Mark Webber | The Republic The Chuck E Cheese franchise in Columbus, located at 1455 N. National Road, will be permanently closed after this weekend.
A restaurant and children’s entertainment center on Columbus’ east side is permanently closing at the end of this weekend.
Chuck E. Cheese at 1455 N. National Road will close at 8 p.m. Sunday, employee Ashley Campbell confirmed. She is one of seven employees at the franchise.
While the staff said they were not sure when the restaurant opened, published records show the local Chuck E. Cheese began advertising for employees in 2005.
Employees were notified of the pending closure less than a month ago, Campbell said. The restaurant’s parent company, CEC Entertainment LLC., did not give workers in Columbus a reason for the closing, she added. The Irving, Texas-based corporation has not responded to multiple inquiries from The Republic to their headquarters.
However, several news organizations that include the Wall Street Journal and Variety magazine have reported that Chuck E Cheese, founded in 1977 by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, has been in financial decline since 2012.
Efforts at rebranding the chain to appeal to adults, as well as children, included adding cold-cut sandwiches, chicken wings, salad bars and desserts to the menu. Some Chuck E. Cheese locations even offered alcoholic beverages to the grown-ups.
While those efforts did not have a significant impact on increasing restaurant sales, published reports state merchandising went up slightly after the rat mascot was turned into a guitar-playing rock star mouse.
Nevertheless, the company closed more than 30 locations between 2012 and 2019.
In June, 2020, Chuck E. Cheese filed for bankruptcy protection, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple news organizations estimate the company found itself between $1 billion to $2 billion in debt when social distancing restrictions prevented or discouraged parents from bringing their children to franchise locations.
The company did receive $200 million as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings to help the franchise adapt to changing market conditions. But the continued closing of more franchises is part of the company’s strategic restructuring plan, according to a recent article in Restaurant Clicks, an industry web site.
Over the past four years, the franchise has shrunk from 734 restaurants to 568 locations as of last August.
