The 1890 Best Theater in West, which began as a saloon. Photo by Karnegie Musa. Copyright 2010.

I went to see The Social Network with my daughter last week.

I picked her up from work and drove to the near by theater.  Inside, there was one man working both concessions and ticket sales for the 16-screen theater.

Two long lines.  Both at the concession stand.  One for tickets. One for snacks.

The line was long at the concession, and at the hand-lettered “tickets” at one of the concession stand cash registers.

Every three or four minutes the harried employee would speak into his handset requesting a Tommy to come to the front.   I realized after waiting in line for quite some time that “Tommy” was a fictional employee meant to divert the customer’s line waiting rage away from the actual person.

I will grant you the employee moved quickly.  When my daughter and I got our tickets, he merely gave us a receipt and told us which theater number to enter.  As we walked in, we realized there was no one taking tickets.

“We wasted that money,” my daughter said. “We could have seen it for free.”

I gave the usual pay-for-what-you-get speech, but privately I noted my feelings were in agreement.

When we went to the movie theater, my daughter was even more disgusted.

“It’s the smallest, crappiest theater here,” she complained.

The economic forces from cable and satellite providers’ movies-on-demand and iTunes continue to eat away at the movie theater.  Because of the lack of personnel running the theater, I immediately noticed Cinemark Holdings plans to have its new Frisco cinema lobby “to be designed around of Cinemark’s innovative self-serve concession stands.”  

In other words, some type of vending machine will sit in the lobby instead of employees serving popcorn and soda.

The movie on FaceBook seemed oddly appropriate.  As technology shifts the economy, true face-to-face human interaction becomes rare and expensive.