Chuck E. Cheese's
From Free net encyclopedia
Chuck E. Cheese's is a franchise of video arcades complemented by small rides, pizza (a central focus), and other popular diversions for young children such as climbing equipment, tubes, and giant slides. The franchise has locations all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. Its logo and mascot, named Chuck E. Cheese, is a giant anthropomorphic mouse.
The business was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, and featured singing animatronic characters. The original Pizza Time Players main show lineup featured Crusty the Cat, Jasper T. Jowls, Pasqually, and the Warblettes performing with Chuck E. in a "theater" where customers could eat their pizza. Other Pizza Time Players cast members added in later years included Mr. Munch, Dolli Dimples, The Mopsey Sisters, Foxy Colleen Flannigan, Sally Sashay, Madame Oink, Harmony Howlette, and Helen Henny.
In 1984, the company's parent, Pizza Time Theatre, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was purchased by competitor ShowBiz Pizza, which also featured pizza, video games, and singing animatronic characters. It was at this time that Richard Frank became the CEO and decided to change the target audience from the 10 to 17 years age group to the 0 to 12 years range they have today. Both the Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz names continued to be used until 1998, when Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza became the name for all of the restaurants.
In 1999, CEC Entertainment, Inc., the owners of Chuck E. Cheese's, bought out their own primary competitor, Discovery Zone.
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Franchising
Chuck E. Cheese's is one of the few growing companies in America that no longer franchises their stores. However, a large number of franchise run stores still exist, and like any franchise system, the guest experience can vary wildly from store to store because of this.
Kid Check
Chuck E. Cheese's employs security measures to prevent child abduction, these are known as Kid Check. The Kid Check booth is the first thing guests see upon entering the restaurant. Whole families are stamped with a unique identification number (M3 for instance) in invisible ink that reacts only to the blacklight directly over the kid check booth. The kid check booth is supposed to be monitored at all times by an employee and never left unattended, but in fact if you come in during a slow time, it's often deserted. Guests stamps are checked on the way out to ensure children belong to the adults with whom they are leaving. Chuck E. Cheese names this with the following phrase:
"Everyone that comes together, leaves together."
Food Service
Chuck E. Cheese's has a large selection of food items to choose from, from pizza to buffalo wings and other finger foods. The company's official standards state that all food served can sit in the window no more than 15 minutes before being delivered by an employee. Should the food be left longer, it is supposed to be thrown out and remade at the establishments expense. In reality, most restaurants are hard pressed to meet this goal, especially at peak periods of business.
Birthday Parties
Chuck E. Cheese specializes in birthday parties for those 1-12 years of age. Two party packages are available and a minimum of 4 guests is required. During a birthday party, the children (and adults) are served by a host/hostess, view a LIVE! show, and play games. In the company's formative years, each party had an individual host and a special birthday show performed by the animatronic characters. In more recent years, the parties are done in "birthday waves", where several parties are introduced and brought cakes at the same time, and only one show is done for all parties. Some may feel that this added an assembly line feeling to the parties, and takes away from the guest experience.
Animatronics
At the time of the company's formation, and up until the mid-1990s, the company's animated characters were a main draw for the stores. In recent years, less attention has been paid to that part of the company's "concept". The company's current show that is installed into all new stores consists of a single small character, and relies heavily on the use of large television monitors. The company has also tried in some markets, a new store "concept" that does not use any animated show. This path of decisions leads many to believe that there will be a day in the future when the company will no longer use animation in their stores.
Individual Stores
The quality of animation from one store to the other can vary, due to several variables. One being the fact that there are at least 7 different styles of animatronic shows in use within the company. The other fact being, that each individual store set the budget for maintaining the show. This can lead to a show (even of the same type) in one store being far superior entertainment-wise, than another store's.
Employees
DRA/Dining Room Assistant
Responsible for catering to a parties every need. The DRA/Dining Room Assistant/BIRTHDAY COORDINATOR sets the party up, greets the party, serves drinks and pizza, dances with children and Chuck E Cheese during the LIVE! show, sings happy birthday, and then serves cake. They also run pizzas, spot sweep the floors in the showroom/gameroom, are responsible for 30 minute bathroom checks, and upkeep on the beverage bar.
Birthday Coordinator
Responsible for the same thing as a DRA doing a birthday party, but also training new DRA's on birthday parties and whatever else needs to be prepared for the days parties.
Kid Checker
The "kid checker" mans the front of the house. This is likely the first person seen when entering a Chuck E Cheese's restaurant. A kid checker will greet a family, stamp their hands with a unique number in UV reactive invisible ink, and inform the parents of any special promotions going on. The kid checker will also ask if the family is celebrating anything special. If they are, a personalized birthday balloon and crown are issued along with the an amount of tokens corresponding with the childs age. Upon leaving the restaurant, the family's hands are all checked to verify they are indeed together. If a discrepancy is found, the child is asked to identify the adult with them, and the adult is asked for identification and/or pictures of the child. Chuck E Cheese road shows also occur at kid check. Kid Check is also one of the areas that every Cast Member is considered responsible for.
Cashier
Responsible for ringing up orders and dispensing game tokens. Cashiers are also responsible for re-filling and icing the salad bar and handing out prizes at the merchandise counter.
Game Room Attendants
GRA's are responsible for keeping the machines and games in functioning condition. This involves fixing downed machines, stocking machines with tickets, clearing token jams, etc. GRA's also issue tokens for those lost (eaten) by machines. GRA's are responsible for keeping booths in the game room(s) clean.
Walk-Around Character
This person dons the costume character version of Chuck E. Cheese and is generally seen walking around the gameroom and showroom. Chuck E. appears every 20 minutes past the hour to do a Road show and a LIVE! Show if there are any parties. Chuck E. is not allowed to speak and can only imply his intentions with hand gestures. The approximate weight of the costume is about 2 pounds, not including head. The plastic head (complete with inner helmet for protection) weighs approximately 4 pounds and rests on the shoulders of the person inside the suit. In stores that hire or promote a full time walk-around character, this employee has several extra duties that include getting the Chuck E. Cheese costume professional dry-cleaned and washed (depending on the parts of the costume in question), cleaning the Chuck E. room before the end of every shift, and fixing broken parts of the costume (for instance, gluing the teeth back in after being ripped out by a guest). With the company's recent move to abandon the use of curtains with the animatronic shows, it is common to see the walkaround character perform in full view of the animatronic character. This tends to lessen the ability to "suspend disbelief" with the characters.
Road Show
Performed at the Kid Check stand as well as the Skee Ball Area, kids are gathered via the PA system and told to come dance with Chuck E. to win free tickets. After the dance, Chuck E. and other cast members throw large amounts of tickets into the air for children to collect. This procedure is usually preceded by requesting that the children get on one knee or both knees so they do not trample each other when the ticket splash occurs. At some stores, the use of the Road show has cut down on the use of the "Live!" shows.
LIVE! Show
This is performed on the stage in the showroom. Chuck E. dances with the birthday guests and sings happy birthday (via the tape, since Chuck E. isn't allowed to speak). Once more Chuck E. throws tickets for the children and assists the host/hostesses in cutting the birthday cake. There are pictures around the walls in the showroom. The pictures are music artists' albums and movie poster covers being satired or parodied by the Pizza Time Players cast members.
Lawsuits
Like many corporations, Chuck E. Cheese has faced lawsuits throughout its history. Recently, the Orkel vs. Pizza Time Inc. Case reached national attention in the U.S. A child rode a ride where one would pedal a bicycle that would then go upward toward the ceiling. The child tried to climb down the ride and got a serious head wound in the process. His parents sued for $15 million, and settled the case out of court. Also, the show Jackass involved themselves with a Philadelphia Area Restaurant by creating a "naked slide" in which Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, and an employed female model went into a slide fully clothed, but came out the bottom only in underwear. Chuck E. Cheese sued Jackass and the clip was unaired.
Parodies
See: List of pop culture parodies of real stores and restaurants
Tokens
The brass tokens issued by the company for use in their video game arcades exist in numerous varieties and are eagerly collected by exonumia enthusiasts. [1]
External links
- Official website
- Tokens site with collector information concerning variety and value of Chuck E. Cheese's game tokens.