I find the history of Atari and all things connected to it fascinating, but this was particularly insightful in terms of marketing to your audience:
"The reason for doing the animals, believe it or not, was not for the kids. It was meant to be a head fake for the parents. Kids are really smart at knowing how to play their parents. and the kids knew that if they said, 'I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese and play the games' the parents would just see themselves spending money. But if they said, 'I want to go see Chuck E. Cheese entertainment -- and it's free,' they'd be good to go," Bushnell said. "The other thing was that we wanted the parents to have something to amuse themselves while the kids were in the game room. If you listened to the dialogue, it was fun, edgy stuff, kinda like Toy Story, written as much for the parents as the kids."
The other angle, which isn't mentioned here but is mentioned in Steve Kent's book The Ultimate History of Video Games is that a lot of communities had banned pool halls and arcades.
By wrapping the arcade in a family restaurant, Bushnell and Atari were able to open more locations for their games and eventually work against the arcade bans in those communities.
'In Brookfield, Wis., no restaurant has triggered more calls to the police department since last year than Chuck E. Cheese's.
Officers have been called to break up 12 fights, some of them physical, at the child-oriented pizza parlor since January 2007. The biggest melee broke out in April, when an uninvited adult disrupted a child's birthday party. Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant's music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain's namesake mouse perform.
Chuck E. Cheese's bills itself as a place "where a kid can be a kid." But to law-enforcement officials across the country, it has a more particular distinction: the scene of a surprising amount of disorderly conduct and battery among grown-ups.
"The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles," says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. "There's a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there."
It isn't clear exactly how often fights break out at Chuck E. Cheese's 538 locations. Richard Huston, executive vice president of marketing for the chain's parent company, CEC Entertainment Inc. of Irving, Texas, describes their occurrence as "atypical," saying he has heard of "four or five significant adult altercations" this year. But in some cities, law-enforcement officials say the number of disruptions at their local outlet is far higher than at nearby restaurants, and even many bars. "We've had some unfortunate and unusual altercations between adults at these locations," Mr. Huston says. "Even one is just way too many."'
IMO, and I worked in this business for a while, the problems have less to do with alcohol being served than the fact that CEC lets birthday parties mix with the rest of the public during operating hours. You can't place the games in a separate room for kids to play during parties, and parents want to feel like they should get some exclusivity for what they paid (when, in reality, you're just reserving space at the tables to eat pizza together). Tensions easily flare up in these situations.
I'm waiting for our local CECs to get shut down. Every six months or so it seems there's another dust up, and we've even had several(!) shootings[0][1] at our two local joints.
My first job was here at the Chuck E. Cheese here in Albuquerque. I learned an incredible amount from that job, which was good because the job started me at $4.25 an hour and worked me like a horse. Building a place that sucked in kids to play video games was a great idea, and it worked like a charm. The change machines brought in about half of our revenue. It's been twenty years since I worked there but recently went to another one and was surprised to see that the place is run almost exactly how I remember it.
I can confirm what others have said about the behavior of parents, generally they were OK but we ended up limiting beer to two after two parties got in a fight with each other. I can see how some places would attract some consistent riff raff.
It was a great first job for a sixteen year old.
I'm not even sure you can get in without a kid? Not totally sure the policy, but they at least discourage adults to keep evil scary men away from the kids. Something like a Dave and Buster's is a much better adult venue.
In college we had a fraternity/sorority event at a local Chuck E. Cheese and had a blast. At a past job we used one for a "team building day", also had a blast.
At least most of my friends in their 20s/30s still seem to get a kick out of bad pizza, silly entertainment, arcade games, and skee ball.
"The reason for doing the animals, believe it or not, was not for the kids. It was meant to be a head fake for the parents. Kids are really smart at knowing how to play their parents. and the kids knew that if they said, 'I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese and play the games' the parents would just see themselves spending money. But if they said, 'I want to go see Chuck E. Cheese entertainment -- and it's free,' they'd be good to go," Bushnell said. "The other thing was that we wanted the parents to have something to amuse themselves while the kids were in the game room. If you listened to the dialogue, it was fun, edgy stuff, kinda like Toy Story, written as much for the parents as the kids."