Penn Ketchum
Penn Cinema
"Tell me all that you know, I'll show you snow and rain."
Yeah, that's about how it went for us. I won't use this space to recount my "Covid story," other than the one defining conversation that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Part one of said convo was when Drew Sheaffer, our esteemed director of operations, said to me, "It's possible we may have to shut down completely here at some point"—which seemed like crazy talk. Part two was a week later, when we had been closed for a week, and he said to me, "It's possible this thing could last until April." I distinctly recall believing both of those comments to be beyond absurd. Absolute madness. No way. Remember—up until March 2020—Penn Cinema had closed its doors on just three different days over the course of almost 15 years of business. All three days were for blizzards. We don't close. We're open 365 days a year and the idea that we could be closed for two days in a row made my head spin. A week? “Until April"? Nah. No way.
And then the bottom fell out. Again. And again. And again.
What we learned quickly was that we know nothing. Whatever we thought was going to happen next, never happened. Whatever we thought we knew, we didn't. The second thing we quickly decided was that we needed (and on a personal level, wanted) to stay connected with our community. We wanted to stay connected with our customers, our people. We were overjoyed to see that it went both ways—they wanted to stay connected with us, as well! So like any good entrepreneur, we hustled. We sold "Penndemic Popcorn" bags curbside, and literally had cars lined up out the driveway to buy a bag. Our families and friends came in and popped popcorn, while Drew tried to keep all the orders straight. It was a beautiful thing.
The popcorn was clutch for us financially, but it also became clear that it was good for our emotional states, as well. It helped us stay connected. It helped us see that we were not alone in this. On more than one occasion, we had people drive up to buy popcorn and they would start telling us their story and then burst into tears. It was a scary time. But it felt good to be together in it. We saw, quite plainly, that we are not alone and that all those good friendships and relationships we had built over the years were real. It was a beautiful thing (sorry to repeat myself—but it was).
Then we reached the point in quarantine when people started hanging sheets on the side of their buildings and calling it a Drive-In. That's not our style. If we do something, we do it all the way. So after some failed attempts that involved a blow-up screen, scaffolding, and an obscene amount of duct tape, we eventually arrived at the Penn Cinema Drive-In. Something I said we would never do. And yet here we are—now operating a state-of-the-art Drive-In theatre to rave reviews and great feedback from our community. The Drive-In has turned out to be great fun. One night in late fall 2020, I was working and walked around the Drive-In, which was sold out. It was full of families watching some cartoon-type family movie. The moon was out. The scene was like something out of a storybook. No... it was like something out of a movie. It was a beautiful thing.
So what did we do? People like to say we had to "pivot" or "get creative" (cliché much?). I prefer to think of it as doing what we had to do to stay connected. We found ways to stay with our customers and share this global experience with them. After all, all we have is our people. And for me, that is enough. It’s something I will forever be grateful for. Thank you.
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Penn Cinema
Lititz, PA Location:
541 Airport Road
Lititz, PA 17543
(717) 626-7720
