The New Parkway Theater is hiring a General Manager for Oakland’s iconic picture pizza pub in the Uptown District. The New Parkway brings together great movies with couches, comfort food, beer and wine. More than a movie theater, it is a community space: a place described by our patrons as their "second living room." A purpose-driven LLC, the New Parkway strives for sustainability, affordability and comfort.
The general manager is responsible for:
Managing the day-to-day operations of the New Parkway’s theater and restaurant
Ensuring proper staffing, training of staff, and compliance with all applicable HR laws and best practices
Serving as the public face of the New Parkway’s Oakland location
Maintaining incredibly high levels of customer satisfaction
Maintaining a clean and highly functioning facility, including enforcing sanitary practices and upkeep of all theater technology
Overseeing theater finances and ensuring that all bills and administrative paperwork are addressed in a timely fashion
Controlling costs and reducing waste throughout the facility
Communicating progress and problems as they arise to the Managing Partner
Required Qualities:
Experience in restaurant and/or movie theater management
Strong attention to detail, including impeccable writing skills
Ability to lead and motivate a staff of 30-40 people
Strong one-on-one and large group communication skills
High level of professionalism, honesty, and punctuality
Solid customer service skills
Ability to read and understand financial statements and reports
Availability and ability to work throughout the week, including nights and weekends
Ability to problem-solve and prioritize effectively
Strong work ethic
Consistently solid judgment
Commitment to excellence
Desired Qualities:
Patience
Strong time management skills
Proficiency with outreach and marketing
Ability to design and implement creative, new programming for the theater as a means of developing/broadening income streams
Love of movies, food, and/or community spaces/causes/activism
Proficiency with various kinds of technology
Ability to fix things
Proficient in Spanish
Compensation: $95,000-120,000, depending on experience, plus benefits including health insurance, dental insurance, PTO, and profit sharing.
Hours: This is an exempt, full-time plus position, 45-60 hours a week
Starting Date: On or around May 15, 2024
Application Process: This is a multi-stage selection process and may involve up to six in-person visits prior to hire. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. All applicant correspondence and applicant questions should be only via email.
To apply, please send an email with the subject line “GM Hire” to [email protected]. In the body of the email, include a thoughtful cover letter, and please attach a current resume. Please do not include references at this time.
The New Parkway is an equal opportunity employer.
Welcome to the New Parkway Theater!
The New Parkway Theater is a community-centered cinema and pub located in Oakland’s Uptown district. Sit back and relax in our cozy couches while watching new releases, cult classics, and fabulous special programming. Enjoy yummy food and local beer, wine, and tap cocktails in our café or delivered to your theater seat, all at affordable prices!
The New Parkway Theater’s mix of on-screen content includes critically acclaimed new films, throwback favorites, and quirky non-film events. Off-screen, we have regular theme game nights on our mezzanine with vibrant hosts who help to make your experience at the New Parkway an unforgettable one.
The New Parkway offers two screening rooms filled with loveseats, vintage chairs, and other unique seating perfect for dates, group outings or solo trips to the movies. Both of our auditoriums and all of our common areas are ADA accessible, and we hope that all will feel welcome and comfortable at the New Parkway.
The café menu includes not only typical pub fare, but a selection of entrees, appetizers, and treats to delight omnivores, vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free folks alike. The drink selection is expansive, and all beer, wine, and cocktails are sourced from within 200 miles.
We pride ourselves on having an amazing staff. In addition to paying all of our staff a living wage, we participate in profit sharing, and go out of our way to offer employment to young people, single parents, ex-convicts, and other candidates who might find difficulty getting work in other places.
Additionally, the New Parkway is quite possibly the greenest movie theater in the world. With nearly everything being reusable, we strive to produce as little waste as possible and implore you to not order more than you can consume.
Being accessible to and inclusive of various Oakland communities is an important tenet of the New Parkway Theater. The New Parkway’s commitment to community is evident in our Karma Cinema program: every Wednesday, patrons pay whatever they can for their movie tickets, and at the end of the month, 20% of Karma Cinema ticket sales are donated to the New Parkway’s monthly community partner, selected from non-profit groups serving Oakland residents.
The New Parkway Theater is a purpose-driven, community-based business which strives for excellence in all that we do, specifically in the following five areas. We strive to:
Give our patrons a high quality movie-going experience unique from other movie-going experiences.
Be a wonderful place to work, where employees are excited to come to work, are treated fairly, and share in the business’ profits.
Be a truly sustainable business, one that puts people and the planet over profit, and considers the long-term health of our patrons and neighbors as we shape our business practices.
Promote community within the theater and beyond by connecting strangers who might not otherwise meet and by encouraging greater learning and understanding through our diverse offerings.
Be accessible and welcoming to everyone in Oakland and beyond, through being affordable and offering programming that appeals to the diverse East Bay.
The New Parkway Theater is the sole subsidiary of New Parkway Entertainment, LLC, a group of approximately fifty local investors who were committed to opening a theater in the spirit of the original Parkway Theater. The investor group is led by Managing Partner, J Moses Ceaser.
Our Philosophy and Values
We believe that the way that we run our business is fundamentally different from most other businesses. It’s certainly different from most other theaters. Here’s how we approach our work:
Sustainability
While the primary goal of most businesses is to generate a profit, the goal for the New Parkway Theater is to be sustainable. We want to be around for a long time and do right by the planet and those who inhabit it. We define sustainability in the following ways:
Business Sustainability
In order to show great movies and serve as a community space, we need to be able to keep our doors open. With low prices and sometimes high input costs (ingredients, film content, labor, etc), our profit margins are very slim. We survive by being smart, efficient, and neither wasting time nor resources.
Environmental Sustainability
Businesses like ours, where tens of thousands of people pass through each month, can often have a huge environmental footprint. Given the trash that patrons generate, kitchen and concessions products, bathroom supplies, and all the gas and electricity for common spaces, it is hard for such businesses to be eco-friendly. And while we have a long way to go, each day we strive to become more and more sustainable. That’s why just about everything at the theater is reusable. That’s why we try to source things locally. That’s why we recycle and compost whenever possible. And that’s why we do not use disposable straws, single-use plastic or anything else that nearly instantly becomes trash. Again, we have quite a way to go, but we hope that you’ll help us in this critical journey. After all, we absolutely cannot do it without you.
Sustainability for People
Our patrons are our lifeblood, and our employees are an essential element to keep them coming back. For this reason, it’s critical that we are able to sustain a solid and growing patron base, as well as a vibrant staff that loves what they’re doing. Part of that is fit. We realize that we cannot be the perfect theater for everyone nor the perfect workplace for everyone. But we can and do aspire to be a great place to see movies and a great place to work. Being that great place means honoring everyone as individuals, connecting them to a greater sense of community, and treating everyone as fairly as possible. We strive to make our employees feel supported at work so they can take care of customers. We ensure they are sufficiently paid so they can be generous with customers. We want our team to love their jobs so that love shows.
Community Engagement
The New Parkway Theater is invested in the local community. We regularly make generous donations to support local causes, offer jobs to local residents whenever possible, and feature content that is critical to a dialogue that promotes a progressive community. We are especially proud of our Karma Cinema program, the support that it has generated, and how it sets us apart from our competitors. We invite you to learn more about what we do so that you can share this with others. We also invite your ideas on how we could be doing more.
Customer Service
Customers are our lifeblood. We don’t want just any customers, we want happy customers. We want customers that keep coming back just because they think we are so helpful. We want customers who tell their friends, “those people at the New Parkway are the friendliest people in Oakland.” Our purpose is to make sure that customers have a great experience, which includes taking care of orders quickly, being friendly, and having clean tables, counters and restrooms. Sometimes customers can come to the movie theater with baggage. It’s extra important to take special care of folks who are a bit frazzled. If someone complains about their food or service, apologize to the customer and let a manager know immediately. People remember how you make them feel. We may not always provide impeccable food or the perfect movie experience, but we can ensure we treat everyone as a guest in our home. When folks feel good they are more likely to forget a small hiccup in their experience and continue to support our business. Remember, we’re in the business of providing delight. We want our customers to know that when they come to the New Parkway, they will always leave satisfied.
Living Wage
Even before it was Oakland law, the New Parkway was paying every employee a living wage, and we intend to continue doing so for as long as we are in business. While we realize that a living wage is not going to make anyone rich, it’s very important to us that we can pay our team enough to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables while at the New Parkway. That’s why we are committed to paying all of our employees a living wage. Because there are many different definitions of what a living wage is, the New Parkway has pegged our starting pay to be at or above the living wage level dictated by the City of Oakland’s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards. If you have questions about that rate, you may email [email protected].
No Tipping & Staff Fund
While the New Parkway is a no-tipping establishment, we know that our patrons often want to express their gratitude toward the New Parkway staff serving them. Because of this, we have established a “Staff Fund” to which patrons may contribute and which goes to benefit all employees. In the past, this money has been used for gift cards, staff outings, and parties/socials.
Now a bit more about tips: at various times over the last eleven years, we have allowed tips at the New Parkway. But a law passed about seven years ago made it so that only certain employees were allowed to share in the tips given to the business, which took away from the team spirit which we’re trying to build at the New Parkway. So we decided to raise our prices to include the average tip amount at the time in each employee’s starting pay – and implement
a strict no-tipping policy. We know that tipping changes over time, and we plan to revisit this policy every year or two to be sure that it makes sense for the business.
Profit Sharing and Benefits
We want to promote staff performance that produces a vibrant business. Employees at the New Parkway Theater are entitled to participate in our profit sharing program. At the close of each year, 20% of the theater’s surplus is split amongst the staff on payroll at the end of the year. In addition to paying a living wage and sharing profits, the New Parkway also has a wide array of other benefits, formal and informal, including family meals at each shift.