A North Texas man has filed a class action lawsuit against Cinemark, claiming the movie theater chain is lying to customers about the size of its drinks.
Shane Waldrop claims that Cinemark’s 24 ounce cups can only hold 22 ounces of liquid, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
On Feb. 14, Waldrop went to the Cinemark in Grapevine and purchased the 20 ounce and 24 ounce draft beer.
He noticed the 24 ounce cup did not appear to be big enough to hold 4 more ounces of liquid.
Waldrop took the empty container home and measured how much it could hold, discovering it only held 22 ounces.
Waldrop and his legal team says the movie theater chain is taking part in “deceptive” and “otherwise improper” business practices that violate state and federal laws about misbranding.
“This is especially misleading because the 24 oz drink should provide a deal for consumers over the 20 oz drink’s price: $0.37 per ounce vs. $0.39 per ounce. But due to the actual volume of 22 oz available in the ‘24 oz’ drink, the price is $0.40 per ounce making the larger drink more expensive per ounce, which is not a deal at all,” reads the lawsuit.
He did the math.
That old thing where they stopped dispensing 24 oz of beer and some idiot decided not to buy 24 oz cups anymore to save more money.
What if 22oz of beer (volume) WEIGHED 24oz (mass)?
As a Brit, I find a lot of American units confusing but that makes my head hurt more than usual.
According to the website below, searching for “beer”, 22 oz weighs 23.281 oz. So it’s close!
Wouldn’t this mean that beer would need to be 8% more dense than water for this to work out? Quickly searching online, it seems like beer is more like 1% more dense than water, depending on the type of beer, so not sure this is possible.
Wait, I thought ounces were weight but liquid ounces were volume, making this irrelevant?
1 fl oz (volume) of water weighs about 1 oz (weight). It varies depending on a bunch of stuff, ya know, cause imperial sucks, but I believe the standard rate is 1 fl oz weighs about 1.043 oz. So assuming beer has similar density as water, 22 fl oz would weigh somewhere around 23 oz.
(Some Google searches show that some definitions of fl oz has it as 1 fl oz = 30 ml exactly, but I’m starting to confuse myself and you know how infuriating imperial is.)
The US customary units are officially defined on top of metric, and 1 fl oz is 29.5735295625 mL, but an oz is 28.349523125 g. I imagine this decision was just to fuck with people (since 1ml of water weighs 1g at sea level, at 4°)
Godspeed.
I’m usually against frivolous cases like this over nothing, but if he actually did measure that it’s impossible to hold 24 oz in a cup labeled that way, then he does have a good case. I think the case would be more on the supplier that provides the cups to Cinemark though, and less on the theater that’s taking the word of the supplier.
I think the case would be more on the supplier that provides the cups to Cinemark though
That’s a matter for Cinemark and their supplier to sort out (either through discussion or another lawsuit). This man had a contract with the vendor (Cinemark) which is why he’s suing them.
Not frivolous
This is only frivolous if you think of it as being about 2 ounces of beer. Its not. Its about hundreds of thousands of people paying for something that they did not recieve. When you add it all up its quite a lot of stolen money! Also its absolutely Cinemark’s fault, even assuming they were given the wrong cups by the distributor (which is a bad assumption) its on Cinemark to make sure they are providing what they claim they are.
There’s also no way they were unaware it was happening. They track sales and inventory, when there’s consistently ~8% too much beer someone knows about it.
Texas, land of justice
Waldrop took the empty container home and measured how much it could hold, discovering it only held 22 ounces.
Bro really pulled out the scientific instruments and everything 😭
Yes, scientific instruments like measuring cups
i’mjusttryingtobefunny TwT
At least you tried 😊
He really needed those last 2 ounces of beer
If the amount I’m being priced for is that amount and you short me? Fuck yeah. We should never be ok with not getting what we paid for. There’s too much shrinkflation and deception.
Yeah I’m with you, 2oz is nice big drink, if they’re saying it’s 24oz it needs to be at least 24oz.
Do you really need the last 8% of the pay that you earned?
In Canada a pint is a legal measurement of 20oz / 568ml
If you advertise beer on the menu as a pint, it must be at least 19.5oz excluding head(allowable margin of error)
What happens though is countless places advertise a pint, and then give you something like 16-18oz which is against the law.
It’s gets harder tell what you’re getting as well when they serve in non standard pint glasses, or glasses without a pint mark.
So the legal requirement in Canada is not an actual pint?
It’s a pint. Just not a US pint.
Is this some imperial joke I’m too metric to understand?
Imperial pints are standardized as 20fl.oz. But the US uses cups to measure pints instead of fluid ounces. In the US each pint is 2 cups, and each cup is 8fl.oz. So in the US, a pint is actually 4fl.oz smaller, because it’s measured in cups instead of fl.oz.
You’re in a band?
An imperial pint is 20 fl oz, a US pint is 16 fl oz.
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This is something that happens every year at the Oktoberfest in Munich. Legally, the “Maß” should be 1l, but the standards office regularly measure the contents way below that mark, even if one allows for a certain margin of error.
bring your own pint glass. and a lawyer to every bar you go to. bam ez money
Pay for your law degree this way then be the lawyer to save on costs! Travel the country for free indefinitely!
Ah, so that’s what the 4th Littlest Hobo remake is going to be like.
Legit question: does the FDA do a weights and measures things for restaurants?
Nope (afaik)
Having owned, partly owned, or at least been very friendly with restaurant and bar owners…
…no, no they do not. Maybe they do if you end up on some radar or something, or get reported? But in general day to day and inspections, no.
In the UK, and I suspect in other countries as well, you have to use the right cups and glasses for the right drinks. So for beer you will have to use the beer glass that the brewery provide. I don’t think you can just go out and get any old cup from a shop and use that. You have to use the calibrated ones.
Apologies, I should have been more specific. I meant does some sort of regulation or team or anything involving weights and measures exist at all for food service? Or is the only thing the theaters did “wrong” in this case false advertising?
I understand enforcement for an FDA regulation/whatever may be lacking. I’ve worked in a restaurant and other food service related places before but I was young and pretty low level so I wasn’t super tuned into the business side let alone laws/regulations outside of basic food handling.
There’s a separate weights and measures office here https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm
I’m not sure exactly what that’d change about this situation, but they seem to publish standards based on industry majorities, so there’s a proper baseline.
Thank you, that’s exactly what I was wondering about.
Usually use tort law and not administrative or codified law for this sort of thing.
TIL, thank you
If this guy doesn’t get a “we salute you” ad by the beer companies, there’s no justice left in the world.
🎵 Mister every ounce of beer is precious man 🎵
If the beer gets wasted, God gets quite irate
I’m still fascinated that “calibrated” glasses are not more common. In Germany, you won’t get any beer without any markings where the volume is indicated.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Füllstrich#/media/Datei%3AWeizenbier.jpg
Calibrated glasses are very on-brand for Germany.
They are and are actually enforced by the EU: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004L0022
They’re such a good idea we’ve even kept them after Brexit.
EU, I belive in you!
Because capitalism…
The free markets will figure it out!
The US is a wild west of suggestions masquerading as regulations. If your ledger doesn’t have room for the decimals places needed to record the fine, it’s not a fine.
Some US states have some sort of department of weights and measures. I’ve contacted mine before about such issues and they take them very seriously, sending out an inspection team to test the claim. What they can do to enforce things depends on the state, though.
I totally approve of these types of lawsuits.
I do too, but I wonder what kind of mental problem that guy has to invest money in lawyer and court fees, plus tons of personal time, to get this going.
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The mental problem of wanting to earn a lot of money in a lawsuit. Mans gonna get three, maybe even four bucks outta this
I should cover the missing 2 oz he didn’t get in his beer
I mean I joke but it’s not about the money he will earn, it’s about the money Cinemark will lose.
Hopefully it’s about sending a message that casually dropping 10% of delivered goods as a matter of policy isn’t going to fly.
I hope the judge makes it hurt for Cinemark, assuming this was actual policy and not just a case of them using different cups that day from being out of the normal ones.
The lawyer probably took the case on a contingent basis (doesn’t get paid unless he wins), and the dude will probably get a fat check. That’s not a mental problem, that’s cashing in big on a corporate lie he discovered.
a fat check.
idk how much he’ll actually get considering his damages are a couple ounces of beer.
As a Class Action lawsuit, it is a couple ounces of beer across every person who has ordered a 24oz. Could be pretty lucrative
each member of the class is gonna get the cash value of 2 oz beer * number of short beers they bought * .6 (assuming 40% attorneys fees). Nobody’s retiring off this money.
Pretty lucrative for the lawyers. Each person who has ordered a beer in the past few years will get a check in the mail for 3¢, and a coupon for a free beer next time they go.
The mental illness known as “tired of everyone getting fucked with no recourse”
I should ask my psychologist if she can help me get rid of that feeling without focusing on just the symptoms.
He appears to have some kind of backbone
That’s the primary feature of texans. It’s so big it actually fills most of the cranium.
I’d rather be courageous than smart
Yes, the world needs more knuckle-dragging grunts to take advantage of.
i guess a dash of autism.
If anything this is a good example of how society would be worse off if everyone were neurotypical
that or our hero is just bored and petty as fuck!
I don’t see this as petty at all. Don’t fuck my weights and measures, and we ain’t got a problem.
Well, petty from a single person, single occurrence prespective. On the large scale this is a pretty huge scam.
L take, not everyone is autistic.
that or our hero is just bored and petty as fuck!
I dunno, standards? Principles?
Sometimes it’s about that, not personal gain
Isn’t it fucked up that expecting what you paid for has left people asking what mental problems he has? That’s how far we’ve fallen.
Yup. Pretty messed up
Yeah but everyone knows being anything other than a conniving mole is a sign “mental illness”. The only legitimate way to live is like a scurrying beetle, telling whatever lies one can to gain favor with the elite.
We’ve gotten so used to oligarchy that we don’t even see it when it has infected us. That’s scary and sad at the same time.
None, these types of cases barely ever go to trial, they will end with a settlement of which the lawyers will take a portion as compensation.
Judges decide the law, juries decide the facts. Juries are only needed if there is a material dispute of the facts. I doubt this case would have a jury even if it didn’t end in a settlement.
My apologies, go to trial is the term.
Yup lawyers who take these kinds of cases that are easy wins, do it on contingency. If they don’t think you have a good case they tell you, and then charge you hourly.
I’m missing understanding some things here, but how much is the case about to handout in money? And shouldn’t the guy here split it between himself and lawyers?
Depends on what the guy and the cinema agree upon to make this go away. Usually the lawyers will take 30-40% of a settlement.
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Everything the cinema did can be considered fraud and false advertising. Potentially millions if they play it right.
Works on contingency? No, money down!
And by “a portion”, they mean “the entire thing”: the average member of the class will be lucky to get a check worth the time it takes to deposit it.
The plaintiff(s) in a class action usually gets a pretty decent chunk - substantially more than the class members because they are the one’s doing all the work on the class’s behalf
The payout for class members depends on the number of people who sign up, which generally depends on the burden of proof. If you need to provide a receipt the payout is generally much higher because it gets split up fewer ways. I’ve gotten class action payouts as high as $300 when all I had to do was dig up through my bank records to find out the date of a transaction, and as low as $2, when all I had to do was click a link and enter my email address
I was a member of a class action suit once.
I think I got about 50 dollars over the course of two payouts. Which was significantly more than my “damages”, so I was happy.
What made me less happy was they printed the checks on these non-standard size or material cards, so my bankat the time gave me a hell of a time trying to deposit the 100% non-standard sized or material check.
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Alcoholism
What a puritanical douche
No, it just takes one to know one.
Yes, having a drink while out and about having a good time is definitely a sign of alcoholism…
Having enough that you’re min-maxing the number of cents per unit of ethanol might be
Something tells me you’d be far less mocking about it if it was you getting sold something, and not getting the full amount.
Oh, I wasn’t mocking.
At a movie theatre that could be serious money lol
Unfortunately I’m seeing far too often younger people think that having a single beer makes you an alcoholic.
One of the many symptoms of autism is having a very strong sense of justice and demanding fairness in all things, sometimes to an obsessive degree. He’s probably just one of us.
L take, not everyone is autistic.
Yeah that’s why this kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time.
I don’t think the “us” in that furrie’s statement is inclusive of everyone
Brb, pouring out two ounces for my poor, disadvantaged, neurotypical homies.
Not everyone would spend the money and time to sue a business over 2 ounces of liquid, either.
If they get punitive damages it might be a lot more than that.
Lawyer might do it for 0 upront and % of settlement if they think there’s a decent prospect of that.Working on contigent. The guy gets a large payout and the lawyers take a percentage.
large? That’s not how class action works at all.
Large overall, not saying anything about the amount per person.
Huh.
Yes! Do ISPs next!
I wonder if they used to have bigger cups, changed suppliers, and didn’t bother to update the menus
That’s actually my thought, though even if it was a mistake, it had to go through multiple people before the 22oz cup made it into this guys hand. I hope he wins
I really don’t think the term “piss beer” is that literal
