A sensible plea from a concerned parent, submitted to I, Anonymous:

It is true that I could have used a nicer tone. And I understand that you want to be a good corporate, minimum-wage making schmuck. I get it. You are doing your job, and so I don’t object when you tried to supersize my daughter as she purchased a small coke and popcorn at your theater. We have prepared her for this, and she politely told you no. All is good.

But this is what I don’t get. You then try appealing to me, her parent, in your effort to persuade my daughter that more must mean better. That although the small popcorn and coke already contain more than ½ the calories that she will need for the entire day, she was being foolish for not spending the extra 25 cents to get even more of that greasy popcorn and sugar water you call food. Do you really expect that any semi-sensible parent would support you in that undertaking? That we would want to encourage our children to develop those habits that will inevitably lead them to becoming obese. At least with this, I suspect you won’t make the same mistake twice.

To all the popcorn-scooping and sugar-water dispensing jockeys out there, I am not asking you to be a superhero. I am not asking that you defy the Man or anything so banal. I’m just asking that you consider foregoing the hard sell when the customer is a child. No one will be the wiser and you will have done a small but nonetheless good deed for the day.