In the grand scheme of things - rapidly heating oceans, increasing storms, resource wars - a little local difficulty over a dying cinema chain in the UK is a long, long way down the pecking order. In fact it shouldn't even be entering our conciousness at all.
Except ....
Except in many ways it can be read as a cypher for everything that's happening. If you don't know the background to Cineworld's death spiral I'll fill you in with the basics. A few months ago they decided to introduce - without any consultation apparently - allocated seating. This means that when you go to watch a film you are required to sit in a certain seat.
So until a couple of weeks ago a trip to Cineworld was a relatively stress-free experience. The screens were nearly always practically empty and you could just turn up and sit where you wanted. Now a cinema screen is an interesting example of a human social environment. Every single screen is different. The people in the showing are different each time and range across the social spectrum. Some are quiet, some noisy, some ignorant, some cultured, some smell. Who they are and where they are are a mystery until you enter the screening.
Cineworld ignored all this. Allocated seating was introduced overnight to EVERY screen, EVERY showing. You could choose the general area where you could sit, but of course this means nothing out in the foyer. It was pot luck.
And - amazingly - as tickets were sold customers were generally seated TOGETHER, so in quiet showings you'd have say 5 people all SAT TOGETHER!!
The uproar over this madness has been incredible. Fights have broken out and there's a lot of ill feeling. Twitter and Facebook are full of it. The staff are at the sharp end. Incredibly the seat numbering is not even illuminated and as soon as a film starts groups of latecomers arrive stumbling about in the dark for 'their' seats. Unlimited card holders are leaving in their thousands. Yet Cineworld keep insisting that the majority of their customers love allocated seating. It's bullshit piled on bullshit. We are cancelling our cards today as well.
Cineworld have in a matter of weeks become a running joke amongst those of us that study business and economics. It's also a rare chance to watch - as it happens - the death of a company by its own hand.
In the grand scheme of things this is nothing but it points out very sharply a lot of the ills facing the corporate state. Dictatorship from the 'top' down, disregarding and ignoring customers. Ignoring human nature. Deliberate risk taking. And an inability to learn.
Perhaps the cinema market is oversupplied, and Cineworld are volunteering themselves for a sort of Dignitas? Who knows? And indeed who actually cares? We can see the films a few months later on telly anyway. And who wants to pay £3 for a bag of wine gums ...
