Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese's is a chain of American restaurants that serve more as entertainment centers for kids than anything else. They are the primary brand of CEC entertainment and the headquarters for Chucky Cheese is in Irving, Texas. The name comes from the main brand character, a comedic mouse named Chuck E. Cheese who sings and interacts with the guests. As of 2017, Chuck E. Cheese had 608 locations, and although there is no information available on how many employees they actually have, a good estimate is 20 employees per store which comes out to be approximately 12,000 employees. The positions include pizza cooks, cashiers, game room attendants, costumed characters, kitchen attendants, kid check attendants, party hosts, and more.

The company was founded as Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater by Nolan Bushnell, who was also the founder of the videogame system Atari. He wanted to expand videogame systems beyond the adult locations that they were currently housed in and into family-friendly locations like kid restaurants. This all happened around 1977, and Disney was one of the biggest influences on what Bushnell decided to do. In 1978, Bushnell purchased the first pizza time theater concept and made a previous high-level employee of Atari as the new Chief Operating Officer of Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater. Products include pizza, arcade games, kid's games, kiddie rides and birthday parties.

Chuck E. Cheese restaurants are available throughout much of the continent of North America, but they are also available in South America and in the Middle East. The restaurant moved to Australia in the 1980s, but it was named Charlie Cheese Pizza Playhouse. The company has since expanded to various locations including Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2017, it is estimated that Chuck E. Cheese made approximately $886.77 million in revenue.