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.

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.

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.

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

Business like this doesn't work anymore when every kid nowadays is locked with an iPad in their hands.

Remember without this, FNAF wouldn’t exist

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.

I went into a CEC recently and was disappointed how sterile everything was. This version 2.0 should be called the Jehovah's Witness concept. It's like they did everything on the cheap. The memories I had as a kid were all gone. No animatronics stage, no cool rides or ball pits. No costumed Chucky. Just a big square space with bad florescent lighting. It used to be like a theme park but now the whole vibe is completely gone.

I've always thought it was crazy that they abandoned the animatronics. It was such a cool and interesting concept, and obviously one that worked for some time. Especially these days with the popularity of Five Nights at Freddy's it seems like they'd latch onto that market as much as possible.

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

Every BANKRUPT episode ever...

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

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. 😀

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

CEC was my childhood. My grandma took me there when I was 4, and ever since, we'd go every Friday night. I loved the place so much! I'd play the games, eat the pizza, and watch the animatronics. It was a nice routine we established! Me being Autistic made me super invested in the animatronics and even considered them to be alive and my best friends. They comforted me, basically. Growing up, I never had a lot of friends since I always struggled to make any. So, I befriended inanimate objects like cars, boats, my toys, and the CEC animatronics. Jasper was and still is my favorite character. He inspired me to learn how to play the guitar! When I got my first phone, I recorded the characters so I could rewatch their songs on the go. I started this in 2015 but had to stop in 2022 because the last location with a stage in my state removed their animatronics. That was a horrible shot to the heart, especially since I was still dealing with the loss of childhood location that I went to every Friday night. It closed in 2020 cause they couldn't afford to pay the landlord. It was like losing my family.. I've known that location almost my whole life.. My faith in CEC honesty started to fade even before all of that, largely due to the fandom being so toxic (they bullied me and wouldn't shut up about the animatronic parts they somehow got) and the content that CEC creates getting horrible as time goes on. They stopped covering songs, changed the demographic to kids and everyone anymore, and they stripped the characters of their personalities and much much more. They made a lot of bad decisions with the entertainment, the characters themselves, and how they run stuff. I'm very ashamed of what CEC has become, and I honestly am very sad that I will never be able to look at them the same ever again.