INNISFAIL - While some companies are raising the prices of their goods or services due to the recession, increased minimum wage costs and the pending arrival the carbon tax, Derek Austin is lowering his.
Small businessman Derek Austin has owned Innisfail's historic Century Theatre since 2000, and for the past 16 years he has had to battle hard against the big movie theatre companies to survive.
And while it has not been easy, he is still at it and providing local citizens with a viable entertainment service.
However, like all other businessmen he has had to find new strategies to weather the bad-news climate of today's recession. This time he will not raise admission prices. No, he is taking a contrary approach. Austin is slashing them.
“With more people in the seats it basically means it's offsetting my costs, which are fairly consistent,” said Austin. “I think some of the other theatres, like the smaller ones like mine, have reduced their prices before. I always tried to be competitive with them but I wanted to be cheaper than Red Deer.
“I wasn't far off from them but obviously double and triple screens are the big thing,” he added, noting his operation had 3-D and digital technology before they were installed in Red Deer. “People can go together but they don't have to watch the same show.”
His decision to cut admission prices follows a recent move by corporate giant Cineplex that admission prices were increasing, albeit in a small way – between 22 and 51 cents per ticket, and not at every theatre. The increase is due to minimum wage increases in the country over the past five years. In Alberta, where the highest minimum wage hikes have occurred, there was a jump from $9.40 to $12.20 per hour, a rise of 29.7 per cent. A company quarterly notice reportedly stated about 89 per cent of Cineplex's 13,000 workers make minimum wage.
Meanwhile, local moviegoers will soon see a more dramatic admission cost change at Century Theatre, and it's going down, not up.
For adults Austin is lowering admission prices from $12 to $9.50, children go from $8 to $6, while ticket prices for seniors and youth are going from $10 to $7.50.
And while that may be attractive for more locals to switch to Century Theatre instead of driving 12 minutes to catch a flick at Cineplex's multi-screen Galaxy Cinemas, Austin still has to battle the movie companies to get top movies sooner.
“I am a first-run movie place but because I don't have the numbers that they want I don't get them. Because I don't get them right off the bat it means I have to change the movies every week,” said Austin, hoping with his new strategy he will soon have the numbers that will enable him to get top movies sooner. “It's all economics. If a theatre doesn't make enough money the movie companies don't give us the films. You are in a real dilemma and now I am looking more at the townspeople and see what we can do this way.
“I still feel it has a good place,” said Austin of the prospects for his business. “It is just tweaking it enough.”
Derek Austin, owner of Innisfail's Century Theatre
"With more people in the seats it basically means it's offsetting my costs, which are fairly consistent."
