Chuck E. Cheese going belly up, and it's not about the virus...

[TreasonousBastard]

https://patch.com/new-york/northfork/s/h5bhx/chuck-e-cheese-could-close-all-restaurants-including-4-on-li?utm_term=article-slot-2&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Apollo Global Management bought it and took it private around 2014--- that means milk it for what they can get out of it.

Well, it's milked dry and they owe a billion and bankruptcy looms. But that didn't stop them from giving out $3 million in "pre-bankruptcy bonuses".

[Beartracks]

1. Well, it could've been OTHER viruses...

Every surface in those places was a greasy Petri dish. In my germophobe opinion, that is.


========

[Initech]

7. Yeah I have heard stories.

I wouldn't touch one of those ball pits if you paid me.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. I know I'm hopelessly naive on these things, but I'll never understand why this shit is legal.

How does vulture capitalism destroying businesses and sucking out capital into private pockets beneficial to the economy?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. It's not. It's jungle capitalism.

[JHB]

10. It doesn't, but dealing with it is complicated and the provisions are relatively obscure...

...so the only people who lobby hard about it are the people who like the current setup and are pushing for more.

I'm not an expert, but my sense of it is that these games are responsible for most of the job losses usually blamed on "trade deals! NAFTA! RARRRW!"

When this subject comes up it's always instructive to break out the 1991 Philadelphia Inquirer series by Bartlett and Steele:
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inq_HT_WhatWentWrong1991.html

DAY 1
How game was rigged against middle class

After three decades, American worker loses out to Mexico
Who - and how many - in America's middle class

DAY 2
The lucrative business of bankruptcy

DAY 3
Big business hits the jackpot with billions in tax breaks

DAY 4
Why the world is closing in on the U.S. economy

DAY 5
The high cost of deregulation: Joblessness, bankruptcy, debt

DAY 6
For millions in U.S., a harsh reality: It's not safe to get sick

How death came to a once-prosperous discount-store chain

DAY 7
Raiders work their wizardry on an all-American company

DAY 8
When you retire, will there be a pension waiting?

Workers saving for their retirement lose on junk bonds

DAY 9
How special-interest groups have their way with Congress

America's two-class tax system

This has been with us for a long time.

[Blasphemer]

13. Thanks. Bookmarking... nt

[betsuni]

17. Also bookmarking. Thank you.

I hate it when people blame trade deals for job losses just so they can blame Democrats for things that started long before NAFTA (and call them neoliberals).

[Blue_true]

20. They have moved into healthcare big.

That is the reason larger cities have many hospitals and rural areas are seeing hospitals closed. To those funds, it is about cash flow and profitable patient counts, they have no interest in providing needed services at a reasonable cost.

Have a conversation with your own Doctor, if that person is willing to discuss it. Doctors today are likely to be part of a larger company that route patients between connected specialists, labs, and hospitals.

[keithbvadu2]

26. The lucrative business of bankruptcy

Buy a company, preferably with debt... theirs, not yours.

Sell off assets

Milk it dry of money

Load it up with debt.

Restructure/bankrupt it.

Make sure you get lots of fees/bonuses for doing it.

If you're good, you can also get much of the employees' pension fund.

See ya!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

35. Decent jobs and pensions go 'poof' and rich guys become richer guys.

[TheFarseer]

36. I'll never get over how

The venture capitalists borrow money to buy the company and then the company they bought has to pay the loan. Does it work that way with ANYTHING else? Can I go to Starbucks and tell the guy at the register “The coffee owes you the money now. After I take a pee you can talk into the toilet about your $3.99”

[Gidney N Cloyd]

38. +1

[msongs]

4. they gave it the romney treatment nt

[Bettie]

5. Maybe because it is the second circle of hell

I had to go for several birthday parties when my kids were small.

Came down with strep after every single one of them.

Add in terrible food and, just no.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Strep? How were the kids?

[Bettie]

12. All fine, they never get it

I do anytime I'm exposed.

According to the doctor, some people get it more easily. They have on my chart now that if I call and ask for a rapid culture, I don't even need an appointment. Sigh.

Other than that, I never get sick.

[frazzled]

18. It is, but

Chuck E Cheese toilet trained my daughter. That was 37 years ago (he must be getting long in the tooth by now). It was the first day my daughter went diaperless, so we told her we would take her, with her training pants, to see Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. He greeted us at the door, and I told him that our little angel was wearing big girl pants (!). He threw up his arms, gave her a hug and started dancing. She was elated and proud. And that was it. Toilet training accomplished in one day.

[Initech]

8. So it's getting the Borders and Toys R Us treatment then?

[Wolf Frankula]

9. Chuck E. Cheese is horrible.

I wouldn't feed him to a stray cat.

Wolf

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Chuck E. Cheese may be no great loss but the style of execution is troubling.

[madville]

14. It would have been gone years ago

Lenders were eager enough to keep giving them loans (and probably making their own bonuses in the process).

[USALiberal]

24. Lol, was waiting for a post like that! Nt

[TheBlackAdder]

37. Only place that makes pizza sauce, where the first ingredient is sugar. 😂

[3catwoman3]

15. I am happy to say that I managed to avoid...

...Chuck E. Cheese when our sons were little.

[Archetypist]

16. Las Vegas for kids

that's what it always looked like to me. And I don't like Vegas much ...

[uncle ray]

28. what happens in The Ball Pit, stays in The Ball Pit.

[rickford66]

19. Lenders never catch on to this scam .....

or maybe they do know. Romney ran this scam as a "successful businessman".

[Hoyt]

21. Chuck has been hurting for years. Solid companies don't usually sell to private

equity. ToysRUs sold when their bonds were downgraded to junk, leaving them no where to go but private equity for funding.

CV19 forced CECheese to try home delivery, they were totally screwed at that point.

Hated the place, but the little kids had fun.

[eleny]

22. The Romney scheme for making money

[Olafjoy]

23. The Giant anamatronic singing mice

Always creeped me out a little. Went to lots of B day parties with the kiddos

[SCantiGOP]

25. When my kids were little

I had to attend some birthday parties there, and I remember for a while in the 80s they had a Dad Room, where you could smoke, drink beer and watch sports on TV while you ignored your kid.

[Greybnk48]

27. Chuck E. Cheese, designed to get kids used to casino life.

I never liked that place.

[Calculating]

29. Meh

No great loss honestly.

[Awsi Dooger]

30. Anything with the word cheese deserves to go out of business

Heck, it would be a far superior world if cheese itself ceased to exist

My top 3 worldly eliminations would be:

1) Trump/GOP
2) Cats
3) Cheese

[TreasonousBastard]

31. One out of three isn't that bad.

[Laelth]

33. I am with you on all 3. Wow! n/t

-Laelth

[Demovictory9]

32. blood suckers

[scarytomcat]

34. capitalism works so well Mr Romney