Aw, this makes me feel sad and old! My first job was at a CEC. I was part of the crew that opened a new location and a core group of us ended up staying about 5 years (late high school/college). In general it’s hard to keep a place full of kids/families running around willy-nilly clean but there were standards for cleaning – tables and games as well as “sky tubes” and even ball pits when we had them. Our store was in a solidly middle class area but we (employees) still occasionally found dirty diapers left under tables by lazy parents or, inexplicably, whole slices of pizza in a ball pit or spilled soda in the tubes. (Eat your food/drink at the table and change your kids in the bathroom… As a 37yo mom I don’t see that as difficult or too much to ask.)
I’ve been concerned about allarcades since this virus paranoia started. It’s a business model based on touching a bunch of screens/buttons/balls/mallets that someone else just touched. Games last about 30 seconds so having an employee wipe off a game between each person isn’t practical and each game has unique parts to be wiped off.
CEC survived H1N1, Sars, Mersa plus the regular cold and flu seasons, I’m sorry to see COVID-19 bring it down. I have pictures of me, my daughter and my niece and nephew all playing there over the years.
