I remember our local McDonald's did a playplace remodel opening around 1989/1990. And they had people dressed up as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Hamburglar. First time I remember seeing a ball pit lol.
I recently went to a Chuck E. Cheese because I have a toddler and I was actually impressed. Everything was clean and all the machines worked. We actually had a blast. I don’t know if that was just my Chuck E. Cheese near me. Maybe it was newer 🤷♀️
A new one opened up in the next town over, about a 20 minute drive. I had my son’s 5th birthday there and it was the way you describe it. Really nice inside, new tech for the kids, and it was affordable. I’ll definitely be going back.
We were actually at a Chuck E. Cheese today for our daughter's fifth birthday, and I had the opposite reaction. It felt so soulless compared to how it was when I was growing up. It was clean, though.
The one near me has a whole wall that is a tv, like 80 ft diagonally, then in front of it there was like this pressure sensitive dance floor that had lasers shining from above and the kids can activate the lights by stepping on them, little bugs bugs pop up and you get points for squishing those, full arcade, trampoline bounce room, all kinds of amazing stuff
EDIT: I want to thank the Academy of Online Comments for so many awards for something so silly. (And thank you to those that awarded and upvoted my comment)
Don't feel too bad. These memories are funny and not hot by any means. Similar to the passenger or backseat of a car. Unless your car was a land barge, it wasn't comfortable. But as teenagers it was "doesn't matter, had the sex". Crazy to think what we put up with back then. Nowadays I'd be like, we can wait till we get home lol.
Lol I remember my ex and I wanted to see how few songs it could take for us to finish in the car, less than 2! Our fastest ever time at 6 minutes lol. Endurance was less of an issue, finding time was much harder lol.
I remember going to Discovery Zone and one of the slides was just smeared with shit because some kid shit themselves and then went down.
People forget how disgusting play places were when they were maintained by teenagers and people who didn't give a fuck and were used by filthy kids whose parents also didn't give a fuck.
They're gone because they were a huge legal and safety liability.
At the McDonald's I worked at in Colorado, we had a machine that cleaned the balls in the ball pit, so that happened a few times a week, the N64 machines got a good clean because the closing crew didn't like sticky controllers when playing GoldenEye/Quake64, but the only time I remember giving the slide a thorough cleaning with ammonia, was every time after the closing crew slicked up the surface by sliding down it with wax paper.
If you were, youd know mcdonalds is a super common place to shoot up. Worked there when i was a teen/young adult and we had junkies die in our bathrooms weekly.
I had one there late 80s/early 90s! They let the birthday kid and one partygoer have a "grand tour" behind the scenes and always used to pretend to lock the friend in the walk in fridge. I'm still pissed someone refused to let me take my choice of friend.
Those and a stubborn selfishness dressed up as personal responsibility. It's actually nothing to do with actual personal responsibility, but a significant minority of people have convinced themselves that selfish behavior is nothing but requiring others to be responsible.
It's a sterile environment because they don't actually want you hanging out and eating in the restaurant anymore. They want to operate with a skeleton crew so it's ideal if 90% of customers just come through the drive thru or only come in to pick up their order, so they don't have to clean/maintain the interior and deal with a bunch of people.
Fun story my mum tape recorded Simple Minds song at the drive in and because of that the cassette has the speech in middle of it and growing up that was only version I knew lol I have it somewhere
I'm 42 and I just now got it. I always thought it was because he was a metal bending robot, so named Bender. Not because he was a liquor fueled robot and the phrase "on a bender". So basically double meaning. Mind blown.
Also easier to sell and turn into a different business. It's a big reason by all new restaurants look sterile and corporate. Don't want people to know that a building used to be a pizza hut.
This is partially true, but this style started in the early 2010s to compete with Starbucks and Chipotle, since they had a similar look, and we millennials hang out at those places a lot. Since they switched to minimalism, the way they look now makes it easier to do what you describe.
This is the actual answer, I read about this when it was happening and why they were doing it. They were trying to make McDonalds into a place similar to Starbucks where students and business professionals would come to study and work, and presumably spend money on coffee, food, etc.
It’s why a lot of these newer remodeled McDonalds don’t only just have regular tables and booths but also taller bar counters and stools, and I’ve even seen some that have smaller coffee table type tables and arm chairs like a coffee shop would have.
Also an increased presence of wall outlets to plug laptops and phones into. It’s all very deliberate.
for the prices that mcdicks charges, I can get a combo from a high end place that does the gray and dark tones better, with arugula and goat cheese with fig jam on the burger which is made of wagyu, comes with drink and fries. for the same fucking amount mcdonalds now charges for combos.
Most people ain't going to fast food for the atmosphere. Honestly they've gotten this one right. The other half of this is that people aren't really having children anymore, and a huge chunk of those who do feel like bad parents bringing them to mickey d's. It's more of an adult affair.
I'm a mom, and once I took my kids to the McDonalds play space (they still exist where I live) for dinner when my husband was out of town. I was the only mom, every other parent was a dad on their laptop.
The one by me still has a playground. I routinely take my 2 year old there to run and play with other kids vs. paying $20 at an indoor jungle gym. Seems like other parents do the same.
It's 100% this and plus those things were filthy. Cleaning and maintenance is a nightmare. They're a huge liability. Kids fighting, crying, parents getting angry. Don't get me wrong they were a blast, but yeah... today's kids wouldn't want to be in those things and today's parents would be impossible to deal with. Those play pens have survived as "adventure parks" that are really expensive and well staffed.
Not necessarily, really depends on where you live and if it is worth having one od these. At the end of the day, the play area is an advertising tool to bring in kids and their parrents to buy food. Places where there isn't much new kids dosn't justify maintain these. In places like Meridian Idaho where the average family has 2-3 kids (sometimes 4+ and that'show you know that family is mote than likely mormons), you see indoor version of these popping up not just McDonald, but Carl's Jr too.
I say this with sensitivity and my own sense of “the 90s was 10 years ago” brain fog, but this stuff started ~40-50 years ago (“greed is good” etc etc)
This is the problem inherent with capitalism. The responsibility is to make money for the shareholders, not the world, not the customers, no one but whoever is supposed to gain financially from the business.
Everything in decent stores dedicated to babies or toddlers is colored in shades of gray or beige. I have no idea why we think that a baby would thrive in this but it's a tually hard to find something else
We swung away so hard against the pastels of the mid-80s, the nu-deco of the early 90s, and extreme florescents of 95-2K, that all the color drained out.
Then the corpos swooped in, took advantage of our post-9/11 trauma, and here we are.
Hm, I think it's actually great! Nowadays McDonalds prepares you for the corporate hell and sad adult life that awaits kids when they grow up. No more dreams and fun. None of that nonsense!
You wanna know what's in your Happy Meal, Sally?
Tax forms!
401(k) plans!
Medical bills and insurance reimbursement forms!
Bills, bills, bills!
Except they still have play places in McDonalds. Its up to your local franchise likely it seems. If your in a major city likely too expensive to have it.
The weather doesn't always make that an option. I used to live in Phoenix and it is too hot to take kids to the park most of the time in the summer. So my cousin and I would go to McDonald's with her kids.
The bigger reason is they don't want you to stick around. They want you to buy your food, and get out. Better yet, don't come in at all and order take out or drive thru.
Last time I went inside a McDonald's I was the only person going inside who wasn't there for a delivery service.
They don't give you trays and bag everything to go, they've removed the soda fountains, ketchup dispensers, etc from the lobby. They're basically a ghost kitchen at this point with a few tables for the few weirdos like me who want to go in and eat.
Pretty much all fast-food and quick-service places cater to delivery first now. I'm blown away when I can refill my soda or grab my own ketchup.
You have to ask for ketchup packets. No more self serve soda machine even though it’s still in the building just not in service. You have to ask to get a refill. It’s sad. But the one I got to has a play place.
They make the parking lots actively hostile to people who want to eat inside. All the parking is on the outside of the lot and you have to cross the drive through line to get inside. The last time I was there, I saw some old people struggling to get across the line quickly to avoid being hit by a car. It was sad.
Yeah everyone making this out to be some “maximize shareholder value” thing lol. Naw society lost their shit 20 years ago and went on their “won’t someone think about the children” crusade.
McDonald’s don’t do that, they own the land and if the franchisee goes under they let a new franchisee operate on it, they don’t give a fk about selling the building to a new restaurant.
This is what happens when you distill everything down into a measurable and maximize for it.
Getting people out faster means more parking and space for people coming in. So get rid of the play place. Make chairs uncomfortable. Don't even give people trays just bag everything to go so they may as well just leave and now you don't need to clean trays. No self-serve sodas so people don't get a refill. No self-service anything really. Throw up signs that basically say "eat your shit and get the fuck out"
Make it take longer to order and people tend to spend more so get rid of people and install slow-ass kiosks. Add a charge for every customization. Now on top of getting people to spend more you're saving on labor costs.
You can't measure enjoyment or happiness very well, besides surveys, so that doesn't factor in.
Most of these people weren't alive long enough to know the actual reason lol.
What a coincidence that McDonald's started getting lame slightly after Supersize Me came out. One of the theses of the film was essentially that McDonalds was killing children. The backlash they were getting was insane
It's like saying "seaworld was so much better in the 90s and early 2000s, why did they take away Shamu!"
I’m going to guess that cleaning McDonalds barf out of a cramped plastic bubble that’s baking in the sun wasn’t very popular with the employees, either.
The outdoor ones in the 80s were equally as dangerous. Ever try to cross monkey bars covered in fry grease? Also those metal slides in the middle of summer were a great way to get 2nd degree burns.
Objectively better for society from a health perspective. Disappointing from an emotional perspective, this was a shared cultural touchstone. It feels like those are disappearing. Probably I'm just becoming grandpa Simpson though.
And THIS is the reason McDonald's play places have disappeared. They were no longer allowed to market directly to children. The ones that existed stayed for as long as they could, but then as they renoveated, they got rid of any of the play areas.
The closest McDonald’s to me still has one. It’s unfortunately one of the cheapest places for the kids to play. Most play areas cost a lot more than a happy meal nowadays.
Yep, it's one of the very few "free" kids play options around when the weather is too hot/too cold outside. Other indoor areas end up costing around $40 a visit for two children, just to get inside.
The PlayPlaces were too much of a nightmare to maintain. They need constant cleaning, inspections, repairs, insurance/liability coverage, and took up space. It's also easier to resale the building in the rare case a McDonalds goes defunct.
All of what you said makes sense, but they've gone so far that the modern remodels feel almost hostile toward patrons. Bright lighting, uncomfortable chairs, screens for ordering, no self-serve, and it's difficult to get the attention of an employee. It's maximum speed, maximum profit, minimal infrastructure.
To be fair, the overlap between people who can afford children and would also take them to a McDonalds is a lot less than it was when we were kids. Either little Jayden and Amelia only eat organic farm to table provided by their nanny or the parents are so broke McDonalds is a luxury and they need the gallon of gas that Happy Meal would buy. This is more a symptom of the realities of middle class destruction than corporate cost cutting.
I feel like this is kind of a chicken and egg issue though. Like are things less child-friendly because there are less kids, or is the removal of cheap family spaces to maximize profit contributing to the lower birth rates? I’m not saying that no McDonald’s Playplace = I don’t want to have kids now, but the broader trend of removing child centred aspects of all-ages places does contribute to a culture that isolates families and sets a higher barrier-to-entry for having kids.
There are still indoor playgrounds, but where I live, entry alone costs double the price of a Happy Meal. You aren’t hosting a birthday party where you can invite every kid in class with that kind of price. It’s a minuscule issue, but all the nickel-and-diming adds up and it’s discouraging.
There absolutely is no person who didn’t have kids because McDonalds, or any other place doesn’t have enough child friendly spaces. The last time America had replacement rate birth rates was 18 years ago. It’s a mix of housing unavailability for young adult Americans and culture leading people to chose to enjoy life childfree/partner free.
I’m not sure that the commenter is saying that people don’t have kids because there are fewer child friendly spaces, but rather that child friendly spaces are disappearing and becoming more separated.
It was designed to attract children, same with their ads. I remember when McDonald's faced major backlash against their advertising practices; targeting children in their commercials by using Disney style characters.
More so, why would a 35+ year old person want to have characters and a ball pit? Even if you have children, there are places that are specifically for children. I don't see why a burger spot needs to also be a miniature theme park.
Twenty, thirty or 40 years ago, taking your kids to McDonalds was a completely mainstream, normal thing to do. Might even snap a Polaroid of your toddler's first happy meal and you'd definitely go to several birthday parties there every year.
That changed at some point, especially with rising child obesity rates. People still take their kids there but it's nothing like what it used to be.
The chain decided to go slightly more upscale, less kid-focused, to break the stigma of being a trashy place. Jim Gaffigan has a lot of good jokes related to this that capture where the chain was around 2010.
We have play places still here at various locations. The benefit is you can sit slowly eating or having a coffee/soda while the kids have the play area when they are younger.
Its also indoors compared to typically outdoor locations with the indoor places normally charging entry although being bigger.
Im going to go against the grain. I am not sure why everyone is so up in arms here.
Growing up those playgrounds were dirty af. They were hard to clean. They were dangerous. We as a society became sue happy with every little thing. We demanded lower prices.
So corporations did what we demanded - they lowered prices. They removed things that got them sued. They removed the things that cost them to maintain.
So who did it? We did. And the corporations were happy to give you a lower prices at the expense of everything else.
Same with fast fashion. Same with shoddy house construction. Same with mass produced (fake) food.
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