6 ms·

I love the drive in, but in a time of pandemic I don’t understand how the common resources like restrooms and food could be considered safe. It seems like a pla

I love the drive in, but in a time of pandemic I don’t understand how the common resources like restrooms and food could be considered safe. It seems like a place at high risk for transmission between the hundreds of patrons that use them each night.

Robotbeat 7y ago
Concessions closed. Single movies (on the short side) only. Go to bathroom at home.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  A lot of people (me included) won't make it through a round-trip drive plus an entire movie. The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Also, cinemas make almost all of their profit from concessions, so if you remove those they're going to have to charge more for the tickets themselves to make up for it. Will people be willing to spend this much?
  - Robotbeat 7y ago
    I read some articles about drive-in theaters last month during social distancing, and they closed the concessions and encouraged people to bring snacks from home. They compensated by increasing the price a bit. Still plenty of takers.
  - em-bee 7y ago
    when entertainment options are limited, people are likely willing to pay more. concessions can be sold drive through style without personal interaction. only restrooms are really a problem
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Concession income isn’t an issue when the option is not open and make no money/lose money or open and make a little money. Not to mention the smaller ones could qualify for the SBA PPP.
  - pc86 7y ago
    Then don't go. This is trying to give some people some sense of normalcy. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine, don't partake. But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea because a small minority of people can't hold their bladder for 2 hours.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      It's a lot more than a "small minority" of people that wouldn't want no access to a bathroom for 3 hours (we need to include the drive time, remember). But yes, you could do it safely if you required people to stay in their cars the entire time and provided no services, not even bathrooms. I honestly don't see this being that attractive a proposition to most people though. And I've never been to a drive-in theater in my life, so I don't know about restoring normalcy. Restoring normalcy would be going to a regular theater. A drive-in theater would be a novelty that I'm only experiencing because of the pandemic.
    - watwut 7y ago
      It is significantly easier to feel normalcy watching movie at home where I have done it many times. Rather then in drive through cinema you was never in before, sit in car and where you can't go to restroom.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    > The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Do you pee at the grocery store these days too? You couldn't pay me anything to use a public restroom anywhere in the US until we have a cure for this virus. I go to the bathroom before I make a store run. And I make store runs very infrequently, they are very concise runs, I avoid everyone, and I go only during extreme off hours, and I wear an N95 face mask that I heat sterilize afterwards. I also extensively sterilize everything I buy, which takes nearly a whole day to do properly. Things I can't directly sanitize go into a queue in the garage and are not used for 20 days. Going into any public bathroom is an unnecessary risk. These drive in theatre bathrooms should be closed and locked, as should public restrooms in parks. Laws against urinating in public such as in the bushes at a public park should be suspended. Peeing into a cup in one's car should be promoted as a safer alternative to finding a public bathroom. These are all temporary measures but are necessary. Public bathrooms being non-negotiable? Then stay home.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      I actually did pee at the grocery store a few days ago, but I've already had COVID-19. I probably wouldn't risk it if I weren't already immune, so point taken about avoiding them and making sure to go at home first, etc. I agree that public bathrooms are a risk. When I said "the bathrooms are non-negotiable", what I meant is "I'm not going if there's not a bathroom", and if there's no bathroom because it's not safe, then a lot of people aren't going.
    - watwut 7y ago
      Grocery store trip is shorter even as we limited it to once a week, have a lot more to buy and more to wait. Also, we grocery store cause we have no choice. Not be a use we would be seeking comfort and pleasure as in cinema.
  - LanceH 7y ago
    >A lot of people (me included) won't make it through a round-trip drive plus an entire movie. The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Well, if you can't nobody should be allowed to.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      Nice strawman you've got there. At no point was I saying anything should be banned.
      - LanceH 7y ago
        "The bathrooms are non-negotiable." That certainly implies bathrooms or nothing.
        CydeWeys 7y ago
        For me. I'm not going if there's no bathrooms. Or I'd just pee outside. Anyway it's academic since I don't have a car, but other people who do would be making these same calculations. Doubt you're gonna take a whole family if there are no bathrooms; you're practically guaranteeing an accident or leaving early.
  - p1mrx 7y ago
    They could deliver diapers to cars. The novelty might be good for business.
- blondin 7y ago
  was going to suggest how great it would be for cinema systems to connect to your smart car! for what? i don't know... talk to someone, stream audio to your car, trivia about the movie, games for kids, etc... and then i saw the no public restrooms. naw... some of us won't make it.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    > stream audio to your car Usually they use low-power FM radio stations for this.
- dpcan 7y ago
  Ohhhhh to be able to make it through a movie without having to go to the bathroom. And then to sit in line in a car to get in and out of a drive-in. I don't think it's even legal in most communities in the U.S. to not have facilities where people gather. We take hygiene pretty seriously in this regard.
starpilot 7y ago
Use pee bottle if you're male.
- GordonS 7y ago
  Similar solutions are available for females too, such as the shewee: https://www.shewee.com https://www.shewee.com
- dpcan 7y ago
  The first person to desperately need to defecate is going to pretty much ruin the drive-in movie experience for everyone.
  - dylan604 7y ago
    Maybe that would not be a bad thing?
  - userbinator 7y ago
    Fortunately, humans need to defecate far less often than they urinate.
no_comments5788 7y ago
You don't understand. That's the issue, not that all the bathrooms are most assuredly where all the people get sick. If bathrooms we're unable to be cleaned and virus transmission was an unacceptable risk THAT WOULD ALWAYS BE. Just because one more virus is being transmitted, in addition to the multitude of viruses active AT ALL TIMES, doesn't mean public restrooms are unusable. I swear to God you people have ZERO concept of the physical world.
catalogia 7y ago
In my town all "non-essential businesses" are closed, yet I'm still able to go to 7-11 to buy hotdogs off their roller machine. (And you can bet I do!) I don't see why hotdogs from a drive-in movie theater concession stand would be any worse.
- dpcan 7y ago
  They aren't. And your 7-11 should probably stop doing this too. I think we are taking a pretty big risk as it is eating food prepared by potentially sick people even when it's takeout or drive-through. I'll do a take-and-bake pizza only because I'll get the temp up to about 200 before I eat the thing - hopefully deactivating the virus in the process.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    Fortune favors the bold.
    - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
      As do highly transmissable respiratory diseases.
    - Animats 7y ago
      "Life favors the prepared" - Edna Mode
      - catalogia 7y ago
        A life spent cowering is hardly a life worth living, do you want to live forever?
  - dehrmann 7y ago
    > I think we are taking a pretty big risk While it doesn't call out recently prepared food, the CDC disagrees: > Coronaviruses are generally thought to be spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food. Before preparing or eating food, it is important to always wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds for general food safety. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/newsletter/food-safety-and-Coronavirus.html https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/newsletter/food-safety-and-Co...
servercobra 7y ago
You could close concessions or make it delivery. You text your order or something, maybe even put a little table outside each slot or put the food on the hood for contactless delivery. For restrooms, they could replace the normal interior ones with porta-potties. You could at least tape out the social distancing line and have a few more porta-potties than you'd normally have. All this would mean higher prices though.
- viklove 7y ago
  I don't understand how people can think it's safe to eat food prepared by someone else, as long as you don't go near them. You know food is a transmission vector, right? If the cook or the waiter are sick, chances are they're infecting their patrons.
  - ksk 7y ago
    Yep.. our oral cavity has a ton of ACE2 receptors (much more than the lungs). Apart from eating it, in a round about way, I think people do recognize that its a vector, as the food container/packaging still qualifies as a surface that you can catch it off of.
droithomme 7y ago
We need to socially normalize peeing into a cup. My dad certainly made it the only option when we did cross country drives. No way were we stopping at the rest stop, that would ruin our record transit time. He wasn't the only dad, these stories are common. "Pee in a cup, it won't mess your lungs up."

Robotbeat 7y ago

Concessions closed. Single movies (on the short side) only. Go to bathroom at home.

CydeWeys 7y ago
A lot of people (me included) won't make it through a round-trip drive plus an entire movie. The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Also, cinemas make almost all of their profit from concessions, so if you remove those they're going to have to charge more for the tickets themselves to make up for it. Will people be willing to spend this much?
- Robotbeat 7y ago
  I read some articles about drive-in theaters last month during social distancing, and they closed the concessions and encouraged people to bring snacks from home. They compensated by increasing the price a bit. Still plenty of takers.
- em-bee 7y ago
  when entertainment options are limited, people are likely willing to pay more. concessions can be sold drive through style without personal interaction. only restrooms are really a problem
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Concession income isn’t an issue when the option is not open and make no money/lose money or open and make a little money. Not to mention the smaller ones could qualify for the SBA PPP.
- pc86 7y ago
  Then don't go. This is trying to give some people some sense of normalcy. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine, don't partake. But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea because a small minority of people can't hold their bladder for 2 hours.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    It's a lot more than a "small minority" of people that wouldn't want no access to a bathroom for 3 hours (we need to include the drive time, remember). But yes, you could do it safely if you required people to stay in their cars the entire time and provided no services, not even bathrooms. I honestly don't see this being that attractive a proposition to most people though. And I've never been to a drive-in theater in my life, so I don't know about restoring normalcy. Restoring normalcy would be going to a regular theater. A drive-in theater would be a novelty that I'm only experiencing because of the pandemic.
  - watwut 7y ago
    It is significantly easier to feel normalcy watching movie at home where I have done it many times. Rather then in drive through cinema you was never in before, sit in car and where you can't go to restroom.
- droithomme 7y ago
  > The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Do you pee at the grocery store these days too? You couldn't pay me anything to use a public restroom anywhere in the US until we have a cure for this virus. I go to the bathroom before I make a store run. And I make store runs very infrequently, they are very concise runs, I avoid everyone, and I go only during extreme off hours, and I wear an N95 face mask that I heat sterilize afterwards. I also extensively sterilize everything I buy, which takes nearly a whole day to do properly. Things I can't directly sanitize go into a queue in the garage and are not used for 20 days. Going into any public bathroom is an unnecessary risk. These drive in theatre bathrooms should be closed and locked, as should public restrooms in parks. Laws against urinating in public such as in the bushes at a public park should be suspended. Peeing into a cup in one's car should be promoted as a safer alternative to finding a public bathroom. These are all temporary measures but are necessary. Public bathrooms being non-negotiable? Then stay home.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    I actually did pee at the grocery store a few days ago, but I've already had COVID-19. I probably wouldn't risk it if I weren't already immune, so point taken about avoiding them and making sure to go at home first, etc. I agree that public bathrooms are a risk. When I said "the bathrooms are non-negotiable", what I meant is "I'm not going if there's not a bathroom", and if there's no bathroom because it's not safe, then a lot of people aren't going.
  - watwut 7y ago
    Grocery store trip is shorter even as we limited it to once a week, have a lot more to buy and more to wait. Also, we grocery store cause we have no choice. Not be a use we would be seeking comfort and pleasure as in cinema.
- LanceH 7y ago
  >A lot of people (me included) won't make it through a round-trip drive plus an entire movie. The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Well, if you can't nobody should be allowed to.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    Nice strawman you've got there. At no point was I saying anything should be banned.
    - LanceH 7y ago
      "The bathrooms are non-negotiable." That certainly implies bathrooms or nothing.
      - CydeWeys 7y ago
        For me. I'm not going if there's no bathrooms. Or I'd just pee outside. Anyway it's academic since I don't have a car, but other people who do would be making these same calculations. Doubt you're gonna take a whole family if there are no bathrooms; you're practically guaranteeing an accident or leaving early.
- p1mrx 7y ago
  They could deliver diapers to cars. The novelty might be good for business.
blondin 7y ago
was going to suggest how great it would be for cinema systems to connect to your smart car! for what? i don't know... talk to someone, stream audio to your car, trivia about the movie, games for kids, etc... and then i saw the no public restrooms. naw... some of us won't make it.
- catalogia 7y ago
  > stream audio to your car Usually they use low-power FM radio stations for this.
dpcan 7y ago
Ohhhhh to be able to make it through a movie without having to go to the bathroom. And then to sit in line in a car to get in and out of a drive-in. I don't think it's even legal in most communities in the U.S. to not have facilities where people gather. We take hygiene pretty seriously in this regard.

starpilot 7y ago

Use pee bottle if you're male.

GordonS 7y ago
Similar solutions are available for females too, such as the shewee: https://www.shewee.com https://www.shewee.com
dpcan 7y ago
The first person to desperately need to defecate is going to pretty much ruin the drive-in movie experience for everyone.
- dylan604 7y ago
  Maybe that would not be a bad thing?
- userbinator 7y ago
  Fortunately, humans need to defecate far less often than they urinate.

no_comments5788 7y ago

You don't understand. That's the issue, not that all the bathrooms are most assuredly where all the people get sick. If bathrooms we're unable to be cleaned and virus transmission was an unacceptable risk THAT WOULD ALWAYS BE. Just because one more virus is being transmitted, in addition to the multitude of viruses active AT ALL TIMES, doesn't mean public restrooms are unusable. I swear to God you people have ZERO concept of the physical world.

catalogia 7y ago

In my town all "non-essential businesses" are closed, yet I'm still able to go to 7-11 to buy hotdogs off their roller machine. (And you can bet I do!) I don't see why hotdogs from a drive-in movie theater concession stand would be any worse.

dpcan 7y ago
They aren't. And your 7-11 should probably stop doing this too. I think we are taking a pretty big risk as it is eating food prepared by potentially sick people even when it's takeout or drive-through. I'll do a take-and-bake pizza only because I'll get the temp up to about 200 before I eat the thing - hopefully deactivating the virus in the process.
- catalogia 7y ago
  Fortune favors the bold.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    As do highly transmissable respiratory diseases.
  - Animats 7y ago
    "Life favors the prepared" - Edna Mode
    - catalogia 7y ago
      A life spent cowering is hardly a life worth living, do you want to live forever?
- dehrmann 7y ago
  > I think we are taking a pretty big risk While it doesn't call out recently prepared food, the CDC disagrees: > Coronaviruses are generally thought to be spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food. Before preparing or eating food, it is important to always wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds for general food safety. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/newsletter/food-safety-and-Coronavirus.html https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/newsletter/food-safety-and-Co...

servercobra 7y ago

You could close concessions or make it delivery. You text your order or something, maybe even put a little table outside each slot or put the food on the hood for contactless delivery. For restrooms, they could replace the normal interior ones with porta-potties. You could at least tape out the social distancing line and have a few more porta-potties than you'd normally have. All this would mean higher prices though.

viklove 7y ago
I don't understand how people can think it's safe to eat food prepared by someone else, as long as you don't go near them. You know food is a transmission vector, right? If the cook or the waiter are sick, chances are they're infecting their patrons.
- ksk 7y ago
  Yep.. our oral cavity has a ton of ACE2 receptors (much more than the lungs). Apart from eating it, in a round about way, I think people do recognize that its a vector, as the food container/packaging still qualifies as a surface that you can catch it off of.

droithomme 7y ago

We need to socially normalize peeing into a cup. My dad certainly made it the only option when we did cross country drives. No way were we stopping at the rest stop, that would ruin our record transit time. He wasn't the only dad, these stories are common. "Pee in a cup, it won't mess your lungs up."