Bankrupt - Chuck E Cheese's

Starting from the novel idea of adding animatronics and arcade machines to a pizza restaurant, Chuck E Cheese's grew into an enormous, world wide chain. Though, not without issues as the company has suffered two bankruptcies, fierce competition from copycat chain, Showbiz Pizza, and an overall decline in popularity. Join me today as I explore the fascinating and turbulent history of the restaurant chain and find out if this twice bankrupt company has any chance for a future.

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Bright Sun Films 2023

Presented in 4K

[ReferMadness]

Every BANKRUPT episode ever...

Step one - Founder has a vision
Step two - Founder works hard to build a successful company
Step three - Private Equity Firm buys company
Step four - Bankruptcy

[realmackle]

As someone who has studied business and has a sister in childcare, if you cut corners in a kid-oriented business they WILL notice. everytime one of these companies tries to go "fancy" and "modern" and loses the magic, kids don't want to go anymore. That kind of thing has RUINED many a restaurant in my town.

[ASMR-Arboretum]

As an adult there is no way I would have ever been able to deal with being in a place like Chuck E Cheeses without alcohol.

[computerkid]

I really hope we're nearing the end of the "minimalistic", flat corporate design of the 2010s. It's time for fun to come back again.

[Larry]

If I was in charge of Chuck E. Cheese, I'd rebrand one or two restaraunts and theme them back to their original 1981 design, complete with retro arcade machines of the time. A lot of their fanbase are now adults, so it would be a hit for both nostalgia and parents showing kids how the restaurant was like when they were their age.

But what would I know?

[nap]

Chuck E. Cheese is what fueled my love of clinking, shiny coinage. Hearing the company replacing them with flimsy, dull cards was heartbreaking.

[bp]

Losing the singing puppets is not what killed Chuck E's

It was all about the games and tickets.
In the 80s the place was absolutely crammed with great machines for 1 or 2 tokens. When it started costing 4 -8 tokens to play anything, and home gaming got better, there was no reason to go outside of friend's birthdays

[italianasc]

One thing that wasn't mentioned here is the amazing coupons that Chuck E. Cheese offered in the mid/late 90's, as well as the extra awards to kids for good report cards. As a single mom, those coupons for buying a large pizza and getting 40 or so extra tokens for my kids was invaluable!! If not for that, we couldn't have afforded to go there. But thanks to that, we spent many happy days at Chuck E. Cheese. 😀

[Minny_Paul]

Kids growing up today will never know how it felt to be a superstar when you had your birthday party there back in the day. You were literally a King or Queen.

[andy.bernard]

I remember as a kid losing interest in chuckecheese when they took away the tickets. Collecting the tickets and buying stuff with the physical ticket itself was so much fun as a kid. Digital ticketing took that magic away.

[hannahp]

It's amazing how many companies seem to not realize why they are successful

[brionnathedford]

As a person who LOVED Chuck E Cheese as a child, this is a heartbreaking story. But since becoming a parent since their last bankruptcy, I appreciate my local CEC because my daughter is absolutely OBSESSED! Luckily we didn’t get the complete modernized concept. We have the play pass now but the building itself is still old school, which brings a small feeling of nostalgia while making new memories with the next generation

[GenXican]

It went from a fun old school Disney experience to Orwellian Cafeteria with flat screens.

[Vic_Coco]

The facts that the tubes no longer exist is depressing. Growing up as a kid rushing through the tunnels and ball pits was a high I will never reach again

[justindeguzman]

One of the biggest mistakes I think was getting rid of the animatronics, people nowadays make jokes about them but during their golden years in the 80s and 90s when they were well kept and the company put effort into the shows and birthday parties, it was a huge draw for families because it was so unique and iconic, no other kids place had something appear so extravagant.

Also, for the birthday shows, you could tell the employees cared and loved what they were doing. In all the VHS and home video recordings you see, all the workers had a smile on their face, were genuine, and had fun singing the songs and dancing which then rubbed off on the families, friends, and atmosphere of the location and it showed. In the 80s, 90s, and even in the early 2000s before its decline there were dozens of birthdays held there daily and every location was bustling.

[mattm]

It looks silly now, but if you were a kid in the 80s or 90s, Chuck E Cheese was super fun. The animatronics were really cool, having an arcade in a pizza shop was amazing, and the pizza(to a kid) was good.

[beccabooom]

I was so excited to bring my nephew last year. He finally was old enough to understand arcade games and I hyped it up sooo much. We walk in the doors, there’s no fun climbing structures anymore, probably 1/5 of the games, and it’s not a fun colorful place anymore. The 5 year old came up to me the other day and said “I just wanna tell you bowlero is cooler than Chuck E. Cheese”. I was like I know kid I know

[NorthStarBlue]

Something that I've always found interesting is that from the '90s right up until they were discontinued, Chuck E. Cheese's animatronic characters had their performances programmed via a single 1.4 MB floppy disk that was swapped out on a semi-monthly basis. And I've heard that a small community of people have been tracking down these floppies and are trying to reverse engineer the code to work with Arduino-based robots, so Charles Entertainment Cheese and pals may have an unexpected revival in the future.

[AtrocityEquine]

It's always sad that every "rebranding" to "fit with the times" always boils down to "adults not thinking how kids will enjoy things". And even as someone who never went to Chuck E. Cheese as a kid (poor family, this still made me sad.

[itscarissaa]

Chuck E. Cheese holds a lot of nostalgia for me and i guess it has come to what Jake said “the place where the kids that could be kids have finally grownup”.