IT HAS been found that Carmarthen has one of the most expensive cinema rates in Wales, and in some instances it costs twice as much to see the same film in the town as it is in Cardiff or Swansea.
Vue, Carmarthen’s only cinema operator, has different prices depending on where you are in Wales.
In Carmarthen, a standard ticket booked online for a 7.45pm showing would cost you £11.74. Yet in Cardiff, the same standard ticket for a showing of the same film at the same time would set you back only £4.75, and a ticket to the same film showing in Swansea at 8pm on a Saturday night would cost just £5.74.
If two adults and two children saw Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again at 8.20pm on a Saturday night in Cardiff, it would cost a total of £19. In Swansea, the same family would have had to pay £22.96, but in Carmarthen, the exact same family would have been charged £42.56.
But now people are taking a stand against the issue, and a Facebook group, called ‘Reasonable Prices at Vue Cinema Carmarthen’, has gained over a thousand likes since being created a few days ago.
A petition for change has also been launched, directed at Shona Gold, Director of Marketing at Vue Cinemas, and already has been signed by over 700 people.
The petition reads: “This petition was not created as a platform to attack Vue Cinemas in any way whatsoever. It was created in order that residents in Carmarthen and the surrounding area can voice their opinions and concerns about the differing prices at the Vue cinema in Carmarthen compared to prices at their cinemas in Swansea and Cardiff.
“Vue cinemas blame the price difference on their ‘dynamic’ pricing structure, based on particular films, times and locations. When the prices are compared at Vue cinemas in Cardiff, Swansea and Carmarthen, the prices at our local cinema are horrendously expensive, and in the majority of cases more than twice the price of an equivalent visit to the cinemas in Swansea and Cardiff. We need comparable reasonable prices to ensure that everyone can enjoy our local cinema in Carmarthen! If you care – please sign and share!”
Vue have explained they operate a dynamic pricing policy, and each branch has a range of individual fixed and variable costs that must be taken into account when prices are determined locally.
The chain does offer special deals such as ‘Super Mondays’, where online codes allow access to cheaper tickets, and ‘Mini Mornings’ which offers reduced ticket prices for certain screenings before 12pm.
The petition can be found at: https://www.change.org/p/vue-cinemas-reasonable-prices-at-vue-cinema-carmarthen
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