Inside Chuck E. Cheese’s Evolution Into a Modern Entertainment Brand

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Chad (1:51): Jim, I gotta tell you it was a fantastic fantastic interview we just finished, but I gotta tell you, it doesn't stop. There's more. You say, Chad, where there's more. There's more. There's more, Jimmy.

Chad (2:01): We are sitting here with our friend Scott Drake, CEO

Unknown Speaker (2:04): of CEC Entertainment, Jimmy. CEC.

Unknown Speaker (2:08): You know what that is? I do. You got a kid.

Unknown Speaker (2:10): I got a kid.

Unknown Speaker (2:10): I mean, I feel I like you don't go to Chuck E. Cheese for silver. You go for you. By the

Unknown Speaker (2:15): way, you're not gonna get me to apologize for that. I like good a good fun entertainment.

Unknown Speaker (2:19): I like I like pizza. I like pizza. That's good pizza.

Unknown Speaker (2:22): I like I like it. CEC, Chuck E. Cheese.

Unknown Speaker (2:25): Let's let's jump into it a little bit. Okay? Because let's say we got we got Scott here. We're gonna jump into it, Scott. Let's just find out.

Chad (2:31): Well, we before you start talking a little bit, we like to find out how have you become the CEO of one the most iconic brands in America who will be loved by every child on the planet, certainly in America. You know? So you went so let's see. Your first job you're a hustler. Your first job was at Swenson's ice cream Yes.

Chad (2:50): When you were 14 years old. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's you're you're a true hustler. I mean, I started in hospitality.

Chad (2:56): Know. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (2:59): Still out there. It is. Technically, it is still out there. Still there's

Unknown Speaker (3:02): few has IQ and someone owns

Unknown Speaker (3:03): it. It does.

Chad (3:04): It does. Really? Well, I'll to we'll jump into that a little bit. You went to Texas A and M. You got a finance background, accounting, corporate finance, kinda like Jimmy.

Unknown Speaker (3:12): You got that MBA there, Jimmy. You know? Yeah. A smart guy. Yeah.

Chad (3:16): Seven 11 for fourteen years. Yes. Finance, Jimmy.

Unknown Speaker (3:19): Finance. Yeah. Finance guy. Jimmy's a guy. By the way, you'd have to say that he was in finance.

Unknown Speaker (3:24): You see

Unknown Speaker (3:25): well, you see the jacket? Yeah. You see the jacket? Yeah. Finance guy.

Unknown Speaker (3:28): Finance guy. Restaurant guy.

Unknown Speaker (3:30): You see? You look like a sack of shit. Finance guy, look I

Unknown Speaker (3:34): hear you.

Chad (3:34): Hear you. GameStop. GameStop for a bunch of years, right? Farmer Brothers. And then finally, finally, you start over at CEC, right?

Unknown Speaker (3:44): Right.

Unknown Speaker (3:44): What's what's that's Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. Cheese.

Scott Drake (3:48): E. Cheese. Charles Entertainment Cheese.

Chad (3:50): CEC in '24 as the CFO. Yes. And then you did so well. People liked you They so threw out the other guy, and they made you the CEO. Be nice.

Unknown Speaker (4:02): Be nice.

Unknown Speaker (4:03): I am nice.

Unknown Speaker (4:04): Be nice to Scott. Not necessarily the other guy.

Chad (4:06): Yeah. I don't know. I I I have to go back and look, but I you know, I'm sure we know who it is, but, you know, well, he retired. Oh. Oh.

Unknown Speaker (4:13): Hey. He's gone. Anyway, did I get him that right? Yes. Yes.

Scott Drake (4:16): Yes. On the nose. Except the the predecessor just He's thrown out. He's an amazing human, and he had dragons to slay and mountains to climb. Right.

Unknown Speaker (4:24): Right. Right.

Unknown Speaker (4:25): You know,

Scott Drake (4:25): he he fixed this and left me the perfect situation, and then he did a challenge.

Chad (4:29): You're politically correct, sir. So it's two years in. Jimmy, let's jump into it, man. Let's get into it.

Jimmy (4:34): Yes. I wanna talk about the, what I'll refer as the reinvention story. Okay?

Unknown Speaker (4:39): Yes.

Jimmy (4:39): Where nostalgia meets the brand, but nostalgia doesn't work unless the brand is actually delivering the experience and connecting with its guests. So every person listening to this episode has a Chuck E. Cheese experience, memory.

Chad (4:54): Everybody.

Jimmy (4:54): Something from their childhood. They remember the tokens, the tickets, k, the anima I think every American

Unknown Speaker (5:00): has been the Chuck E. Cheese's once in their life.

Jimmy (5:02): You know, they remember the chaos that could come from 20 screaming kids. They remember the adults joking about, alright. It's time for a a an adult libation, maybe. Yep. And it's it's a universally recognized brand.

Jimmy (5:13): Okay? And and so talk about how to talk about the reinvention. Now there's there's playgrounds. There's you're you're leveling up. You're reimagining the experience of what family entertainment looks like.

Jimmy (5:25): So how do you take a brand that has touched so many people's lives and reimagine it and and and keep this thing as you are, again, leveling it up as you do?

Scott Drake (5:34): Yep. 100%. You guys hit the nail on the head. It's our biggest blessing and our biggest curse all in one. Yep.

Scott Drake (5:40): You know, everybody knows Chuck E. Cheese. Yep. But the problem we have now is, you know, Chuck E. Cheese was one thing.

Scott Drake (5:47): It was the animatronics. It was the ball pit,

Unknown Speaker (5:50): you know, and they're like, I'm sure you guys are doing animatronics before Disney. Yeah. I mean, mean, like, Chuck was all in the Disney.

Scott Drake (5:56): And it was cutting edge at the time. What five year olds, you know, six year olds wanted at

Chad (6:00): the time. Watched the birthday, and they saw the Chuck E. Cheese do the whole thing over there.

Scott Drake (6:03): The the machine spit out all the tickets. You had the tokens. You had to lug around all the tokens. Loved it. The the ticket munchers, gotta chew up all your tickets when they're used.

Chad (6:10): Get your friends. In chain. Technology changes.

Scott Drake (6:13): A 100%. So what you have to do is you have to keep pace. When you're you know, my customer is that five year old, that six year old. What a five year old six year olds today want. That's not the experience they want.

Scott Drake (6:22): You know, it's not their world. Their world is digital. Their world is modern. So the animatronics came out full screen digital wall. It's almost like, you know, a stadium, Like, every stadium you go into, didn't you say That's more relatable to them.

Scott Drake (6:35): Video wall. They see that. There's an interactive dance floor. You know, they touch it and all the characters move away. They want that experience, and they want that, but they also just want fun.

Scott Drake (6:43): And so having games, the wide variety of games, the active games, you know, the Skee Ball. It's the classic. It's been there forever. It's still one of the top, you

Unknown Speaker (6:50): know It's lovers. Skee Ball.

Unknown Speaker (6:51): 100%.

Unknown Speaker (6:51): Well, that's good to know that all ages.

Chad (6:53): Love Skee Ball because I love Skee Ball.

Scott Drake (6:54): Yes. Yes. It's perfect for gambling. You know? Not that we would ever, you know It's perfect but, you know, the adults, they need something to do with their two, you know, beer and wine that they can have.

Scott Drake (7:03): Yep. Yep. But yeah.

Jimmy (7:05): Skee Ball going to FanDuel next 2027.

Scott Drake (7:08): That's right. That's right. So even it is funny because some of these things are kids always love active play. Active play used to be the sky tubes and the ball pits. Active play today is mini trampolines, and it's like the Chuckie superhero playground.

Scott Drake (7:20): It's a mini obstacle course. Kids still love it. They love I mean, they're in there constantly. It's become 10% of sales again. So it's like a growing, highly profitable segment, But it's it's got to be fresh.

Scott Drake (7:30): It's got to be new.

Chad (7:30): And so So you're reinventing Chuck E. Cheese. Yes. When you take a job like this, someone calls you up and says, hey. You know, I mean, you're the CFO.

Chad (7:39): So you're working there and you're fixing the numbers and, know, cutting costs or whatever it is that the CFO does. I don't know. Jimmy, what does the CFO do? Whatever you do. You punch in numbers, you're doing something.

Chad (7:49): They're very important. And now they say you're going become the CEO. Are you like, I mean, are you like, Oh, yeah, I'm excited? You're like, I don't know about this. Like, because it's like, it's a whole another level because the CFO, kind of like, hey, your responsibility.

Chad (8:01): It's like, hey, what do want from me? You know, now you're the CEO. It's like, you're in charge here, man.

Scott Drake (8:06): Right. Right. So as you said, if you come from seven Eleven, GameStop, Farmer Brothers, I mean, those are mature retail companies, you know, wholesalers, distributors. And so Chuck E. Cheese, I did exactly what my biggest hurdle is.

Scott Drake (8:19): You know, our blessing is everybody knows us. Our curse is nobody knows us today. Right. And I fell straight into that trap. I said, Well, let me go check some stores out.

Scott Drake (8:27): Let me see what we're dealing with here. And so I go to into a Chuck E. Cheese and as I pull up, I see, oh, the whole facade's new. The colors are new. The signage is new.

Scott Drake (8:34): Oh, they spent some money. Nice.

Unknown Speaker (8:36): Right.

Scott Drake (8:36): Let's go inside and see what happens. I walk in the front door and I almost had to walk back to the parking lot and look up again. Did I walk into the right place?

Chad (8:43): Because the outside was new and the inside

Scott Drake (8:45): Inside is totally transformed. My kids are college age. I had not been in a Chuck E in over a decade.

Unknown Speaker (8:51): Right.

Unknown Speaker (8:51): And I look around.

Chad (8:52): I'm with you. I have not been in Chuck E. My kids are college age.

Scott Drake (8:54): It's light. It's bright. It used to be the dark arcade theme. It used to be in the dark for the show, the animatronics. Now it's light.

Scott Drake (9:00): It's bright. There's sunlight, you know, through the store. There's bright colors. We have all the digital, all the the the the, you know, the the dance floor. And then you come around and, like, the people, they live for it.

Scott Drake (9:12): You know, it's like their passion. They're there because they want to be there. Our tenure, which is one of the best things you can have in the retail hospitality is tenure. I took our March, you know, anniversary list. Right.

Scott Drake (9:22): You know, I'm a finance guy. So I got out my calculator, I did the math. Average tenure across the entire company for work anniversaries in March was just under nineteen years. You talk to people. How long have you been here?

Unknown Speaker (9:33): Oh, twenty years, twenty six years, thirty six, forty three. We had four people over forty years on that.

Unknown Speaker (9:37): So, like,

Chad (9:37): I would think that that would be unbelievable because, like, getting people like that that says a lot about the culture of the brand, that, like, you're keeping people a long time. Is that not is that the way you look at it? Like, this is amazing. I have people where I don't have to keep finding new people. They love it here.

Chad (9:51): Or you're like, is there something wrong? Why are these people here for so long?

Unknown Speaker (9:55): No. No. No. What you do is they're it's it's kinda

Unknown Speaker (9:56): stealing all the pizza.

Scott Drake (9:57): No. They're there. It's a it's their passion. Like, they're they're That's a good thing. Right?

Scott Drake (10:03): Be there. 100%. 100%. You will have an experience like I did when I went in. I talked to people.

Scott Drake (10:07): I asked the the the game technician. He's fiction games. I asked him about birthdays. He walks me through the whole package and how it works. Right.

Scott Drake (10:14): I asked the person at the the counter about, you know, the games and like, hey. I got a card, and it's all digital now. You you got your card. You get your taps. You get your tokens.

Scott Drake (10:22): You go it's just super, super easy for everyone. Because you

Chad (10:24): got a lot of people, I'm just reading here, who literally, they you call everybody cast members. Right? Right. And they met there. They got married.

Chad (10:34): Yes. And they had kids. I mean, it's really like a family.

Scott Drake (10:37): Yes. It's just like, y'all, like everybody who stops me, they've got that story, you know, of they work there. People show me pictures all the time. I work there. You know, I had my aunt had her fortieth birthday there.

Scott Drake (10:46): Surprise party by her husband. So it's just it's it's pop culture. It's part of everyone's fiber. But what we've done with it and how amazing it is now, that's the part people don't know. Like, most people go back in and they're like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

Scott Drake (10:59): My kids had a blast.

Chad (11:01): But we talk culture today is so important and and keep it by employee retention is super important. Training is so expensive. It seems to me like that's one problem that you don't have or know. Well, that was the Chuck E. Cheese and now the new Chuck E.

Chad (11:16): Cheese like these people like the new people don't wanna work there and, you know, people are retiring or no. Like, it it's it's people love it, and they're coming. Like, you know what I mean?

Scott Drake (11:25): Yeah. 100%. That's that's the beauty of our of our cast members is they're there because they want to be there. Right. It's not a have to be there.

Scott Drake (11:32): They have seen it all. They've done it all. Their heart, their blood, their love is in it because their families have had those same experience. Most of them were kids that came through the brand. Right.

Scott Drake (11:40): And if not, their kids came through the brand. And it's just a magical place to them. And they they want to retain that. They want to share that with other families. And that's why when you walk in, it's it's different than most of the retail experiences because there's that warmth and that caring, and it's not a have to be there at work.

Scott Drake (11:55): It's a wanna be there at work. Yeah. And it makes all the difference in the world. Makes sense.

Jimmy (11:58): Yeah. Expand upon that, but because it's not just how the longevity of the cast members of cast members.

Unknown Speaker (12:05): Yep.

Jimmy (12:06): That you're also and, Jesse, I I guess it's my lucky day.

Unknown Speaker (12:09): Yeah. Of course

Unknown Speaker (12:10): it is.

Unknown Speaker (12:10): Always your lucky day, Jesse.

Unknown Speaker (12:11): Like, you know what it is? Every day is a good day. Every day, love ground's a good day. Yeah. Because I get the breaking news.

Unknown Speaker (12:15): If you had your cell

Unknown Speaker (12:15): phone get

Unknown Speaker (12:16): to hang with me.

Unknown Speaker (12:18): And yes. And and I'm lucky for But I get to break some I get to share some breaking news with our listeners because Newsweek has just named Chuck E. Cheese one of the best companies to work for entry level jobs. Okay? Best companies for entry level jobs.

Jimmy (12:31): So it's it's not just that the your your your your folks are staying. You're also become one of the most attractive places to for the entry level job. So let's talk about that because that's what that recognition means to you and maybe your responsibility, if you can if you can call it that, of being the start of someone's career story.

Scott Drake (12:51): Yeah. A 100%. Like, you know, me, 14, 15 year old. I had the keys to the Swinsons at fifteen. I was the night manager at fifteen.

Unknown Speaker (12:56): That's crazy.

Unknown Speaker (12:57): Doing deposits at the keys.

Unknown Speaker (12:58): How much ice

Unknown Speaker (12:58): cream were you eating? Oh my god. Well, you had to. You had to know the flavors. You had to know how to make everything.

Scott Drake (13:02): Yeah, working. I'm working. Check that box. 100%. But no, with our cast members, that was the other thing we did was 15 year olds.

Scott Drake (13:10): They're phenomenal. Like, they want an opportunity. And instead of being in an environment where it's just everybody they don't really care. They're just kinda going through the motions. They come into an environment where they're like, oh, no.

Scott Drake (13:20): No. You don't understand what a Chuck E. Cheese birthday is. We have to do this. We have to do has you know, you're gonna host a party.

Scott Drake (13:25): This is that kid's day. And they they're like, oh, wait. This is different.

Unknown Speaker (13:29): Right.

Scott Drake (13:29): And these 15 year olds, you know, they work their tails off. They're great employees. You know?

Chad (13:33): It's it's unbelievable.

Scott Drake (13:35): Yeah. It's very cool. It's it's one way you combat, you know, when you've got all the pressures everybody does. You know, wage rates are going north, you know, minimum wages are going north. That's one way we can do it.

Scott Drake (13:44): Now, there's limited hours for those wish someone go south.

Chad (13:46): No, no, not in my ever my thirty years in restaurants, they've never gone south.

Unknown Speaker (13:50): Never gone south.

Jimmy (13:51): Let's expand upon that further because we we talk about, you know, the how the pay you know, the payment systems, and and by that, they the the the how payments are made, how earnings are made every two weeks. Okay? Can't hear you again, Jim. Sorry. Speak up.

Jimmy (14:05): Yeah. I was I was saying shy. I was saying that we still live in a world where a lot of folks are paying their employees on a on a on a two weeks every two weeks. Right. Especially well, really, certainly, for entry level and young folks, they might need access to their earned wages, you know, a little bit more on demand.

Jimmy (14:23): And and you guys have a great partnership, we understand, or maybe just talk about your partnership with DailyPay and how that's been helping, you know, with your workforce, helping you maybe meet the needs and demands of your of your team, particularly of the younger folks. How's that been working for you?

Scott Drake (14:36): Yeah. A 100%. I mean, hourly employees, ours, everyone's, they're facing pressures with their disposable income. They haven't in decades. Right.

Scott Drake (14:44): You know, if you look at just across the board, everything, you know, from it's currently fuel, but all the inflation we've experienced, it hasn't gone down. Again, it's not going south.

Unknown Speaker (14:51): I don't

Scott Drake (14:51): see going It's getting stacked. And even though it's back to, you know, 3%, it's getting stacked on top of the bigger numbers from before. So having that flexibility and availability to funds quicker is huge. So we're doing some testing and exploring with that because it is a great feature for those employees who need that.

Chad (15:07): A lot you're finding a lot of the people that are working for you are opting into this type of thing?

Scott Drake (15:11): Yeah. We're still in a test mode, so we haven't done a full row.

Unknown Speaker (15:14): When you were at Swenson's, what'd they pay? Once a month?

Unknown Speaker (15:16): It was Do they pay

Chad (15:17): you?

Scott Drake (15:17): Every two weeks, dollars 3 and 15¢ an hour. Right. You know, I I I kind of marvel today at my kids, you know, and their jobs. I'm like, you know how long it used to take me to make that money?

Chad (15:25): Yeah. No. It's it's crazy. Yeah. It seems like it's like I said, earlier, it's, something that we've talked about and looked at, but I guess maybe it wasn't ready for prime time.

Chad (15:35): But as technology changes and, you know, things change, now this whole idea of daily pay is a reality, and it's easy, and it's frictionless, and it works, and a lot of people opt into it.

Scott Drake (15:47): Yeah. It's real. And you can even see your subscriptions. You can see your bills that are due. It's just a great kind of one stop shop for kind of your financial snapshot, you know, where you're at, what you have coming and going.

Scott Drake (15:57): Because I know when I was that kid, I wasn't keeping track of that well. And so to be able to see it and know what's coming and then know the dollars coming to you and going out, it's just it's an amazing. Let's talk about

Chad (16:07): pizza because that's the big question. I mean, everyone loves the pizza. Right? 100%. I mean, the Chuck E.

Chad (16:12): Cheese pizza is iconic. What it what what why is it so delicious? What is it?

Scott Drake (16:17): Well and it's funny because when you're the icon we are and you've been around as long as you become the punchline. And so you hear all the things about the pizza, but everybody here at this conference, oh, we make our pizza in house, you know, fresh you know, we have a proprietary dough recipe, a proprietary sauce recipe, a proprietary cheese recipe. We have all that. You know, every store makes their dough, you know, puts this they're all handmade, handmade

Chad (16:38): change it at some point. People went nuts before you got there. Didn't they do that or no? Am I right?

Scott Drake (16:41): It's it's it's again, it's it's the the vicious rumor cycle.

Unknown Speaker (16:44): You know?

Scott Drake (16:45): We haven't had ball pits in twenty years. You still have people, you know, kind of throw daggers at the ball pits. Right. So same thing with the pizza. The pizza is amazing.

Scott Drake (16:52): It's it's another if you come in, you try it. You know, quick story. When I started the job, take my kids, my family, hey. Let's all go celebrate. So us and another family went, and I'm like Which store do you go

Unknown Speaker (17:03): to?

Scott Drake (17:03): Go to Lindau's. Monfort Drive near Valley View Mall in Dallas, North Dallas area. Well, I go to all of them now, but that that was the one we went to for this event. Okay. And, two things struck us.

Scott Drake (17:12): It was interesting. It was a Sunday afternoon, and we were doing our sensory Sunday afternoon. So for kids on the spectrum, kids with the noise and the lights and everything, they tone everything down. The music, the games, everything's toned down.

Unknown Speaker (17:24): Sensory issues, probably not the best place.

Scott Drake (17:26): 100%. But we wanna be accommodating. And we had a sensory birthday now for sensory kids on births

Unknown Speaker (17:30): every year. I'd like to go that time.

Scott Drake (17:32): So I can tell you that the parents were appreciative. I was alert. That day. 100%. So as we're about to leave, my college age kids are in the pantry, and they're, like, rifling, grabbing chips and things.

Scott Drake (17:43): I'm like, what are you doing? We're going to lunch. They're like, I'm not gonna eat that food. You know? I'm like, put it away.

Scott Drake (17:47): Let's go. Right. And so we go order, you know, all kinds of pizzas, you know, the cookie pizza. We got wings. Got everything.

Scott Drake (17:53): Meatballs. The food all disappears. It's gone.

Unknown Speaker (17:57): They ate everything.

Scott Drake (17:57): And I go back to all the kids, and I'm like, hey. Woah. Where'd the food go? They're like, this is awesome.

Unknown Speaker (18:01): Is that

Unknown Speaker (18:02): right? I'm like, yes. 100%.

Unknown Speaker (18:03): Remember it to be good.

Unknown Speaker (18:04): Let me ask

Chad (18:05): you something. If it's so is it CPG like, are you in supermarkets?

Scott Drake (18:09): We do have a a frozen program. We have, both pizzas as well as a

Chad (18:14): But for me to buy for buy when I'm there and take home with me, or are you, like, putting it in supermarket?

Scott Drake (18:18): No. It's it's more it's a third party supermarket distribution channel

Unknown Speaker (18:21): that we Is that going well? Like, I feel like if everyone loves the pizza, why don't they do they

Scott Drake (18:25): bring it home? The the other mystery or a kinda secret that we have that people don't realize is this whole media engine, the brand. If you look at the queues and again, I come as CFO, and I'm kinda like, wait. What? Show me the data.

Scott Drake (18:35): You know? I gotta see this. The Q scores of Chucky is right on par with every other character you can imagine. Barbie, Superman, Batman, another mouse, you know, that lives in Orlando and California. Yeah.

Scott Drake (18:46): I hate that mouse. The exact same recognition scores. So it's an enormous opportunity for both media and products. So we have, you know, the the t shirts and the hoodies and the hats.

Unknown Speaker (18:56): You sell a lot of swag.

Unknown Speaker (18:57): A lot of swag goes

Chad (18:58): out the door. Revenue driver, right?

Scott Drake (18:59): And then the the food side, you know, the frozen food side, it's it's a small piece of what we do. But the media side, people don't realize we brought all of our media content in house. We produce all of it. And we have the amazing collaborations with KidsBop, you know, all the other partners we have. So we put it out there in YouTube, YouTube Kids.

Scott Drake (19:16): We get, in history, billions of views. I mean, it's like TV shows. And this material.

Unknown Speaker (19:21): Like Chucky.

Scott Drake (19:21): It's like it's when you go into a store and you see the vignettes and you see, you know, kittens in boxes, you know, and all these other things, that's what we also broadcast out on the Internet.

Chad (19:29): And we have a Chuck E. Cheese, like, cartoon for kids, like, on, like you know, like, what's the channel that you watch Bluey on or something like that, Jimmy?

Unknown Speaker (19:37): I'm watching a lot on that that other Mickey the other the other mouse. What? Disney? Disney. A lot on Disney Plus.

Chad (19:42): Well, but but but what's the other? Like, Nickelodeon? Nickelodeon. Yeah. Yeah.

Chad (19:47): Like, do do you have that? Are you doing that? Okay. Good idea. Amazing.

Unknown Speaker (19:51): Dropping ideas for you right

Scott Drake (19:52): now. So we we do all these I'm an ideas man. We do this short form content. We need that out there. And ironically, like, we just assigned a new, licensee in Australia.

Scott Drake (20:00): 10 store deal in Australia. Okay. He found us through his daughter watching these videos on YouTube kits. And a lot of kids content comes out of Australia. He thought, well, what is this?

Unknown Speaker (20:08): She's like, oh, it's Chuck E. And it's, you know Do

Unknown Speaker (20:09): you have new there?

Scott Drake (20:10): We do now. Oh, you do now? First one opened in Perth. We have another one coming, in Perth and eight more across the country.

Chad (20:15): It seems like Chuck E. Cheese is international.

Scott Drake (20:17): Why is he He googled it and realized, oh my gosh. This is a pizza chain, an entertainment thing for kids. It's not an entertainment venue.

Chad (20:22): Right. Is it the first time you've gone outside of The States?

Scott Drake (20:25): No. No. No. We have we're in 18 countries around the world.

Unknown Speaker (20:27): Oh, okay. So So everyone knows you.

Unknown Speaker (20:29): First in Australia. Re

Unknown Speaker (20:31): Do want my card to an idea?

Scott Drake (20:32): I well, here. I've got news for What? You you're you're not breaking news? Well, it's it's it's still my idea already? We did.

Scott Drake (20:39): The team, Melissa and the team stole the idea.

Unknown Speaker (20:41): Oh my god.

Scott Drake (20:42): First ever forty five minute holiday special with Chuckie and the characters. Yeah. That's good. Produced by amazing third party. It was released on Thanksgiving morning.

Unknown Speaker (20:49): How'd it do?

Scott Drake (20:50): And I of course, you know, our partners were not allowed to really say. It went out on Amazon, YouTube, YouTube, all the platforms. Right. And we can tell you that there is now a lot of attention from a lot of parties because it did so

Unknown Speaker (21:03): It did

Unknown Speaker (21:03): so well. But it's a no brainer.

Scott Drake (21:05): It was very, very well performing through that holiday against anything, any content, any movie.

Chad (21:10): The flywheel because it was always like I I mean, I remember the old day that the commercials that were always produced, it was they were produced for the kids. Yep. Right? And they had the cartoon, like, tricks bunny. Yep.

Chad (21:19): Like, all the cereals. They want you know, they made all these commercials that the kid would watch, and then the kid would tell mom or go to the supermarket. Yep. Mom, that's what I want. You know what I mean?

Unknown Speaker (21:28): So it's it's a similar thing.

Scott Drake (21:30): It it is, but the the twist is our characters, they're not mascots. They're not there to sell. You will never see them try to sell a pizza, a drink, waste, nothing. They are true entertainment characters. And we just let them do their entertainment, have their personalities, their backstories, and we unpack all of those things.

Chad (21:45): Don't sell anything. They can just sell them the idea of, mom, I wanna have my birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.

Scott Drake (21:52): That's right. It just reminds them that Chuck

Unknown Speaker (21:54): is It's

Scott Drake (21:55): right. And it's a fun, safe, wholesome environment for kids. Yeah.

Chad (21:58): I gotta tell you. Listen. We gotta take a quick break. Okay? And then we're back with a little hot or not.

Chad (22:02): And, we got Brandon Quickfire. Right, Jenny?

Unknown Speaker (22:05): Yes. We do.

Chad (22:05): And anything else you wanna add? We have it coming back. So we'll be right back with Scott from the CEO, former CFO of Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment and the Peter Piper Pizza. We didn't even talk about Peter Piper Pizza, did we?

Unknown Speaker (22:19): Shaun, Peter Piper picked pizza.

Unknown Speaker (22:20): That's hard for me to say. That's why I stopped bringing it up. And There's a 115 of them, Jimmy, so it's worth

Jimmy (22:24): talking about. And there's another side to that. It's the, Peter Piper Pizza, and people who pick pepperoni I'm I'm butchering it. Was just giving it. Peter Piper pizza for people shoot.

Unknown Speaker (22:37): Help. Oh, anyway. There we I'm I'm I'll get

Chad (22:39): the How many Chuck

Scott Drake (22:40): Cheese are there? Yeah. So Chuck E. Cheese, kind of worldwide, about, five seventy five.

Chad (22:44): Five seventy five Chuck E. Cheese?

Scott Drake (22:45): About 80 of those international, the rest in US and Canada.

Unknown Speaker (22:49): Yeah. So you're gonna have a thousand stores

Scott Drake (22:50): pretty soon. The plan well, the most exciting thing is our new brand new adventure world concept. Of this

Chad (22:55): talk about adventure world if we're allowed to. We're gonna talk about adventure. We'll be right back. So don't go away. Hey, everybody.

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Chad (24:24): They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at builtdining.combackslashhangout. That's builtdining.combackslashhangout and check out what Built Hospitality is gonna do for you and your restaurant. Alright we are back and before we jump into the hot or not and the quick fire, I gotta hear about this adventure world that you just brought up.

Unknown Speaker (24:50): Yes. What is adventure world? First up, we have to hit the Peter. We have to do that.

Unknown Speaker (24:53): Oh, Peter 100%.

Unknown Speaker (24:54): Yeah. So let's talk about it.

Scott Drake (24:55): Again, amazing amazing pizza. So what's the with It's very centric. Like, it's habitual for folks in Arizona. There's a few in New Mexico and then South Texas.

Chad (25:05): We got a 115 locations,

Scott Drake (25:06): go to those markets without just people, like, the virtue of

Unknown Speaker (25:10): So what's the store? Why is that so delicious?

Scott Drake (25:12): Again, it's just handmade in store. The the dough is a it's a different product than Chuck E. Different product. Amazing. But you talk about habitual users.

Scott Drake (25:20): Chuck E. Cheese is about our sales, two thirds entertainment, one third of food. So people come to have fun. They might buy food while they're there. Sure.

Scott Drake (25:27): Peter Piper's the opposite.

Unknown Speaker (25:28): It's just a restaurant.

Scott Drake (25:29): Two thirds food. They have a lunch buffet. You know, almost a third of their business is to go and pick up. You know, they're a legitimate restaurant business with huge traffic. We try to get people to play some games while they're there.

Scott Drake (25:39): So it's much more kind of food centric. 100%.

Unknown Speaker (25:42): I've never been to a Peter Piper.

Scott Drake (25:43): You gotta go before you leave town. It's amazing. They're here in Scottsdale? Fiery Habanero is their LTO right now, and you can get the pizza. Jimmy, do you know this?

Unknown Speaker (25:51): I I did not know this, but we we Do

Unknown Speaker (25:53): you know this pizza place?

Unknown Speaker (25:54): I don't. Like, sorry.

Chad (25:55): I I They're not on the East Coast, are they?

Unknown Speaker (25:56): I I knew of the name, but I didn't

Unknown Speaker (25:58): there was no none near us.

Scott Drake (25:59): You can't come to these areas without people talking. Like, ask around, and they will tell you. You gotta hit Peter Piper Pizza.

Unknown Speaker (26:03): You should free

Jimmy (26:03): up our schedule. Make us stop the Peter Piper Pizza.

Unknown Speaker (26:05): Alright. So Peter Piper Pizza. Now what's adventure? Adventure one. So,

Scott Drake (26:08): you know, the reinvention, reimagination. We had to fix the box. Once we got the box, like, totally remodeled, and this is where, you know, the the predecessor team did all this when I'm CFO. I'm like, so what am I here to do? And, like, well, we remodeled everything.

Scott Drake (26:20): We've got a membership program that's like, know, we're gonna launch that. We think it'll be great. We've got birthdays reimagined.

Unknown Speaker (26:26): Right.

Scott Drake (26:26): We're gonna put an active play. All of these initiatives have killed it. All of them. And I'm like, so I'm here to do what? And then you just, you

Unknown Speaker (26:33): know, don't up. Yeah. Exactly.

Scott Drake (26:36): Collaborate with the team, do more of what's working, and, you know, keep it out of the ditches.

Unknown Speaker (26:39): Yeah. Right.

Scott Drake (26:40): So I come in and the adventure world or the the active play concept, we realized it's a home run. These units pay for themselves within a year.

Unknown Speaker (26:48): So what I can built inside the Chuck E.

Scott Drake (26:50): Cheese? It is. It's mini trampolines. It's 56 inches and below. So it's, again, it's little kids.

Scott Drake (26:55): You go to a lot of trampoline parks, little kids might get run over. You know, the big kids flying around and doing

Unknown Speaker (26:59): their stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (27:00): I see this. Bounce area for little kids.

Unknown Speaker (27:01): And then

Unknown Speaker (27:02): there's a

Scott Drake (27:02): an obstacle course. When trampolines work so well, accelerate that rollout. Then we came back with the mini obstacle course, put those in same result. And we realized, okay, this is a need. You know, the customer has spoken.

Unknown Speaker (27:14): Kids have spoken.

Unknown Speaker (27:14): They want more of this. And they love it.

Scott Drake (27:16): So we we finally pivoted, and we went with a full concept. It's a brand new concept, Chuck E. Cheese Adventure World. The first one is open in Dallas, and it has a three story 12,000 square foot play structure. There's two story, three story slides.

Scott Drake (27:30): There's 80 different features inside. You've got soccer, you've got swings, you've got everything you can imagine, in a kind of an immersive environment. But we've got Chuckie, we've got birthdays, we've got the birthday blaster. There's a few games you can play, not nearly the game set of a normal traditional, and then there's also a toddler area for little kids. So we we tried it.

Scott Drake (27:48): And, okay, it's kind of the classic. What's the worst decision I could make? I'm gonna open it, like, two miles away from one of my top five stores

Chad (27:56): Right.

Scott Drake (27:56): In a hugely competitive environment. Everybody is in that two mile radius, and it is far exceeding expectations.

Unknown Speaker (28:02): That's amazing.

Scott Drake (28:03): You know, line out the door in capacity.

Chad (28:04): So does that mean? I think parents are excited to get their kids out 100%. And off the phone or off the screen. 100%. At least, like, they're doing something other than that.

Chad (28:13): So, I mean, you know, I it's an experience. We talk about experience in restaurants all the time. It's gotta be experiential. Why not for kids too?

Scott Drake (28:20): I mean, right? 100%. And we're selling more food and games than we thought, so it is that full kind of food and fun and dining. So now it's full court press. We've gotta get more adventure worlds open.

Scott Drake (28:29): We'll be doing another eight or nine this year.

Chad (28:31): Are these new or you're going into existing stores and, like, fixing them up and building it inside the store, or are they building them from scratch?

Scott Drake (28:37): Not from scratch. We're finding existing space. The tough part is you need higher ceilings.

Unknown Speaker (28:40): Right.

Scott Drake (28:40): Yeah. Because You know, you need eighteen, twenty foot ceilings.

Chad (28:43): Your head on the ceiling.

Scott Drake (28:44): Right. So you'll see these coming across America. We've gotta kinda test and learn this as quickly we can.

Chad (28:48): Chuck E. Cheese. You didn't you didn't change it to adventure world.

Scott Drake (28:51): It's it's it's all in one. Chuck E. Cheese adventure world is kinda the tagline.

Unknown Speaker (28:55): Oh, so it is a Chuck E. Cheese. Cheese, and then there's a Chuck E. Cheese adventure world.

Scott Drake (28:58): Speaks to the power of the brand and the characters and all those things. People just love Chuck E. Cheese.

Unknown Speaker (29:02): You think you're gonna get going?

Scott Drake (29:04): We're gonna do another eight or nine this year. Yeah. And then we'll probably be on a pace of, like, four to six a quarter. So we'll be doing fifteen, twenty a year.

Chad (29:09): So that's like your big growth engine now.

Scott Drake (29:11): 100%. We now have this legitimate white space story, and the thing we have to do over the next twelve, eighteen months is determine, okay, is it a 300 store national opportunity? Is it a thousand store opportunity? And then we gotta turn it on internationally as well.

Chad (29:24): Now let's jump into a little hot or not. Okay. Here we go. Hot or not. Jimmy, you've played this before.

Chad (29:28): Scott, you've never played this. Here we go. Is dining membership clubs hot or not? Private club, dining membership clubs. Is that hot or not?

Unknown Speaker (29:37): Or you could use your little bigger thing.

Scott Drake (29:38): Me first? Okay. I would say hot. Hot. I think, it's a unique opportunity for people that want to have those experiences and that connection

Unknown Speaker (29:47): of You're not allowed to opine. You just want to say yes. You just gotta say hot or not. Hot. Jimmy gets the opine.

Chad (29:52): I get to opine. You get yeah. You get to so okay. Now what about not like, mocktails, non alcoholic beverages. Is that hot or not?

Unknown Speaker (29:59): Hot. Don't be see, you you can decline a few more. Don't get so.

Scott Drake (30:04): Well, the whole again, you have to you have to let the consumer speak. You know? Like, kids today, my kids even, I'm like, okay. You guys are such responsible adults compared to me at your age. It's just it's it's the trend.

Unknown Speaker (30:13): It's where they are and, you know, good for all of them. So you're the kids are more responsible today? In some ways. Really? Some ways.

Scott Drake (30:19): Some ways. But even young adults, everybody just

Unknown Speaker (30:21): should look during the My

Jimmy (30:22): kids I think you're both speaking from your your direct experiences.

Unknown Speaker (30:25): Yeah.

Jimmy (30:26): I and you both and here's the situation. You both can be right. Yeah. You're you're looking at your boys.

Unknown Speaker (30:31): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (30:31): He's looking

Unknown Speaker (30:31): at his kids. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (30:32): There you go.

Unknown Speaker (30:33): How old are your kids?

Scott Drake (30:34): Yeah. They're in college age. A junior and a freshman.

Unknown Speaker (30:36): So And they're very responsible. In the wheelhouse. Alrighty then. Sure. I gotta yeah.

Chad (30:41): We gotta sack. I gotta bring my kids over to your kids and see what's going on over there. Heavy heavy metal muse. Is that hot or not?

Unknown Speaker (30:48): Not. It's not hot. Exited that phase. I got the hearing loss to prove it.

Unknown Speaker (30:52): It's not hot. Yeah. Is, hockey, like, NHL hockey.

Unknown Speaker (30:55): Is that hot or not? Hot. Hot. Playoffs are going. Very hot.

Chad (30:59): NBA basketball.

Unknown Speaker (31:01): Hot or not? Playoffs are hot. I think playoff season, not so much. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (31:04): Playoffs hot. Yeah.

Chad (31:06): Doughnuts. Are doughnuts hot?

Scott Drake (31:08): Oh my there's okay. I'm with a concept that doesn't sell doughnuts, but that's my passion.

Chad (31:13): Doughnuts are hot. Doughnuts are hot. Doughnuts are extremely hot. Doughnuts Doughnuts just think they they because they the pendulum goes back and forth. You know?

Chad (31:20): Remember, like, Krispy Kreme was all the rage, and then I don't know what happened. They know it's all, like, went goodbye. Well, donuts are coming back, man. They're all like Randy's just opened up the

Unknown Speaker (31:28): I'm thinking I'm thinking we know bagels

Unknown Speaker (31:30): are hot. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (31:30): And now we got donuts are hot.

Unknown Speaker (31:32): Anything with a hole in the middle.

Unknown Speaker (31:33): I'm thinking there's a theme here.

Unknown Speaker (31:34): Yes. Put a hole

Unknown Speaker (31:35): in the middle of that thing and you got

Unknown Speaker (31:37): put a hole in that pizza? Put a hole

Unknown Speaker (31:38): in that pizza.

Unknown Speaker (31:39): Get about it.

Unknown Speaker (31:39): You that little plastic tent

Unknown Speaker (31:41): to Oh, keep no. That in

Unknown Speaker (31:41): It's on the test

Chad (31:42): Pickled pickled foods. Pickled everything. Is that hot? Not. Alright.

Chad (31:48): This is the last one. It's a big one. Daily pay for restaurant workers. Is that hot or not? I think that's very hot.

Unknown Speaker (31:55): Very hot, Jimmy. Very hot. Jimmy, where do you want to tackle? We threw a lot at you. Had the NFL, the NBA.

Chad (32:00): I mean, I threw so much.

Jimmy (32:01): You know what? I want to come back to the hockey. I come back to the NHL. And the reason why I wanted to I have a nine year old daughter, and I would say that hockey was just not of interest to her for X amount of time. Right.

Jimmy (32:13): And in my experience, it's become in her. It's now become a love More even

Unknown Speaker (32:18): She was loving hot. Watching it.

Unknown Speaker (32:20): Just fine. Rangers. The rangers weren't even

Unknown Speaker (32:23): that good, but she loves

Jimmy (32:23): Loving up it. But if skating, she likes the physicality, and I I don't think there's a better sporting event live.

Unknown Speaker (32:29): Live, it's

Unknown Speaker (32:30): the best. Percent.

Unknown Speaker (32:31): So I would say, are you saying that this because I this is somewhat new to me watching my nine year old daughter Yep. Tell me she wants to watch a hockey game.

Unknown Speaker (32:37): Yep. 100%. I mean, I yeah. I've been in Dallas since the seventies, so hockey didn't exist. The stars came to town.

Unknown Speaker (32:42): There you go.

Scott Drake (32:43): And you're like, okay. Hockey, I'll watch it. It's kind of a good pace, and there's some action. But then you go to a game, and it's it's it's it's the biggest difference between live and on TV of any sport.

Unknown Speaker (32:51): It's the best sport live.

Chad (32:53): I remember when hockey started expanding, and they started going into warm weather states or cities. And people like, I don't understand why would you put hockey there? I'm like, it's inside. Like, they're not skating outside in Dallas at one at 110 degrees. Right.

Chad (33:07): They're inside. Actually, if it's really hot outside, I feel like I'd rather go watch a hockey game because it's really cold in there. It's like going into a refrigerator. Yep. Right?

Chad (33:16): It makes sense, actually.

Jimmy (33:18): I I think the issue there was the this nostalgia of people going out in the winter on the frozen pond with a frozen lake

Unknown Speaker (33:24): Right.

Jimmy (33:24): And starting to play hockey. And how does that ex I don't how do the kids in those warmer areas but you're right. It's it's an indoor sport.

Chad (33:30): Yeah. So because Vegas, like, they're supporting the Knights like crazy. Yep. Right? And does that does Florida?

Chad (33:36): People love going to Stars game?

Unknown Speaker (33:37): 100%. 100 Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (33:38): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (33:38): It's pretty

Chad (33:38): Like like, I we go to Vegas a lot for a lot of conferences, and I guess the knights play right like, on the strip, basically. And you see I mean, they really love their knights there. So I it was just funny to me. People like, I don't understand why I would go somewhere warm. Like, it really doesn't matter that much.

Chad (33:53): Anyway, Jimmy, is that all you wanted to opine on? It's just hockey? I feel like there was so much more there.

Jimmy (33:58): Well, the other the only other thing that struck me is, Shatty asked you about these private dining, but to me, that screams of really connecting with guests. And if if someone wants private dining and private memberships, that's great. But I also imagine that you can extrapolate that into your own businesses, and it's just how you're relating, connecting, and the community that is Chuck E. Cheese and then what so is that is that is that is that am I picking up what you were throwing down?

Chad (34:23): Will Chuck E. Cheese have a private membership club for young children?

Unknown Speaker (34:28): Well, we are I have two options.

Unknown Speaker (34:29): Oh, you do?

Unknown Speaker (34:30): So we have birthdays. To me, that's a private dining experience. You have a host. You have your experience.

Unknown Speaker (34:34): And then you have your overlay. You're gonna have

Unknown Speaker (34:35): the layouts in there. A 100%. A lot of private dining experiences. Yes. It's called birthdays.

Scott Drake (34:40): And and we we also do it for fundraisers. You know, you've got a church, a school group, an athletic,

Unknown Speaker (34:44): you know, kids over the whole space?

Scott Drake (34:46): They can come in. They can reserve a space. I was in a a store two days ago. They had 60 people coming in for a school fundraiser, and we give back, you know, a portion of the money to group. You know?

Scott Drake (34:56): So it's a great fundraiser opportunity. That's another private dining experience. Really, the the private dining kind of exclusive experience is our memberships.

Unknown Speaker (35:03): Oh, you have memberships.

Scott Drake (35:04): Have memberships. We'd had them for years. A two two month summer fun pass. Right. The most we'd ever sold was 75,000.

Chad (35:11): Was that was that, like, way below? I don't know. I have no.

Scott Drake (35:14): Oh, yeah. But here it is. You know? So the the the scale of this, oh, hey, that's nice. It's a good business.

Scott Drake (35:18): We sell some of these. Right. We get some people to come in in the summer. 2024, I started and, you know, the the genius, Mark Kupferman and the other guys that that developed the whole program at Six Flags and grew it a ton revamped our program, changed the wording, changed how it works. You can come every single day.

Scott Drake (35:33): Take advantage of us.

Chad (35:34): So it used to be a summer pass. Was it the idea that were off from school kind of thing?

Scott Drake (35:38): Right. Our peak season is really, like, kind of once kids get out of school in December, January, February, March, that's our our peak time. Right. You know, there's not as much competition in the summer and with

Unknown Speaker (35:47): leagues and

Scott Drake (35:48): all the other things going on. They come to Chucky. It's cold outside. Yep. They come to Chuck E.

Scott Drake (35:51): So we have capacity in summer. So the first year we relaunched the program with the new parameters, we sold over 400,000 passes. What'd you what'd you change the name to? It was just Chuck E. Cheese Summer Fun Pass.

Scott Drake (36:03): But it was how we describe the offer. You know, starts at start at $49.99 for a bronze. There's silver. There's gold.

Unknown Speaker (36:08): You can

Scott Drake (36:09): come every day and play games.

Unknown Speaker (36:10): Now that's real money. You get up to

Unknown Speaker (36:11): a 50% discount. Thousand. Yes. That's real revenue. But it's the consumer.

Scott Drake (36:16): It's you know, again, our average consumer is well under a $100,000. They're pressured more than ever on disposable income. How do we help them? We bring value. We bring them.

Scott Drake (36:24): Hey. If you come with a family afforded, Chucky, it's already cheaper than anybody I could be.

Unknown Speaker (36:28): What do

Unknown Speaker (36:28): you get? You can

Chad (36:29): come as many times as you want?

Scott Drake (36:30): You can come every day and play. You get 50 to 250 tokens. You can come and end up there and just play every day, but you also get either, you know, 20, sorry, 25, 30, or 45 or 50% off of all your food and beverage while you're there.

Chad (36:43): I dig it, man. I dig it.

Scott Drake (36:44): It was so successful that we said, hey, this is a thing. Let's launch an annual pass.

Unknown Speaker (36:49): Right. So now

Scott Drake (36:50): you make a twelve month commitment, but it's as low as $7.99 a month. Same thing. You can come every day for a year. Just make your monthly payment. We have last year, we sold over 640,000 passes.

Scott Drake (37:03): Passes and memberships.

Chad (37:04): Me do some quick math. $8 times 640,000. Carry the one. What's pie again?

Unknown Speaker (37:10): $4,800,000.

Unknown Speaker (37:12): No. But I pie.

Unknown Speaker (37:13): Oh, pie. 3.14.

Unknown Speaker (37:14): So carry the two. What is it? Pie? No. How much is it now?

Unknown Speaker (37:19): Was I was We're

Unknown Speaker (37:20): we're talking almost $5,000,000. No. But I was trying

Unknown Speaker (37:22): to add it up. Well, well, the silver pass is

Unknown Speaker (37:23): that the bronze is $7.99 a month.

Unknown Speaker (37:25): Yes. Oh, it goes

Unknown Speaker (37:26): up. Yes.

Unknown Speaker (37:26): I was I was shorting it.

Unknown Speaker (37:28): Bronze is correct.

Unknown Speaker (37:28): Gold is up in the mid.

Unknown Speaker (37:30): So what's the average? 28? $40.

Scott Drake (37:33): So what we find is if you buy a summer fun pass

Unknown Speaker (37:35): Yep.

Scott Drake (37:36): Again, they vary from $54.99 up to a 100 and, you know, $29 or so. You get the right to two months.

Unknown Speaker (37:42): I way shorted them on that. I've got that.

Unknown Speaker (37:44): It's like $10,000,000,000, Jimmy.

Unknown Speaker (37:45): I think you're I I I

Unknown Speaker (37:46): think 64,000,000,000. Think price are right. Just went over. Well, you're both financed guys. How much is it?

Unknown Speaker (37:50): So what

Chad (37:51): are you bringing in on these these pads?

Scott Drake (37:52): So the beauty of this program Yeah. Is our average guest comes in one and a half times a year. They spend about $65 What do got now? So what I'll break it down to you, summer, if somebody buys a two month pass, they come in four to six times. Yeah.

Scott Drake (38:03): And they're worth two to three times that to us. If they buy an annual pass, depending on the level they buy, they're basically if you average all the summer or the annual passes, they're worth six times. So you can do the math. $400 or so for every But one of those

Chad (38:16): neither of you are giving me the math. It'd be 640,000 passes times an average of $30. Jimmy? $640 That's like $8,000,000,000 on. Six times.

Unknown Speaker (38:31): Carry the one, right? All right. Let's go to quick fire. A of fire. Neither one of you would know it.

Scott Drake (38:36): It's a huge it's driven the business to

Chad (38:38): He's a CFO. You're Mr. Finance guy. Neither way, you gotta bring the calculator out. Alright.

Chad (38:42): Here's the brand. The quick fire. You ready? Lightning around. Think too don't think too hard.

Chad (38:46): Okay. What's your favorite game or activity at Chuck E. Cheese right now? What is your favorite? Skee ball.

Unknown Speaker (38:51): Skee All ages.

Unknown Speaker (38:53): It's the Are competitive you any good?

Unknown Speaker (38:55): No. Used to

Unknown Speaker (38:56): be. I'm trying to get my skill back. Trying to get my skill back. Yeah.

Chad (38:58): It's a flow. It's a Is a hot dog a sandwich, Scott? Yes. Bread bread, meat. You get upset, Jimmy.

Chad (39:06): Have you ever dressed up as Chuck E. Cheese?

Unknown Speaker (39:09): I have not. Have not. There's a lot

Unknown Speaker (39:11): of training. Dress up.

Scott Drake (39:12): I it's it's on my bucket list. I'm try.

Chad (39:14): Jimmy to dress up as Chuck E. Cheese.

Unknown Speaker (39:16): I I I like to dress.

Unknown Speaker (39:18): If if we can do the training, know, there's a lot to it because you deal with

Unknown Speaker (39:22): a lot of folks a lot. Like, I like to dress.

Unknown Speaker (39:23): Like, to dress as what? You gotta make a lot I kids

Unknown Speaker (39:25): gotta hold

Chad (39:26): duff Jimmy on does Jimmy does Halloween. Like, he goes all out. He goes all out. True or false? The name Chuck E.

Chad (39:33): Cheese was created because the word cheese makes you automatically smile. True. True. It does make me smile. But I think cheese I just laugh when I said cheese.

Chad (39:44): Isn't it? Because I can cut the cheese. I immediately go to cut the cheese. Well, that's where I go because my head is just, you know, I'm very mature. You know, when you hear cheese,

Unknown Speaker (39:53): I I don't go where you just went.

Chad (39:56): I don't. Every time I hear cheese, I go to the same thing. What's the last thing that you googled or chatted or whatever you do? What's the last thing you looked up?

Unknown Speaker (40:04): Oh, goodness. What the hell

Chad (40:06): is the hospitality hanging out party? You know, why am I doing it?

Scott Drake (40:10): Right. No. No. Honestly, it was probably, the the best route for me to get to all the Peter Piper's here in town. I had it map it out for you so I could hit as many as I could.

Unknown Speaker (40:17): How many are there?

Scott Drake (40:18): We've got about 20 here in the Phoenix area and about 12 in the Tucson area. I did not. I did not. Love pizza. Love pizza.

Scott Drake (40:25): It's amazing.

Chad (40:26): Alright. How do you take your bagel, Scott, from from Dallas, Texas?

Scott Drake (40:30): Oh, we've got bagel game in Dallas is elevated. It's gotten better. So toasted with cream cheese, and I actually put a little hot honey in there.

Chad (40:38): Did they open a pop up bagel there yet?

Unknown Speaker (40:40): No. One's coming What's the hot bagel? One's coming right next to Salt and Straw. I'm pumped. Two of them by side.

Chad (40:45): So you do a little bagel and then get some ice cream?

Unknown Speaker (40:47): Yeah. 100%.

Chad (40:49): What's your Uber rating right now? Oh. The CEO of Chuck Jones.

Unknown Speaker (40:53): Four nine something, I I'm up there. I'm up there. Why has everybody

Chad (40:56): got such high ratings? I have such a low rating, Jimmy.

Jimmy (40:59): Is that is that is that you yelling at drivers?

Chad (41:02): Listen. I was on a Zoom call with you the other day, and you were in a yellow cab in New York City, and I heard you were screaming at the guy because he was not going up 3rd Avenue.

Jimmy (41:09): I thought I was getting punked. I thought I was getting punked. Like, where are address, and he kept asking me what they what he kept asking me, cry like, 47th And 3rd. 47th Street, 3rd Avenue. And he kept Where was he taking?

Jimmy (41:21): He was like, good. Taking a left on 27th. He's like, you said 10th Avenue. I said, 47th And 3rd. I can't what part of 47th And 3rd?

Jimmy (41:28): Are we are we mixing it up?

Chad (41:29): Well, I love seeing you yell at the guy, yelling at the driver because it made me feel good.

Jimmy (41:33): I left him a nice tip because I felt bad.

Unknown Speaker (41:35): You felt you should. Felt bad.

Unknown Speaker (41:36): You're like, no. No. Where are you going?

Chad (41:40): Alright. Here we go. If you're to challenge Jimmy or I to a game of Skee Ball, better odds of beating. I mean, you love Skee Ball. You used to be a champion when you were younger, right?

Chad (41:50): You were champ. Who do have better odds of beating that Jimmy grew up in the city, and he used to go to, Playland. Wasn't Playland time?

Unknown Speaker (41:56): Playland, Wasn't it? No. Play no. Playland's up in Memphis.

Chad (41:59): So what was the place in Times Square you get the fake IDs? Remember?

Unknown Speaker (42:03): Yes. Actually, it was Playland.

Unknown Speaker (42:04): Was that Playland?

Unknown Speaker (42:05): Play it it was called Playland.

Chad (42:06): Yeah. You just go there and play the arcade.

Jimmy (42:07): Yeah. Remind me after I got my fake ID.

Unknown Speaker (42:09): And New York City used to have some great arcades and great stuff. There's no Chuck E. Cheese in New York City.

Scott Drake (42:15): Not in, Manhattan, but we're in all the other boroughs surrounding

Unknown Speaker (42:17): it.

Scott Drake (42:18): Uh-huh. And hopefully, Adventure World's coming soon.

Unknown Speaker (42:20): See that Julie goes to all

Unknown Speaker (42:21): the Paramus.

Chad (42:22): Amazing. Paramus, New Jersey. That's the highest grossing Chuck E. Cheese in Paramus. I understand.

Chad (42:27): Am I right? Right? Isn't that the number one? It is. It is.

Chad (42:29): The number one in Paramus is that Chuck E. Cheese, Julie, by the way. Who are gonna beat? Skee Ball.

Scott Drake (42:35): Okay. So no offense. But if I'm gonna do something semi athletic Yeah. Give me the finance guy or the IT person every time. You know?

Scott Drake (42:41): I'll I'll take my odds there.

Unknown Speaker (42:42): So you're gonna beat him? Oh, I beat me.

Unknown Speaker (42:44): Yeah. I'll tell you this.

Unknown Speaker (42:44): You might beat me, but I'm beating him. Well, how do you know I'm

Unknown Speaker (42:47): not good

Unknown Speaker (42:47): at skee ball?

Jimmy (42:48): I I I'm I actually I don't know how good you are at skee ball. I'm very confident in my skee ball game.

Unknown Speaker (42:54): Oh, you're very good? I got game. Jimmy's incredibly bowl.

Unknown Speaker (42:57): He used be a bowler.

Unknown Speaker (42:57): Ball. Me too.

Unknown Speaker (42:58): So I feel it's not

Unknown Speaker (42:59): the same you were a bowler. When were you a bowler?

Unknown Speaker (43:02): When I was young. When I was little. Yeah. What are you

Unknown Speaker (43:05): You didn't go to Chuck E. Cheese, your birthday party, a bowling alley. Mean, where were you bowling?

Unknown Speaker (43:08): Going to bowling alleys. East End Bowl. Did you

Unknown Speaker (43:11): have Jimmy, did you have your own ball with At one point, I had my own ball. There's no way you had your own ball. I had my own ball. Scott, please.

Unknown Speaker (43:18): I have my own ball. I wouldn't lie to The The finance guy. I won't as a kid. 100%. Really?

Scott Drake (43:22): Bowling league every Sunday. This is El Paso. It's very

Jimmy (43:24): funny to me. It's the most Scott, most famous bowling alley in our neighborhood. It doesn't exist anymore. Wasn't that on any the street from his house.

Unknown Speaker (43:32): Yeah. It is.

Unknown Speaker (43:32): He's like, where do you bowl? Nice. Across the street from your house.

Unknown Speaker (43:34): Nice. Bowl there.

Unknown Speaker (43:35): Yes. Nice.

Unknown Speaker (43:36): He said bowl. And you had your own bowl? At one point, I had my own bowl. Wasn't bowling a big thing? Like, I remember, like, the honeymooners.

Chad (43:42): They're always bowling. Fred Flintstone always bowled. Yes. What happened to bowling?

Unknown Speaker (43:46): Well, all the kids are going to, like, Cavaliers and playing other sports. I was going to East End Bowl.

Unknown Speaker (43:50): You and I was rolling. Lacrosse came about? I was rolling. Because no one's bowling now.

Unknown Speaker (43:54): Like, I don't talk to any

Unknown Speaker (43:55): dads. We both right? What sports did

Scott Drake (43:58): your kids play? Oh, so we've got, volleyball. No bowling. Shopping is my other daughter's sport. Shopping.

Unknown Speaker (44:06): Well, yeah, shopping is a good sport. I will say. Yes. I gotta tell you. Alright.

Chad (44:10): Listen. That I I gotta tell you. I think we said it all. I think we did it all with Scott. I think we we we've said it all.

Chad (44:16): We've got a lot. There's a lot going on at Chuck E. Cheese. You're killing it. You got 10,000 new stores opening very soon.

Unknown Speaker (44:22): Right?

Unknown Speaker (44:22): The adventure. The Chuck E.

Unknown Speaker (44:23): Cheese adventure. Let's Let's take us home, Jumbo.

Jimmy (44:25): Yes. Scott, I wanna thank you so much for doing the podcast with us. We appreciate what you're doing. We also wanna thank our friends at DailyPay and and your collaboration is something we're excited by. If anyone wants to get in touch with Scott directly, you could email the podcast team.

Unknown Speaker (44:39): Cell phone here,

Unknown Speaker (44:39): Jamie. We we don't give that. That was a that was a season one rookie move. K? Now we don't give the stuff up.

Chad (44:44): Wants to know what people are thinking. He wants the feedback.

Jimmy (44:47): And the and the way they're gonna reach us is podcast at branded n y Brandon dot NYC, and we'll we'll get in touch. We'll we'll we'll send the message along. Scott, thank you.

Unknown Speaker (44:56): Shout out to you, Scott. Appreciate it. Thank and love what you're doing over there at Chuck E. Cheese.

Unknown Speaker (45:00): And if you haven't checked it out, man, go check out Chuck E.

Chad (45:03): Cheese because it's not your old Chuck E. Cheese. 100%. And the pizza is better than ever.

Unknown Speaker (45:07): We should go get some pizza at at at Peter Piper Pizza.

Unknown Speaker (45:10): 100%. I love it.

Unknown Speaker (45:10): Cheers, everybody. Alright. Thank you. Cheers.