Posted on 06/24/2020 8:32:21 PM PDT by Enlightened1
The coronavirus pandemic could spell the end of Chuck E. Cheese. The popular kid’s restaurant had to close its 610 locations nationwide during the outbreak. Now, $1 billion in debt has Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company, CEC Entertainment, approaching bankruptcy.
The Wall Street Journal reports that CEC is asking lenders for a $200 million to keep its business going. For comparison, the news is similar to the recent circumstances that led to the retail band JC Penney filing bankruptcy last month.
CEC has also offered its top executives retention bonuses to try and keep them from leaving, including $3 million to three of its executives, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The news comes after CEC admitted in April it was considering refinancing, restructuring, or even bankruptcy following the coronavirus pandemic given how much the restaurant industry has struggled. This after Chuck E. Cheese laid off 17,000 employees in March.
Chuck E. Cheese’s website currently lists three locations in the Cleveland area, including one in Parma, one in North Olmsted and one in Mayfield Heights.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
The pizza was awful. It was always a canned, dreary experience.
Gee...no more really bad pizza, served in a filthy environment, full of screaming kids, and parents doing nothing about it.
What a shame./sarc
I remember when Nolan Bushnell of Atari fame started the chain. I had the same experience as you, though. Went for my nephew’s birthday party. The kids loved the games and 3-year-olds aren’t particularly fussy about their pizza. The adults, on the other hand...!
Time for a fresh take on kid parties...
The stories I’ve seen on FR regarding Chuck E Cheese are brawls where mothers bring their kids to Chuck E Cheese for a party and one or more chaperones get drunk.
it was fun at first.....but I remembered the pizza was not that good and to add a salad was silly expensive....
A restaurant who’s mascot is a rodent? Not a good idea.
Chuck E. Cheese: Where a kid can be a kid, and his adult relatives can get drunk and start fights.
MORE WINNING!
....for the Fearpers.
So where will hooligans go to get in huge brawls?
Took my daughter to one, had to be 25 years ago.
It was before smoking was outlawed in restaurants. All the parents were sitting in the back at tables, smoking and getting drunk. The kids were all up at the stage.
Knowing quite a few cops, I’ve been told our local arcade/pizza parlor (not a Chuck E. Cheese) gets as many calls as a biker bar.
Hard to believe they could serve that crap in Cleveland.
Chuck E. Cheese’s: The Ferals’ Shangri-La
I hated Chucky Cheese. My young boy loved it. It was hell for me to take him and then there was that damn gorilla with symbols banging loudly. It was a cacophony of noise. I always wanted to shoot (figuratively so) that damn gorilla.
Best memory of CEC is watching my grandkids run around having fun in the arcade, asking for more tokens! So many things we once took for granted...(and of course made fun of the horrible pizza!)
I’m saddened by this turn of events. I had a very pleasant year doing contract work for them about ten years ago, in their tax department. People were very friendly to work with, and it was challenging work: it took about six months to complete a tax program conversion, to include 14 subsidiary corporations...500 stores, 45 states, some state and local returns were over 300 pages.
Where will America’s indigenous urban peoples be able to get into brawls if Chuck E. Cheese shuts its doors?
I’m sad for those who will be losing jobs.
But that’s what they deserve for getting rid of the big animitronic mascots band.
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