Boxoffice-October.01.1955

Huge cones of spun sugar are popular with the kiddies who attend the Cinema Park Drive-ln Theatre,
Calgary, Alberta. Manager K. A. McGregor sells the cones lor ten cents, although traveling fairs that
come to town charge 15 cents. "We have to look for repeat business," he says, "and the profit is
still about 94 per cent"
CANDY FLOSS, AN OLD CIRCUS ITEM,
SPINS HIGH PROFITS FOR DRIVE-IN
Looking for a high profit item
with plenty of appeal for the kiddies, Mr.
Drive-In Exhibitor?
Consider then, the 10,000 cones of candy
floss sold during the 1954 season, the first
year the item was offered, at the Cinema
Park Drive-In Theatre, Calgary, Alberta.
The cones sell for 10 cents and the percentage
of profit is about 94 per cent, excluding
labor. The tremendous number of
cones was sold during the April to November
.season the drive-in operates which included
two months of .snow with rain most
of the remaining time.
The reason labor is not taken into the
cost and profit picture is because the girl
who works the floss machine also works at
other jobs. She can get the machine ready
to go in about ten minutes, and when she
is not .selling floss she is selling other items
in the concessions bar.
To set up in business, K. A. McGregor,
manager of the 1,102-seat Cinema Park,
bought a Whirlwind candy floss machine
for $250.
"At first the operation of the machine
had me worried," McGregor says, "but
after a week's run this was all changed.
I brought in a girl who was experienced
in this field to train my other girls, and in
no time all my girls were handling the
machine like veterans.
16
"A fair set of directions came with the
machine and it takes very little time to get
it ready. We mix our sugar with the flossine
flavors well in advance, and then it
is simply a matter of putting the flavored
sugar into the machine and waiting for
the unit to heat up.
"Of course you can make the floss cones
only so fast and it is impossible to stack
This is part of the
extensive playground,
which includes a
miniature train, at
the Cinema Park
The concessions
stand shown above
is located in the
playground area and
is supplementary to
the larger one in the
theatre proper. Most
of the candy floss
cones arc sold to
the children who
come early to enjoy
the playground be
lore showtime, which
is late in Canada.
them. We find that we can stack approximately
ten to 20 at a time, but they
will fall flat if left for any length of time,
and if it is damp they cannot be stacked
at all. The dampness turns the spun syrup
back in sugar. They really look sick when
this happens.
"When we have an intermission when we
know there will be a lot of kiddie traffic
we leave one girl on the machine and the
rest of the girls put their orders in to her.
or else she makes them continuously, setting
them up on a specially made rack from
which the other girls can get them as
needed. One girl cannot make them and
sell them during an intermission if you are
selling any quantity at all."
SELL MOST BEFORE SHOW
Actually, McGregor says, the candy floss
sells best before showtime, since it is not
possible to get on the screen very early in
Calgary: further, since it is strictly a kiddie
item, the best sales are made during
the months that school is out.
McGregor recommends purchasing the
paper cones already made up until the
candy floss operation gets rolling. Later
the concessions girls can learn to make
them with paper already cut out.
There is only one problem with candy
floss and that is the sticky film that rises
to the ceiling of the concessions stand.
However, McGregor has licked this by having
a small, supplementary snack bar in
his elaborate playground called "Parky's
Midway."
"I have found," he says, "the best thing
to do is to place the unit in a corner where
the wind will not blow the film out over
the rest of the counter, and you just have
to clean up every so often. I might mention,
too, that the girls working this machine
will get covered from head to foot
at the start, but as time goes on they just
get covered from the waist up!
"All kidding aside, this is the messy part
of the business, but the kids sure go for it!"
The MODERN THEATRE SECTION