Chuck E Cheese Bankruptcy
Chuck E. Cheese filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday. They opened in 1977, as “Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre” in San Jose, California. The 43-year-old chain attracted kids with pizza, video games, and a singing mouse mascot. They have suffered many blows over the years but being heavily reliant on dine-in customers, the pandemic became the final straw.
CEC Entertainment Inc., based in Irving, Texas along with its franchisees operates 734 restaurants in 47 states and 16 countries. Franchised locations won’t be included in the bankruptcy filing.
CEC outlined almost $2 billion in debts and $1.7 billion in financial assets in its bankruptcy petition. CEO David McKillips stated the “Chapter 11 process will allow us to strengthen our financial structure as we recover from what has undoubtedly been the most challenging event in our history”
In recent years, Chuck E. Cheese struggled to compete with Dave and Buster’s. They offer bigger venues and seem to have a broader appeal to larger age ranges.
In a last-ditch effort, Chuck E Cheese locations began offering food delivery on apps like Grubhub and Door Dash but (oddly) used an alias of “Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings.”