that price at the place. So they did this around 4 times a week. The was finding that the yields for Coke to the amount of cups sold was wrong. Later I asked one of the chiefs about it, he told me the box was worth $20. I told him about yields and that box could make hundreds of dollars for the company and that why he was being fired. (The pizza sucked) I’ve seen the old cashier and doorman ticket resale game. Funny thing it happened to me one night as I was going to the movies off duty. I called it in the next day.
Same thing can go for operations of a pub/bar. With a bartender giving free drinks other than buy backs, using better brands then the bar’s well. Many companies only doing small criminal checks and if this was a small theatre chain with friends working it could happen. I’ve seen friends run large tabs for very trustworthy bartenders and you don’t see the person for a few days.
It’s about Trust and the employers not paying staff good living wages to work some crap jobs. They could put all the safeguards in play, it will happen again and again. Sorry
Lame ………the day i ever close a bsns because of the help……………..never
William’s post was rather interesting with regards to theft. Restaurants also have a major problem with regards to this. Some of this I have observed from being an assistant manager at a fast food place (many years ago). Cashiers not ringing up some of the sales, and the food used for those orders was then categorized as “waste”. (This was a suspicion when the “waste” report was rather high.) Somebody checking in inventory off the truck and claiming that “it wasn’t all there” (this happened one time when the shift manager, who was supposed to check in the inventory with one employee, did not check in the inventory. That shift manager was “passed out” in the dining room from being under the influence. That same shift manager was later fired for taking money from the safe, probably to feed his drug habit.) Passing out “free food” to “your buddies” was also happening. (Again, showing up as “waste”) I even recall the store manager firing an entire graveyard crew over excessive problems with theft, working while on drugs &/or alcohol, and some “drug sales” at the drive-thru.
never a reason to close ……..weak ownership…..
Sometimes you have to cut your losses. His lease was up.
If it were my theater and I had the proof, I’d have everyone of those people locked up for theft and made sure they were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I guess there was no video to record the ticket/soda trading schemes!
The cameras did not record. It was basically I know you and so and so was here and the concession is $90.00 off and the box is $60.00. He often “let them go†but would bring them back because he felt there was no one else to do “the jobâ€. His Heat and Air is his bread and butter so if the cinema gets ripped out he is out $200.00 if he can’t do a service call for the Heat and Air he would be out thousands of dollars. He had to pick his battles. The theatre also had several band e robberies that were inside jobs. They went trough the roof only took pay check cash from drawers! Not computers and other items.
It is so sad that Page Manor Twin closed. I ran a movie group for moms and kids in the mornings on Mondays and Tuesdays there, and we miss it very much. Mr. Kinney and Mr. Augustine were very nice (although it was tough to get them to return a call for theater rental information). I hope that someone re-opens the theater with more trust-worthy employees. It’s really nice inside, but sad when the lock on the front door is just some wire to keep it shut. I considered offering to run the theater while I was there, and now I wish I would have knowing now that the people working it were so dishonest. I’m sad to see it go. But thanks Mr. Augustine and Mr. Kinney for a few good movies while it lasted.
Katie
I grew up on Spinning Road, and remember when Page Manor was a state-of-the-art theatre when it opened back in 1967. I remember, as a 7-year-old, seeing Planet of the Apes with my mom there.
Dr. Creep was there for a lot of events in later years, from what I understand. Could it ever be opened again?
Must have been bad management when I worked for LOEWS In Nashville,Tennessee,the money was watched very close and all conncessions were inventoried at least once a day sometimes more,this is a very poor excuse.
When i worked for GCC we inventoried the whole concession,not just what was out in the concession stand,but the stock room of boxes and boxes of candy.And we did this every night not just Thursday night when the weekly reports had to be sent off to Boston.Plez don’t blame it on staff.Too many old theatre dawgs out here know better.